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Direct Sourcing 2.0 Is Here to Combat “The Great Resignation”

Direct Sourcing by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Today, the stakes for finding, attracting, and hiring the right talent are higher still, and a literal talent “frenzy” has hiring managers in all industries and geographies struggling to fill key positions. And that was before “The Great Resignation” of 2021-2022 took hold. Now, more than ever, these leaders need to take control of their talent destinies. As a result, direct sourcing has become one of the hottest topics in the world of talent and work.

With an ever-increasing number of talent channels, including digital staffing marketplaces, traditional staffing vendors, professional services, talent networks, and social media platforms, the ability to match project requirements with available skillsets has never been easier. It has also never been more competitive or difficult to hire top candidates.  Businesses that harness the power of direct sourcing and talent pools have the ability to develop an agile, extended workforce which can be the key to truly thriving in these evolving times.

In 2021, Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research found that 82% of all businesses felt the challenging times of the past two years increased the demand for extended and non-employee talent. This number reinforces the idea that workforce flexibility (and scalability) are essential links to economic progress in the now-chaotic, hyper-competitive global marketplace. And, in many ways, operationalizing that flexibility/scalability has become a driving force in enabling overall workforce agility. To do so, enterprises can tap into talent pools, marketplaces, clouds, and communities to enhance the work done by the trusted full-time staff; they can also leverage a range of services and other recruiting streams to build a dynamic talent acquisition process that can support crucial enterprise initiatives.

This is why direct sourcing has become such a powerful tool for business leaders today.

Truth be told, even basic direct sourcing programs can drive value through a combination of on-demand, plug-and-play talent, and hard-cost savings. But the pandemic’s impact on the workforce has dramatically accelerated market shifts. Today, talent is scarce and comes at a premium. As a result, workers are demanding greater flexibility from their employers. They are more focused on work-life balance, while also desiring greater independence. Among many things, the “Talent Revolution” indicates a seismic shift in power towards the worker and away from the employer…meaning that businesses require a more powerful, more flexible, and more scalable version of direct sourcing. Enter “Direct Sourcing 2.0.”

Now is the time for “Direct Sourcing 2.0,” the next generation of sourcing strategies that blend innovative solutions with a renewed focus on the candidate experience and an ability to use talent pools to populate the key projects and roles that require expertise and experience. Today’s business climate has accelerated the need for a reimagined approach to candidate engagement. As the market for talent continues to tighten amidst the lingering pandemic and a surging number of resignations, businesses find themselves in a new kind of “war for talent,” one that is far more extensive and complicated than anything experienced pre-pandemic.

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The Link Between DE&I and Direct Sourcing

Direct SourcingTalent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

In 2022, diversity is no longer a “check-a-box” factor for many enterprises around the world; rather, it has become a cultural movement within business that emphasizes the depth of talent pools, talent communities, and talent networks without bias or barriers. The truth regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) is that direct sourcing programs (and contingent workforce management (CWM) programs) that are diverse tend to be more successful. If businesses can embed a spirit of inclusion within their direct sourcing processes and act in accordance with this mindset, they can broaden the existing talent landscape and improve upon it with new ideas and opportunity.

And, while established diversity programs previously existed in many enterprises, the events and civil unrest of the past two years drove many businesses to develop and communicate more purpose-driven goals, which are linked to societal, economic, technological, and sustainable shifts. To achieve these goals, a large number of businesses are trying to harness the power of a diverse workforce.

Using direct sourcing to hire diverse talent gives HR teams a direct ability to link purpose with DE&I efforts. For example, businesses can opt to tap into professional networks that were already designed for diverse workers from various backgrounds, cultures, and genders and link these to talent curation efforts. Direct sourcing initiatives can also benefit from “diversity automation” that is enabled from direct sourcing platforms that have partnerships and integrations with diverse job boards and networks. They can also offer anonymizing functionality that can hide specific information about different candidates.

Layering DE&I into direct sourcing is about changing behaviors and removing hiring barriers and unconscious bias from talent engagement and talent acquisition. Utilizing technology to help guide and enforce a new mindset can be extremely valuable and create awareness that the deepest talent pools are diverse talent pools.

