6 Reasons to Re-Engage Talent as Part of a Direct Sourcing Strategy

Our research has revealed that enterprises engage highly compensated and in-demand skill sets for their contingent labor programs to address talent shortages and the inability to find full-time employees qualified for the roles being filled. Though financial considerations are a part of the reasons for engaging contingent labor, these five rated higher than cost in our survey:

1. Meet temporary workload needs
2. Boost productivity
3. Get tasks done more quickly
4. Access skills in short supply
5. Access talent not available to us

Direct sourcing, where the enterprise recruits and vets independent talent instead of using staffing companies, offers proven benefits. Almost 90 percent of the enterprises with direct sourcing experience indicated plans to increase direct sourcing activity over the next five years. Reasons cited, in order of importance, are:

• Greater access to specialized skills
• Increased quality of independent talent work
• Ability to create a quickly accessible independent talent bench
• Cost reductions
• Higher hiring manager satisfaction

Creating an independent talent bench can lead to additional benefits. Re-engaging talent is a best practice in direct sourcing strategy. Encouraging the re-engagement of independents who have produced excellent results for the company can save time, money, and resources.

Here are six key benefits of re-engaging high-value independent talent:

1. Lower risk

Re-engaged talent is a known quantity. Hiring managers know what they can expect from independents they’ve worked with before. This is a lower-risk engagement compared to bringing in new and unproven talent.

2. Fast deployment

Because some or all needed paperwork is on file, onboarding time can be shortened and the talent can begin work quickly.

3. Lower turnover/churn

Turnover can be reduced as you retain mutually beneficial connections with proven talent.

4. Lower overall costs

You can reduce the overall cost of your independent workforce due to lower onboarding costs and reduced churn.

5. Familiarity with the organization

When the talent already understands your culture and knows established processes and procedures, they can be productive from day one.

6. Knowledge retention

Knowledge and experience in your independent talent pool can be re-accessed and retained within the enterprise.

Independent professionals are eager to re-engage with contractor-friendly organizations. Likewise, companies that are optimizing their workforces are interested in re-engaging high-value talent because they’ve seen the benefits firsthand. Once you’ve engaged talent successfully, talk to your direct sourcing team about adding these workers to the company’s talent network so colleagues can easily re-engage them for future needs.