The Right Roles Make Direct Sourcing Work

In a tight labor market, it’s easier and easier to see the value of direct sourcing, where organizations use internal resources rather than a third party to find talent. When done correctly, organizations save time, cost, and build quality resource pools of easy-to-engage talent for critical initiatives.

But too many organizations are going about direct sourcing the wrong way, attempting to directly source their hardest-to-find roles rather than curating specific pools of talent that represent a high volume need and are abundant in the market as contractors and consultants.

Mass market databases like LinkedIn and Indeed have many job seekers but very few true independents looking for projects. Even specialized databases that aim for independent talent may not have a “specialty” in the skill you seek.

That’s where the value of curation comes in. When organizations are looking to amp up their direct sourcing prowess, they should consider the following:

1)???How often am I sourcing the role I am seeking?

2)???How specialized is that role?

3)???How valuable is that role to my organization?

Once you’ve conducted a basic direct sourcing skills assessment, it’s time to get curating.

Your top roles for direct sourcing are those that are frequently needed, are specialized, and offer high value to your organization. The ‘specialization’ part is where your direct sourcing provider comes in—they often excel at helping your organization tap into specific types of expertise, like MBO’s focus on highly skilled independents in core areas like marketing, project management, AML, M&A, and more. They can serve as a backup if you need more candidates than your current known pool of talent offers. Thinking strategically – not just about what types of talent your organization needs to curate but also about what your partners and providers specialize in, is critical to your future success.

Generally, you’ll need to build a profile base of talent that is five to seven times larger than any specific role allocation, so that means if you need five roles, you’ll need a pool of 25 to 35 talent at any given time to ensure a subset of the pool is available when you need them.

The reasons are simple – you’ll need time to build up pools of the right talent and the reputation amongst workers for having these quality roles and projects.? Once you’ve decided what type of talent you want to curate, you’ll also see extra benefits – including being able to market to specific types of independents that you have available roles and build a reputation for being a ‘client of choice’ in desired focus areas.

So what kind of enterprise will you be? One that cruises the mass market, or one that is talent-ready and curates for success?

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MBO Chief Talent Officer Amy O'Donnell provided today’s inputs.