Future of Work Exchange research finds that DE&I initiatives will be boosted with next-level intelligence over the next year-and-a-half. DE&I remains a critical piece of direct sourcing and talent acquisition overall. Today, roughly a quarter of all businesses utilize AI within direct sourcing for DE&I purposes (27% for worker diversity data and 24% for general diversity and inclusion insights). More than half of all enterprises plan to use AI to drive these initiatives over the next 18 months. Businesses that invest in developing AI-led data collection will be able to cast a wider net within the realm of diversity, capturing gender, culture, background, neurodiversity, etc. These insights can provide hiring managers and executives with the intelligence needed to monitor and improve DE&I initiatives.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion represent, perhaps, the most important of the “strategy-led” Future of Work tenets and deserve a rightful place in the pantheon of work optimization approaches. Diverse workforces, inclusive workplaces, and an overall environment of equity can pay massive dividends for businesses seeking to spark innovation within their total talent community, especially in an unsettled labor market that will see a hopeful end to the so-called “Great Resignation” in early 2022.

Reminder: Join WorkLLama, Ardent Partners, and the Future of Work Exchange this coming Thursday (12pm ET) for an exclusive webcast on “Direct Sourcing 2.0,” which will highlight how businesses can develop powerful, repeatable, and scalable direct sourcing processes to drive next-generation talent acquisition and recruitment strategies. Click here or on the image below to register.

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The Age of Direct Sourcing 2.0 Is Here (Upcoming Webinar)

Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

There’s a primary reason why direct sourcing has become one of the hottest topics in the greater world of talent and work: it represents the next evolutionary means of talent acquisition and is actively transforming the way businesses tap into the extended workforce. Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange have coined an apt phrase to describe the progressive nature of direct sourcing in 2022: “Direct Sourcing 2.0,” which is meant to reinforce the relative power of additional elements (both technological and strategic) added to the already-vaunted measures inherent in typical direct sourcing programs.

By leveraging the “traditional” elements of the program (particularly talent curation, talent pool segmentation, talent nurture, etc.) and adding additional functionality, such as AI-fueled candidate assessment, deeper recruitment marketing technology, advanced referral management automation, etc.), enterprises can take direct sourcing to the next level. From our new Direct Sourcing 2.0 research study:

Workers are demanding greater flexibility from their employers. They are more focused on work-life balance, while also desiring greater independence. Among many things, the “Great Resignation” of 2021-2022 indicates a seismic shift in power towards the worker and away from the employer. This may or may not be permanent, but businesses, nonetheless, face constant pressure to deepen human capital and future-proof skillsets within their total workforce. Now, more than ever, enterprises require a steady flow of new workers to keep pace with their competitors. Now, more than ever, enterprises need superior sourcing capabilities. Now, more than ever, enterprises need a new approach.

Now is the time for “Direct Sourcing 2.0,” the next generation of sourcing strategies that blend innovative solutions with a renewed focus on the candidate experience and an ability to use talent pools to populate the key projects and roles that require expertise and experience. Today’s business climate has accelerated the need for a reimagined approach to candidate engagement. As the market for talent continues to tighten amidst the lingering pandemic and a surging number of resignations, businesses find themselves in a new kind of “war for talent,” one that is far more extensive and complicated than anything experienced pre-pandemic.

I’m incredibly excited to join WorkLLama later this month (Thursday, January 27, 12pm ET) for an exclusive webcast that will not only highlight the core research findings from the upcoming Direct Sourcing 2.0 study, but also discuss how business can leverage direct sourcing as a viable, flexible, and nimble talent engagement strategy. Saleem Khaja, WorkLLama’s COO and Co-Founder, will present alongside me, as well as other special guests (to be announced soon). Click here or on the image below to register for this exclusive event. Hope to see you there!

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Why Going “Beyond the Brand” is Critical for Direct Sourcing 2.0

Uncategorized by Christopher J. Dwyer on

The direct sourcing arena is a frequent topic here on the Future of Work Exchange and rightfully so: direct sourcing represents a critical avenue from which businesses can enhance their talent engagement and talent acquisition strategies, especially given the unique circumstances surrounding 2022.

Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research has frequently pointed to direct sourcing as a major catalyst of the Future of Work movement, owed to its ability to bring together (“curated”) known and vetted workers (as well as those opting in via job portals), who are then “nurtured” and engaged in a manner that promotes a positive candidate experience. While some businesses (25%-to-27%) have had a direct sourcing program in place for more than two years, for the most part, the majority of business leaders are just beginning to tap into the relative power of such a strategy (over half of all enterprises plan to implement such a program by the end of 2023).

