Centralized Sourcing: A Smart Strategy for Staffing Firms
Many staffing firms handle a variety of services for different clients. Often, this means organizing resources by client, especially when dealing with varying levels of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO). However, in a multi-client environment, centralizing sourcing can be a game-changer! It can lead to happier recruiters, quicker hiring times, and cost savings on resources like job board searches. Of course, it's important to tailor agreements and services to each client's unique needs.
The Bright Side of Centralizing Sourcing
Happier Recruiters: When sourcing is centralized, recruiters can focus on what they do best – building relationships with clients and candidates, and finding new opportunities. This frees them up from repetitive tasks.
Speedy Hiring: A dedicated sourcing team can efficiently search through a large pool of candidates, identify top talent, and present them to clients quickly. This means less time spent waiting to fill those open roles.
Smart Savings: Centralizing sourcing can help firms save money on things like job board subscriptions and advertising. It's a more efficient way to use resources.
Things to Keep in Mind
When thinking about centralizing sourcing, it's key to consider your clients' specific needs and expectations. Many firms offer a few different service options. Here are some common ones:
Sourcing Only: Involves finding the right candidates and making sure they're interested in the job.
Source and Screen: Goes a step further, not only finding candidates but also doing some initial screening to ensure they're a good fit.
Partial RPO: Covers certain parts of sourcing, screening, and managing applications.
Full RPO: Manage the entire recruitment process for the client. Recruiters essentially become part of the client's team and represent their company.
Choosing a Centralized Sourcing Platform
To make centralized sourcing work smoothly, it's important to have the right tools and processes in place. This ensures you can embed centralized sourcing into different services effectively while still being compliant with client contractual terms. The right combination of tools and processes can make a big difference in achieving those benefits across various service offerings. Below are a few of the considerations that must be considered:
Automated Search: Ideally platforms should allow you to search both internal and external talent pools of candidates, especially the ones you typically find candidates on. This is an area where you will find some of the most time savings and effectiveness benefits from a sourcing platform.
Automated Posting: A definite time saver is the ability to post to various sources automatically and to automatically stack rank candidates as they apply.
Automated Engagement: Allows you to easily or automatically engage with the best candidates once they’ve been found, this includes sending smart communications via email, sms, and jobboard messaging.
Multi-client support: Important for all types of services but a key feature for RPOs is to enable you to segregate and/or share various talent pools across clients.
Integrations: In addition to features such as the above being able to leverage integrations across multiple client systems such as their ATSs or CRMs can be a key component in seamlessly servicing clients with a centralized platform.
AI capabilities: AI can really improve all aspects of a centralized sourcing solution, including search and match, applicant stack ranking, automated engagement, and posting. It is important to evaluate AI platforms using the criteria outlined in Evaluating AI tools
In conclusion centralizing sourcing offers staffing firms significant advantages, including happier recruiters, faster hiring times, and cost savings. Implementing the right tools and processes, especially a robust centralized sourcing platform with automation and AI capabilities, is crucial for success. By considering client-specific needs and offering various service options, firms can effectively leverage centralized sourcing to enhance their operations and service delivery.