Back in January, I had a discussion with a human resources (HR) executive who also held the main responsibility for managing her company’s contingent workforce management (CWM) program. The topic of direct sourcing naturally came up in conversation, with each of us chatting about the merits of talent pools and their overall impact of the quality of candidates. I mentioned how direct sourcing was one of the two top priorities for businesses entering 2020, coincidentally enough, flanked by “talent pool curation” as the absolute top focal area (as discovered in the State of Contingent Workforce Management 2020 research study).

“I really do believe that, as the year progresses, we’re going to see upwards of 25% or more of our talent [engaged and sourced] from our enterprise-wide talent pools,” she told me.

Only a couple of months later, of course, and it seemed as if many well-thought plans that were on tap for 2020 crumbled under the weight of an historic pandemic and its ramifications on the global economy. During the early weeks of quarantining, sheltering-in-place, and the “great remote work experiment” due to global lockdowns, tens of thousands of businesses were forced to close their doors, furlough hundreds of employees, and lay off thousands of workers as a direct result of lost revenue, uncertainty about reopening, safety precautions, etc.

During that time, there were very few business leaders that were actively thinking about restarting hiring or executing long-term workforce planning. Instead of forecasting for the year ahead, planning for just days and weeks was difficult enough.

Even today, with most, if not all, states and countries in some semblance of “phased reopenings,” hiring is not what it was at the beginning of the year. Ardent’s upcoming Direct Sourcing Toolkit research study finds that 70% of businesses cited direct sourcing and talent pool curation as their top priorities for 2020; in an uncertain age when hiring and staffing are veritable rollercoasters, should direct sourcing still have this laser-like level of focus? Does direct sourcing still have top-tier value as a viable business strategy?

“Yes” and “yes.” Direct sourcing has emerged (after years of maturity in European-led contingent workforce and talent acquisition strategies) as a highly leveraged approach in North America. Even in the midst of pervasive uncertainty, direct sourcing is a powerful strategy:

• It shows that your business cares about its candidates. During these challenging times, independent workers understand that not all is normal. However, any semblance of communication, even if they are quick and quaint updates, proves that the business is actively thinking about its trusted candidates and truly cares about them beyond their skillsets. (This outlet of “Future of Work humanity” is frequently discussed on our podcast.)
• “Nurture”-based strategies foster goodwill. Nurture-based communication strategies are often leveraged to cultivate deeper relationships with candidates; today, these same nurture-oriented strategies can help foster goodwill with workers in talent pools and help promote the greater business as an ideal place to work when economic and hiring conditions improve.
• Direct sourcing promotes the “agility” of the “agile workforce.” We often speak of the agile workforce as a natural evolution of the contingent workforce, given its engagement accessibility, depth of skillsets, and impact of expertise. However, talent pools as part of a larger direct sourcing strategy truly promote the agile nature of this workforce; when needs for specific expertise arise in today’s fast-paced, globalized economy, these candidates can be engaged and productive incredibly quickly. Even during these uncertain times, the power of the agile workforce is real and dynamic.
• Direct sourcing strategies help build the strongest possible pool of talent for longer-term hiring initiatives. Just because hiring is temporarily paused doesn’t mean that businesses can’t continue curating talent. Longer-term thinking is crucial in today’s environment; businesses are reopening and many are optimistic about the prospects of a return to normalcy within the next year. Filling the talent pool with a deep bench of top-tier candidates now is an ideal way of supporting longer-term hiring strategies, especially as businesses look to the relative future and begin to execute deeper workforce planning.

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Tagged in: Chief Procurement Officer, Christopher Dwyer, Complex Categories, Contingent Workforce, Direct Sourcing, P2P, People, Process, Sourcing, Strategy