And this, right here, is where there needs to be a reimagining of how direct sourcing fits into the next great era of work and talent…and that’s by implementing “Direct Sourcing 2.0” capabilities and strategies. The upcoming Ardent/FOWX research study, Direct Sourcing 2.0, points to two attributes that are representative of the next “wave” of direct sourcing: (1) going “beyond the brand” regarding talent attraction and retention, and, (2) mapping candidate “personas” for better project-to-talent fit.

It is no longer enough for a business to simply lead with a prominent brand as it had done in the past. An employer’s brand is important to most talent, but businesses must continually and comprehensively assess their processes, culture, and workplace to define the characteristics of the candidates who will be the best-fit from both a cultural and skills perspective. Which behaviors are the strongest match for the business at-large? Which skillsets will thrive in a specific environment? How will talent pool candidates react to a change in a team or department’s work location strategy (fully-remote, hybrid, or in-office operations)?

Businesses that traditionally defined the skill and experience requirements for a new role or project should expand their definitions to include soft skills, emotional intelligence, empathetic fit, and other modern worker attributes as a way to develop stronger placements and greater success of newly on-boarded candidates, as well as combat the growing risk of talent fraud. The platforms today that can leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other forms of emerging innovation are well-positioned to assist businesses in enabling the most critical pieces of Direct Sourcing 2.0 approaches.

These teams should also analyze how current hiring processes, such as onboarding and training, impact the overall candidate experience, and make any necessary adjustments. A successful Direct Sourcing 2.0 program builds upon its experience and prioritizes the factors that resonate well with current and prospective employees.

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THE BEST OF 2021: What is the Future of Direct Sourcing?

Direct SourcingTalent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

[We hope you are having a great holiday season! This week, the Future of Work Exchange will highlight the “Best of 2021” as we feature some of our favorite pieces from the past five months since the site launched.]

Businesses learned a harsh lesson in 2020: those that could not adapt to the major shifts in work optimization were the ones that could not survive months of extreme disruption. As 2021 careens towards its end, another new year is on the horizon, and businesses must prepare for perhaps the most critical period of their history given the direction of the economy and the labor market.

The shift towards “flexibility as the Future of Work” means that enterprises must execute in a more dynamic manner. The companies that thrived and continue to thrive are the organizations that understand and embrace 1) how they want to get work done, 2) the talent and technology needed to get that work done across both the short- and long-term, and 3) the proper balance between human and automation.

In looking at various perspectives in how work was transformed over the past 18 months, there is one strategic program that businesses seem to gravitate towards in convergence with the talent-led world in which we now live: direct sourcing.

Going into 2020, direct sourcing and talent pools were the #1 and #2 (respectively) priorities for businesses; even the most forward-looking organization could not imagine at that time just how critical a program it would be in the face of unprecedented change. Even the most basic direct sourcing programs drive table-stakes value to their owners through a combination of on-demand, plug-and-play talent and a level of hard cost savings. However, many attributes of the world of work and talent were fast-tracked over the past 18 months due to the most serious public health crisis of our lifetimes and its long-ranging ramifications across the scope of business, worker, and personal perspectives.

Direct sourcing went from being an additional way to find talent to a revolutionary means of tapping into the extended workforce to drive better business outcomes. As the business world continues to evolve, even in the throes of a “Great Resignation,” the lowest unemployment since the pandemic began, and “power” shifting to the worker, the continued transformation of talent engagement is now a standard. The question then becomes: How do businesses continue to respond in the wake of being forced to reimagine talent acquisition, human capital, and the agile workforce?

Direct Sourcing 2.0.

“Direct Sourcing 2.0” follows the next generation of direct sourcing strategies and is fundamentally rooted in the linkage between key technological arenas, a renewed focus on the candidate experience, a seamless connection between talent pools and the projects and roles that require specific expertise, and a retooled “hiring manager experience” that takes into account Future of Work-era innovation.

