How to Determine When to Turn to Direct Sourcing and Public Talent Marketplaces

New talent channels offer organizations and workers more flexibility, opportunity, and efficiency in a competitive world of work. Two talent channels in particular have become increasingly important in modern workforce strategy: public talent marketplaces and direct sourcing. Both offer quick access to specialty skills at competitive rates. Knowing the appropriate one to use for a specific talent need, however, requires a nuanced understanding of types of skills each one tends to attract and the different work scenarios they best address. 

Find Talent with Client-Specific Experience Using Direct Sourcing 

Many workers pass through an organization’s doors as part of the natural flow of business. Contingent workers, freelancers, and interns may provide exceptional support for a short-term project, before moving on upon its completion. In-house employees retire or explore other opportunities. Several candidates may prove well suited for a role for which they don’t end up getting hired. A direct sourcing channel creates a structured method for maintaining contact with and deploying these types of workers along with engaging passive candidates sourced through social media channels. 

Such a solution works exceptionally for organizations that have well-known, respected brands or strong internal recruiting programs and for positions that require client/industry-specific knowledge or experience. It gives access to talent that has already proven the fitness for the organization though previous work engagements or thorough vetting in anticipation of a specific opportunity with the organization. 

A direct sourcing solution needs to provide clear definition around a position’s classification and strict procedures to avoid any potential co-employment issues. The potential for ambiguity in both areas is greater among workers previously engaged under different work arrangements. A successful direct sourcing channel also requires dedicated resources for adding new workers, keeping existing ones engaged and informed, and identifying candidates for new openings. 

Explore Remote, Task-Based Work with Talent Marketplaces 

Online talent marketplaces offer a simple, cost-efficient way of adding freelancers to the workforce mix. Enterprise usage of these marketplaces augments—rather than displaces—traditional contingent workers and project-based service providers. Engaging specialists for individual tasks gives organizations a new, agile way dealing with skills gaps that have become increasingly common, by expanding the talent search beyond geographic restrictions. 

Industries and skill sets that lend themselves to this type of work arrangement include online marketing, language translation, web development, even legal services and event services. Organizations that have frequent project-based work, especially in the IT or creative fields, tend to realize the most value from public talent marketplaces, especially when managers have had a more hands-on role in sourcing talent. 

Several factors stand in the way of public talent marketplaces becoming a part of enterprise workforce strategies. First, the sheer number of them can overwhelm even the most informed hiring managers and procurement professionals. New ones seem to spring up every week, touting their groundbreaking platforms and carefully curated community of freelancers. Knowing which to try requires a detailed understanding of how their offerings and skill set focus compare to their competitors as well as your talent needs. 

The addition of yet another technology to the workforce management mix presents the other primary challenge in using public talent marketplaces. Despite all the assurance of a platform’s intuitive design, they still present one more thing for busy professionals to learn about and stay current on. Plus, organizations have struggled to integrate freelancer management platforms with vendor management systems, which creates gaps in reporting and process compliance issues. 

Establish Structure for Alternative Workforce Channels 

Direct sourcing and online talent marketplaces expand the spectrum of talent options available to organizations, offering new ways to connect with workers with in-demand specialty skills. Use them strategically in conjunction with traditional contingent workers and you increase access to talent difficult to find through other channels and make your workforce more responsive to change in a fast-moving business environment. Workforce experts such as ManpowerGroup Talent Solutions will guide you toward the optimal choices for your business goals and help you incorporate them into established workforce management processes. Doing so will help your organization reap the full benefits of new workforce opportunities as they emerge.