Why Isn’t Everyone Doing Direct Sourcing?

If you’re in talent acquisition or HR, you’ve probably asked yourself: “How can we fill roles faster, without compromising quality or candidate experience?” You’re not alone. One head of TA, after hearing about our advanced direct sourcing solution, said it best:

“Why isn’t everyone doing direct sourcing?”

It’s a great question—and one we hear often. Especially from teams overwhelmed by thousands of applicants but only hiring a fraction. So, let’s unpack why direct sourcing isn’t just a smart move—it’s a strategic advantage.

What is Direct Sourcing – and why should you care?

As more organizations turn to contingent labor to fill talent gaps, TA and HR teams are under pressure to hire quickly without compromising quality, candidate experience, or employer brand.

Direct sourcing makes that possible. By leveraging your employer brand and value proposition (EVP), you can build a ready-made community of pre-screened, engaged, and culturally aligned contingent talent—people who already know your company and want to work with you.

It’s like having a curated talent pool at your fingertips, ready to step into projects or assignments with minimal ramp-up, helping you hire faster, retain talent longer, and keep costs down.

Direct sourcing helps businesses identify, curate, and engage contingent labor talent pools that can also build funnels for full-time roles. It is especially powerful for larger-scale, repeatable hiring needs and for attracting new talent into your industry. If you are a TA or HR professional dealing with any of these scenarios, direct sourcing might be the solution for you. Read on to learn more.

Big impact, small lift

Companies often see direct sourcing as a bigger lift than it is, particularly from a tech implementation perspective. This is a misconception. In reality, Guidant Global can launch a direct sourcing program in under 30 days—with just 10 hours of effort from your team.

For example, when ownership of our oil and gas client’s managed service program (MSP) shifted from procurement to TA, we learned that they were struggling to consistently attract and retain IT and engineering contingent workers. We immediately saw an opportunity to help them build a community of geographically-based, qualified talent with our direct sourcing solution.

Read Our Success Story

Guidant Global’s advanced direct sourcing solution seamlessly links to our client’s career page, allowing candidates to put themselves into a contingent labor talent pool when they apply for a full-time role. We also ensured non-selected, silver medalist candidates for FTE roles receive a link in the ‘regret to inform’ email asking them to sign up to be part of the employer’s talent pool if they’re interested in contingent roles.

With direct sourcing, our client was able to leverage their well-known brand and employer value proposition to build a loyal pool of talent, resulting in:

Cost savings. Our customer saved 10% per placement compared with workers recruited through traditional methods.

Increased fill rates. With a curated contingent talent pool, they’re already interested in the employer. There was no need to explain why they were a great place to work.

Higher retention. Talent already knows the organization and is more likely to stay once they’re brought onboard.

Improved candidate experience. Consistent and personalized employer-branded, communication delivers a better candidate experience throughout the recruitment process.

AI and Direct Sourcing

More extensive AI has led to an evolution around direct sourcing, particularly around candidate and employer experience. For example, instead of filling out a requisition form when they need new talent, hiring managers can look to the talent pool to determine who they’d like to talk to, creating a self-service model for finding candidates. Via AI matching capability, the job requirements for the role automatically identify the top 10 pre-vetted candidates who are available.

Is Direct Sourcing right for you?

The success of direct sourcing program depends on its ability to build the talent pool, which is usually based on location and skill set required.

"Direct sourcing works best for repeatable, high-volume roles. It’s less effective for one-off hires."

To find out if it’s a fit, analyze your hiring history over the past 24 months. Look for patterns in roles, skillsets, and volume. If you’re already working with an MSP, they can help you pull this data quickly. For new or internal programs, we recommend starting by assessing full-time hiring over that same period and extrapolate the information. A few areas to focus on are identifying key performance indicators, such as ways to shorten the recruitment lifecycle, increase retention, and areas for gain cost savings. Armed with data, you can gain support and buy-in for your direct sourcing program.

Let’s make it happen!

If you think direct sourcing might be the answer you’ve been looking for and want to learn more, reach out to us today. Guidant Global can analyze your hiring history and let you know if direct sourcing is right for you. No pressure, just insight.

Know more about Advanced Direct Sourcing