Why the shift to Direct Sourcing 2.0? Isn’t direct sourcing effective in its “1.0” version? Of course. Direct sourcing and its traditional phases (including talent curation, talent pool segmentation, integration into core recruitment streams, talent nurture, etc.) are driving increased value within those organizations that are currently leveraging standard programs. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t evolve. Take into account the major shifts in both business and candidate behavior over the 18 months, and, especially, over the past several months:

  • The “candidate experience” is far deeper than we ever imagined. It’s not just about ensuring that candidates have a positive experience when engaged, but rather extending that experience into areas such as when they are engaged, how they are engaged, the communication methods used for reach out, methods of onboarding and offboarding (seamless, digital, and virtual!), etc. Recruitment marketing automation, digitized referral campaigns, and a mobile-optimized means of communicating with hiring managers all contribute to the next great era of the candidate experience.
  • Hiring managers should be engaging and sourcing talent in a consumerized and enhanced manner for the sake of efficiency and quality. This doesn’t mean that we have to completely meld e-commerce technology with direct sourcing platforms, however, it does translate into taking into account just how effective existing processes are within the hiring managers’ total workload. The greater business must provide hiring managers with the necessary trust and education to ensure that these leaders are converging the company’s main goals and objectives with how they find, engage, and source talent (which will result in superior role-to-candidate matches). In addition, harnessing the power of next-gen direct sourcing automation, recruitment marketing technology, and similar solutions will boost the hiring manager experience.
  • Businesses must go “beyond the brand” and prove that they are fostering truly inclusive workplace cultures that resonate with candidates. An organization’s “brand” can be a powerful tool for direct sourcing; candidates tend to flock to those companies that align with their own beliefs and values. However, businesses must move beyond the brand and incorporate deeper elements of the organization in how it applies Direct Sourcing 2.0 strategies, including communicating its purpose and vision (and ensuring that it resonates with candidates) and how well its preferences in how work is done are broadcast to workers (fully-remote, hybrid, on-site, etc.). A purpose-driven organization wants to establish a more trustful relationship with its candidates, share its core cultural values with them (particularly on the DE&I front), and communicate how open it is to the attributes desired in today’s “Age of the Worker,” such as flexibility, career development opportunities, and the enablement of core skills growth.

Look for the new Ardent Partners/Future of Work Exchange research study, Direct Sourcing 2.0, in January 2022.

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Here’s Why Direct Sourcing Should Be The Top Priority for 2022 Workforce Planning

Direct SourcingTalent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

A few years ago, I began noticing a trend in the greater workforce industry: more and more businesses were eager to integrate “alternative” talent channels into their recruitment mix. By “alternative,” By this, I don’t mean adding new staffing suppliers or a “touch” of talent marketplaces here-and-there…this was the beginning of a full-on progression of talent engagement that is actively culminating in a reimagining of talent acquisition and workforce management approaches.

As said many times here on the Future of Work Exchange, the top two priorities for businesses entering 2020 were, respectively, direct sourcing and talent pools. These two inherently-linked attributes, at that time, represented a way for businesses to blend new channels of talent into their existing expertise network by developing “BYOT” (Bring Your Own Talent) pools, freelancer benches, and more formally integrating talent marketplaces into recruitment stream (i.e., new requisitions having the ability to pull talent from marketplaces and direct sourcing channels connected to the VMS or HRIS platform).

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a two-fold opportunity for businesses in regards to this “reimagining” of talent management: curate top-shelf talent and expertise for when the need arose to utilize these highly-qualified skillsets, and, nurture and foster curated candidates in such a way that they felt connected and engaged to the employer culture and brand, so that when they were required for a critical project or initiative, they would be more likely to accept an assignment. The main business workforce strategy was direct and simply, yet incredibly difficult to execute: create true workforce scalability.

Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research has found, over the past two years, that the top benefit of leveraging contingent or extended talent is the ability to be scalable and flexible in how the typical enterprise structures its workforce architecture. This level of workforce scalability (and flexibility) allowed businesses to navigate uncertain times, especially when the rollercoaster early months of the pandemic created boom-or-bust demand for specific industries and sectors.

