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While the talent curation part of direct sourcing typically takes time to develop, most organizations possess an innate ability to identify strong cultural fits and highly-desirable skillsets. Additionally, the ability of internal recruiters, HR, and hiring managers to collaborate and tailor job searches to a unique team, manager, project, or location is unmatched when dealing with outside recruiters.

The level of nuance can be akin to the difference between a surgeon and a butcher. The ability to increase recruiting precision can be particularly valuable when businesses are managing specific diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Given the current challenges to find and retain top talent, leading HR organizations are investing in ways to improve the “candidate experience” (similar to the “customer experience”), where every aspect is designed to be positive, engaging, and beneficial to the recruit.

In a market where the candidate holds more power than ever before, compensation and benefits, employment perks, AND the employer’s credentials (i.e., brand, culture, vision, values, etc.) can play a major role in attracting a qualified candidates. This will continue to be true as an increasing number of candidates are incorporating their personal views on an organization’s culture and brand into their decision-making.

While the candidate experience is critical, the hiring manager experience should also be considered. Hiring managers are often on the front lines of the war for talent and must account for:

• The specific needs of each role, position, and project.
• The intricate requirements of a multifaceted talent acquisition strategy that balances direct hire, job boards, talent marketplaces, staffing suppliers, etc.
• The necessary data and intelligence to make faster, more educated talent and hiring decisions.
• The proper balance between the human touch, automation, and third-party services, etc. that can be used to find, engage, and source high-quality talent.

Traditional recruitment is not typically seen as scalable due to the manual work often associated with it, while direct sourcing relies heavily on hiring teams to drive activity, scalability, and value. Just as HR leaders are realizing that candidates should be treated like customers, hiring managers also need an experience that is seamless and boundaryless.

Business and HR leaders must also arm their hiring managers with the necessary resources, technologies, and capabilities to effectively tap into different talent pools without the worry of internal barriers or archaic inertia. To achieve this, digitization of key direct sourcing processes is vital.

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Digital transformation depends on the evolving talent ecosystem, and businesses must embrace this symbiotic link to truly optimize how work is done.

For the past decade, I’ve defined the Future of Work in both simplistic and more intricate manners; the simple definition is “how enterprises optimize how work gets done through the advancements in talent acquisition, the advent of new technology and innovation, and the transformation of business leadership/business thinking.” The more complex version follows a cascading revolution of reimagining the very elements of work, including talent, diversity, workplace structure, technology and innovation, collaboration, etc.

It’s much more complicated than simply automating facets of the business. And it’s so much more than shooting for the “digital enterprise” goal. We’re at an inflection point when it comes to work, talent, and technology: embrace the linkage between these elements, or, lose the agility and flexibility afforded by the power of this convergence.

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. While we are now nine months into 2021 (wow…time flies, doesn’t it?), another new year is on the horizon, and businesses must prepare for perhaps the most critical year 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 addition:

• It’s not just about remote work, but rather the way remote workers collaborate, improve their productivity, and share intelligence. Digitization isn’t just for the office. With upwards of 44% of all workers telecommuting today (according to new Future of Work Exchange research), these critical professionals require the proper tools, technology, and software to be productive and connective with the greater organization. So much of the focus on hybrid work models has been on trust, communication, and productivity, when it should rightfully be on priming these workers for success.
• Businesses must tap into the full ecosystem of talent-led technology, including AI-led candidate assessment, digital staffing, talent marketplaces, etc., to drive a better alignment between work and skillsets. Using one outlet of talent technology won’t cut it moving forward. With so many job openings and “The Great Resignation” hopefully receding as we move into 2022, businesses are nonetheless faced with continued pressure to deepen human capital and future-proof skillsets within their total workforce. The only way to solve this incredible challenge is to invest in reskilling and upskilling, validate skills through AI-fused assessment tools, augment the total workforce by tapping into on-demand talent marketplaces, and developing a long-term digital staffing roadmap that ensures all talent gaps can be addressed from both internal and external channels of expertise.
• And, speaking of skillsets: “talent sustainability” is developed through data science, next-gen analytics, artificial intelligence, and data oceans that provide executives with real-time snapshots of their total talent. Talent sustainability is a keystone of the Future of Work moving further, as businesses require the ability to plug-and-play talent across a hypothetical future whilst maintaining, developing, and retaining the necessary skillsets to thrive. This is only possible through a thorough mix of talent management, skills assessments, next-gen solutions (like AI), and a commitment to harnessing data science to uncover core expertise gaps in both the general workforce and the leadership behind it.
• Digital recruitment depends on automated marketing, seamless referral campaigns, and full linkage of talent acquisition systems. “Digital recruitment” differs from “digital staffing” in that the former relies on more elegance and strategic capabilities rather than an external channel or talent network. As such, businesses must develop a positive and seamless “hiring manager experience” that allows these leaders to build pipelines of talent through automated referral campaigns, digital marketing initiatives that promote the company culture and brand, and full linkage of these efforts into greater talent acquisition strategies (and associated talent engagement, ATS, VMS, etc. platforms).
• Direct sourcing must move from “strategy” to “embedded architecture.” A straightforward notion: move direct sourcing from being a bolted-on workforce management strategy to one that is embedded in the digital architecture of the greater organization. Talent pools should be segmented and available on-demand in enterprise recruitment streams, while talent pipelines should be contributed to and accessed by any hiring manager across the organization for total visibility and proactive planning. Talent nurture should be a natural series of seamless processes that are automatically designed to facilitate open communication with candidates to foster engagement and continually reflect the strength of the enterprise brand.

And, finally, a fundamental shift in the role of digitization: technology should not be the total linchpin to organizational success, but rather a realm of interconnected functionality, data, and intelligence that reinforces true business agility and workforce flexibility. Problem-solving has long been the gateway for businesses to invest in, adopt, and leverage next-generation technology; the Future of Work dictates that businesses execute more forward-thinking strategies in the vein of innovation. The symbiotic link between digitization, talent, and the Future of Work is what will allow business to be more proactive as they build a dynamic infrastructure that is built on elements of new technology platforms, real-time data and intelligence, and an overarching desire to develop a truly agile workplace culture.

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