Direct sourcing no longer represents one of many alternative channels of talent, but rather a repeatable, scalable, and digitized way of developing a deeper pipeline of top-tier skillsets and expertise. Here’s why it should lead workforce planning for 2022:

  • Direct sourcing is a set of processes and solutions that actively drive workforce agility and flexibility. Today’s professionals are more focused on work-life balance, while also desiring greater independence. Among many things, the “Great Resignation” of 2021 indicates a seismic shift in power towards the worker and away from the employer. This may or may not be permanent (the “power shift” to the worker seems likely to be a critical aspect moving forward), but businesses, nonetheless, face constant pressure to deepen human capital and future-proof skillsets within their total workforce. Now, more than ever, enterprises require a steady flow of new workers to keep pace with their competitors. Now, more than ever, enterprises need superior engagement capabilities. Now, more than ever, enterprises need a new approach…all factors that tie back to direct sourcing.
  • DE&I and direct sourcing are now inherently linked. Layering DE&I into direct sourcing is about changing behaviors and removing hiring barriers and unconscious bias from talent engagement and talent acquisition. Utilizing technology to help guide and enforce a new mindset can be extremely valuable and create awareness that the deepest talent pools are diverse talent pools.
  • The concepts behind “Direct Sourcing 2.0” are what will take direct sourcing programs to the next level. The new Ardent Partners/Future of Work Exchange research study, Direct Sourcing 2.0, unveils the nuances of DS 2.0 and what they mean, including: supercharging talent pipelines, leveraging AI and machine learning to enhance candidate assessments and screening, identifying the best modes (time, style, etc.) of candidate outreach, digital recruitment marketing, automated referral management, enhancing the hiring manager experience, etc. The very ideas behind Direct Sourcing 2.0 are transformational approaches (both strategic and technology-led) that push direct sourcing programs into a new Future of Work stratosphere by enabling enterprises with more powerful and agile tools for new candidate engagement, collaboration, nurture, and hiring.
  • Direct sourcing is the gateway to thriving in 2022 via a powerful, self-sustaining agile workforce. Direct sourcing is very effective in its current state, but the stakes keep rising. The increasing need for talent and the ongoing challenges competing for it mean that enterprises must continue to challenge the status quo and operate on the bleeding edge in order to stay on top. By blending traditional direct sourcing approaches (curation, segmentation, etc.) with “2.0” attributes (digital recruitment marketing, AI-led assessments, more focus on the candidate experience, etc.), businesses will ensure that, in yet another year of uncertainty, they will be positioned to optimize how work is done.
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A Sneak Peek of the Upcoming “Direct Sourcing 2.0” Research Study

Direct SourcingTalent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Heading into 2020, direct sourcing and talent pools were the top two priorities for businesses in regards to talent acquisition and workforce management. The strategy and its programmatic components (talent curation, talent pool segmentation, talent nurture, etc.) represented a way for enterprises to tap into a veritable “bench” of talent that is curated by the organization (and would typically include silver medalists, alumni, past contractors and freelancers, candidates driven to career portals or job boards, etc.). By acting as its own recruiting firm, the business (and its hiring managers) are able to reduce hard costs, improve time-to-fill rates, and enhance the overall alignment between open positions and candidates.

Direct sourcing went from being an additional way to find talent in pre-pandemic times to, today, a revolutionary means of tapping into the extended workforce to drive better business outcomes. As the business world continues to evolve, even in the throes of “The Great Resignation,” the lowest unemployment rate since the pandemic began, and “power” shifting to the worker, the continued transformation of talent engagement is now an enterprise standard. The question then becomes: How do businesses continue to respond in the wake of being forced to reimagine talent acquisition, human capital, and the agile workforce?

The answer lies within the evolution of direct sourcing, where the strategy, program, and its associated technology not only take into account core attributes such as talent curation and talent pool segmentation, but also deeper, critical aspects like the candidate experience, candidate skills assessment, the hiring manager experience, automated recruitment marketing, going “beyond the brand,” and the overall “reach” of direct sourcing across all elements of enterprise recruitment.

And now, a sneak peek of the Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research study, Direct Sourcing 2.0:

While direct sourcing as a strategic workforce program is relatively new when compared to more established areas, such as contingent workforce management and talent acquisition, its impact in highly-competitive job markets can be game-changing. Truth be told, even basic direct sourcing programs can drive value through a combination of on-demand, plug-and-play talent, and hard-cost savings. But the pandemic’s impact on the workforce has dramatically accelerated market shifts. Today, talent is scarce and comes at a premium.

As a result, workers are demanding greater flexibility from their employers. They are more focused on work-life balance, while also desiring greater independence. Among many things, the “Great Resignation” of 2021 indicates a seismic shift in power towards the worker and away from the employer. This may or may not be permanent, but businesses, nonetheless, face constant pressure to deepen human capital and future-proof skillsets within their total workforce. Now, more than ever, enterprises require a steady flow of new workers to keep pace with their competitors. Now, more than ever, enterprises need superior sourcing capabilities. Now, more than ever, enterprises need a new approach.

Now is the time for “Direct Sourcing 2.0,” the next generation of sourcing strategies that blend innovative solutions with a renewed focus on the candidate experience and an ability to use talent pools to populate the key projects and roles that require expertise and experience. Today’s business climate has accelerated the need for a reimagined approach to candidate engagement. As the market for talent continues to tighten amidst the lingering pandemic and a surging number of resignations, businesses find themselves in a new kind of “war for talent,” one that is far more extensive and complicated than anything experienced pre-pandemic.

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Upwork’s New “Virtual Talent Bench” is the Convergence of Direct Sourcing and Digital Staffing

Solution Providers by Christopher J. Dwyer on

As the Exchange frequently defines, the Future of Work movement is based on three core interconnected principles: 1) the evolution of talent engagement (and talent acquisition), 2) the advent of new and innovative technology and automation, and 3) the transformation of business thinking. While each of these attributes on its own serves a powerful purpose in the progressive world of work and talent, it’s when they intersect that businesses can drive enhanced value.

Upwork, one of the industry’s largest and market-leading digital staffing players, recently introduced its “Virtual Talent Bench” offering, which essentially converges the full spectrum of Future of Work attributes into a solution that enables real workforce scalability while optimizing how businesses get work done. The Virtual Talent Bench is a powerful offering that blends key elements of the digital staffing model (talent marketplace functionality and deep candidate networks) with direct sourcing (curated talent “benches” that can be engaged and hired in an on-demand fashion).

“Our goal is to help businesses and independent talent get work done, and done well. We know independent talent want to build long-lasting work relationships with clients, and businesses want an easy way to work with the talent they love time and time again,” said Sam Bright, chief product and experience officer, Upwork. “We launched Virtual Talent Bench to help businesses find and engage a fleet of highly-skilled independent professionals through an easier way to discover, access and organize their go-to freelancers. From sign-up to superuser, we’ve designed and created a simple experience for clients to not only find new, talented freelancers, but also remember their strengths, flag their special skills, and organize them however they like.”

Upwork’s multifaceted approach towards talent engagement and contingent workforce management allows its users to leverage the Virtual Talent Bench to develop talent pool-like “benches” of freelancers and non-employee workers that can be tapped into in an on-demand manner. The VTB places scalability firmly within its core by allowing Upwork clients to quickly reengage high-quality talent in an agile fashion. This is functionality akin to direct sourcing automation, only with Upwork’s vast talent marketplace powering the candidate engagement process and seamlessly integrating “curation-like” functionality into the Virtual Talent Bench. And, by surfacing individual talent profiles and projects based on past searches and job needs, Upwork users can derive more value from the solution’s “Discovery” module, with these results embedded within the Virtual Talent Bench for direct access when building freelance teams for future projects.

With this new solution, Upwork is firmly entrenching itself as a forward-looking platform that embraces the Future of Work. The convergence of direct sourcing and digital staffing, combined with the ways talent engagement is evolving, is one major reason why the Virtual Talent Bench is an ideal feature for the transformative world of work and talent.

“In our recent Future Workforce Report stemming from a survey of U.S. hiring managers, we uncovered that 40.7 million Americans expect to be fully remote in the next five years. What’s more, 53% of businesses say that remote work has increased their willingness to use freelancers and 71% of hiring managers plan to maintain or increase their use of freelancers in the next six months, creating more hybrid workforces,” said Bright. “Offices have reopened, but many professionals aren’t willing to give up the flexibility of working remotely. Over one-third (34%) of workers who were remote are not excited about returning to the office, and of the 10 million Americans currently considering freelancing, 73% cite the ability to work remotely or flexibly as a reason why.”

“As remote work projections remain strong and businesses plan to continue engaging more independent talent, we’re already planning to expand features in Virtual Talent Bench to enable more collaboration and better organization in the months to come, including features allowing clients to invite an entire talent bench to submit a job proposal.”

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What is the Future of Direct Sourcing?

Direct SourcingTalentTalent Acquisition by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Businesses learned a harsh lesson in 2020: those that could not adapt to the major shifts in work optimization were the ones that could not survive months of extreme disruption. As 2021 careens towards its end, another new year is on the horizon, and businesses must prepare for perhaps the most critical period of their history given the direction of the economy and the labor market.

The shift towards “flexibility as the Future of Work” means that enterprises must execute in a more dynamic manner. The companies that thrived and continue to thrive are the organizations that understand and embrace 1) how they want to get work done, 2) the talent and technology needed to get that work done across both the short- and long-term, and 3) the proper balance between human and automation.

In looking at various perspectives in how work was transformed over the past 18 months, there is one strategic program that businesses seem to gravitate towards in convergence with the talent-led world in which we now live: direct sourcing.

Going into 2020, direct sourcing and talent pools were the #1 and #2 (respectively) priorities for businesses; even the most forward-looking organization could not imagine at that time just how critical a program it would be in the face of unprecedented change. Even the most basic direct sourcing programs drive table-stakes value to their owners through a combination of on-demand, plug-and-play talent and a level of hard cost savings. However, many attributes of the world of work and talent were fast-tracked over the past 18 months due to the most serious public health crisis of our lifetimes and its long-ranging ramifications across the scope of business, worker, and personal perspectives.

Direct sourcing went from being an additional way to find talent to a revolutionary means of tapping into the extended workforce to drive better business outcomes. As the business world continues to evolve, even in the throes of a “Great Resignation,” the lowest unemployment since the pandemic began, and “power” shifting to the worker, the continued transformation of talent engagement is now a standard. The question then becomes: How do businesses continue to respond in the wake of being forced to reimagine talent acquisition, human capital, and the agile workforce?

Direct Sourcing 2.0.

“Direct Sourcing 2.0” follows the next generation of direct sourcing strategies and is fundamentally rooted in the linkage between key technological arenas, a renewed focus on the candidate experience, a seamless connection between talent pools and the projects and roles that require specific expertise, and a retooled “hiring manager experience” that takes into account Future of Work-era innovation.

Why the shift to Direct Sourcing 2.0? Isn’t direct sourcing effective in its “1.0” version? Of course. Direct sourcing and its traditional phases (including talent curation, talent pool segmentation, integration into core recruitment streams, talent nurture, etc.) are driving increased value within those organizations that are currently leveraging standard programs. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t evolve. Take into account the major shifts in both business and candidate behavior over the 18 months, and, especially, over the past several months:

  • The “candidate experience” is far deeper than we ever imagined. It’s not just about ensuring that candidates have a positive experience when engaged, but rather extending that experience into areas such as when they are engaged, how they are engaged, the communication methods used for reach out, methods of onboarding and offboarding (seamless, digital, and virtual!), etc. Recruitment marketing automation, digitized referral campaigns, and a mobile-optimized means of communicating with hiring managers all contribute to the next great era of the candidate experience.
  • Hiring managers should be engaging and sourcing talent in a consumerized and enhanced manner for the sake of efficiency and quality. This doesn’t mean that we have to completely meld e-commerce technology with direct sourcing platforms, however, it does translate into taking into account just how effective existing processes are within the hiring managers’ total workload. The greater business must provide hiring managers with the necessary trust and education to ensure that these leaders are converging the company’s main goals and objectives with how they find, engage, and source talent (which will result in superior role-to-candidate matches). In addition, harnessing the power of next-gen direct sourcing automation, recruitment marketing technology, and similar solutions will boost the hiring manager experience.
  • Businesses must go “beyond the brand” and prove that they are fostering truly inclusive workplace cultures that resonate with candidates. An organization’s “brand” can be a powerful tool for direct sourcing; candidates tend to flock to those companies that align with their own beliefs and values. However, businesses must move beyond the brand and incorporate deeper elements of the organization in how it applies Direct Sourcing 2.0 strategies, including communicating its purpose and vision (and ensuring that it resonates with candidates) and how well its preferences in how work is done are broadcast to workers (fully-remote, hybrid, on-site, etc.). A purpose-driven organization wants to establish a more trustful relationship with its candidates, share its core cultural values with them (particularly on the DE&I front), and communicate how open it is to the attributes desired in today’s “Age of the Worker,” such as flexibility, career development opportunities, and the enablement of core skills growth.

Look for the Future of Work Exchange‘s upcoming Direct Sourcing 2.0 research study later this month.

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Unlimited to the Core: PRO Unlimited Bolsters Direct Sourcing Technology With WillHire Acquisition

Direct SourcingSolution ProvidersTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Just a few years ago, many business leaders were aware of the benefits of direct sourcing but had not yet fully embraced its value. In 2019, direct sourcing as an extension of non-employee workforce management caught steam when enterprises realized that they could drive both hard and soft benefits through direct relationships with known and vetted candidates; by bringing these workers into curated pools and internal talent communities, enterprises had a cost-effective and on-demand way of injecting new, top-tier talent into their projects and initiatives.

Going into 2020, direct sourcing and talent pools were, respectively, the top two priorities for businesses entering a new decade. Although the early months of the pandemic may have put a damper on many talent acquisition and contingent workforce program initiatives, the truth is that direct sourcing (and its many unique attributes) emerged as an ideal means of both keeping top-tier candidates engaged and positioning the greater organization with workforce agility. And today, direct sourcing has become one of the preeminent means of driving higher talent quality and supporting true workforce scalability. Nearly 55% of businesses across the globe, according to Future of Work Exchange research, have a proper direct sourcing initiative in place today (compared to only half this figure just two years ago).

MSP and VMS provider PRO Unlimited has long demonstrated its direct sourcing efficacy, with its DirectSource PRO offering one of the market’s strongest solutions for direct sourcing. While the provider’s end-to-end power is industry-leading, achieving the “platform” vision that CEO Kevin Akeroyd laid out last year would not be possible without both organic growth and aggressive market activity to bolster the solution’s already-impressive range of innovative functionality.

“Direct sourcing is no longer a “hype cycle” topic, it is a mission-critical priority for enterprises and one that is finally being invested heavily in and adopted. The historical problem has been the utter fragmentation and immaturity of solutions,” said Kevin Akeroyd, CEO of PRO Unlimited. “Large global brands have needed MSP services, curation Services, direct sourcing SaaS, VMS SaaS, analytics SaaS, market rate data, and payroll just to get off the ground. So, they’ve gone out and hired seven small vendors that each do their own little piece, and that large brand spends the next several years doing nothing but managing people/process/systems integration and vendor management instead of driving business outcomes, winning the war for talent, and driving hundreds of millions of savings out of their organizations every year. DirectSource PRO has solved that; it’s the one holistic platform that does everything, at scale, globally, and provides that single platform and system of record for direct sourcing…Hence the adoption of over 40 Fortune 1000 clients adopting it just in the last five months (with that number expected to be over 80 by the end of the year).”

Yesterday, PRO Unlimited announced that it had acquired WillHire, one of the industry’s leading direct sourcing technology offerings. The acquisition allows PRO to reinforce the strength of its DirectSource PRO solution and tap into additional functionality; this acquisition also enables PRO to leverage WillHire’s comprehensive end-to-end campaign management technology for recruitment marketing, as well as its “marketing automation-like” self-scheduling and communication with talent. Other highlights of this acquisition include:

  • PRO Unlimited, WillHire, and Eightfold are a winning trifecta for direct sourcing. PRO’s direct sourcing technology was already a leading solution due its innovative stack and partnership with Eightfold. The addition of WillHire not only bolsters the total power of the DirectSource PRO offering from a pure functionality perspective, but also complements the DE&I and candidate assessment data that is funneled through the Eightfold partnership.
  • WillHire brings an added layer of repeatable “Direct Sourcing 2.0” technology to PRO’s existing functionality. One of WillHire’s core strengths (as written about in Ardent’s 2021 Digital Staffing Platforms Technology Advisor) is its ability to enable “Direct Sourcing 2.0” capabilities, such as recruitment marketing, automated referral management, and deeper candidate matching algorithms. This acquisition will surely increase the overall power and impact of Direct Source PRO.
  • WillHire’s relationships and integrations with major job boards and career sites will deepen the overall talent reach of DirectSource PRO. The very crux of direct sourcing is building a repository of known, vetted, and top-shelf talent; WillHire’s existing integrations with leading industry job boards translates into a more robust swath of high-quality candidates. This will fortify DirectSource PRO’s talent engagement reach.

“Adding WillHire enables us to add large-scale digital talent board/network/FMS integrations, deeper AI/MBL matching, candidate/worker recruitment marketing and ongoing engagement, and skills assessment to the platform,” Akeroyd added. “And, as importantly, it is robust across ALL job types – including shift workers, light industrial, not just white collar, so it allows us to enable direct sourcing for an enterprise’s ENTIRE contingent worker population.”

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