24 Nov Are you on target to sourcing the best talent? 4 reasons you could me missing the mark
As labor markets power dynamics shift into what some are calling “The Great Reshuffle” many organizations are having a particularly hard time understanding how they are hurting their chances at connecting with and sourcing great talent. Amid amplified calls of talent shortages, it is particularly important to understand the shifting landscape and arm yourself with opportunities and knowledge to maneuver and plan for both short-term and long-term outcomes.
Below are four main reasons your organization might be having a hard time accessing the skills and talent of the extended workforce.
1. No visibility into talent pools
Is the talent pool shrinking, or is it something else?
As talent professionals navigate contingent talent, one of the key challenges they face is the lack of visibility into the behavior, skills, and expectations of the people they are tasked to hire. It’s hard to pick out issues and opportunities when you have no line of sight into where (and even for whom) you should be searching.
Lack of insights not only hinders recruitment efforts, but leaves organizations vulnerable to talent shortages, scope creep, and loss of control. Building a talent pool through connecting and evaluating all suppliers might be one of the most overlooked recruitment solutions available.
A robust Vendor Management Service (VMS) offers services procurement solutions equipped with full cycle functionality to support sourcing and management alike. Coupled with real-time analytics and comprehensive visibility into diverse talent sources, hiring managers can expect the data and connectivity needed to make informed decisions and proactively address all workforce needs.
2. Inefficient workflows and fractured decision-making (no data, no analytics, no connection)
A legacy tech stack can work against you. We’ve all heard of the age-old saying “Time is money”. Nowhere is it more pertinent than in workforce management and talent sourcing.
Beyond the perhaps obvious risk of dirty data, inaccurate analytics, and lost time, many organizations that grapple with broken workflows are plagued by issues of bad internal communications, leading to rifts in expectation, internal mismanagement of both time and resources and missed opportunities to source the talent most essential to key roles.
Understanding these gaps through insights from credible sources like our Strategic Workforce Planning Report can improve organizational capabilities to source contingent talent and prevent some of the more time-sensitive roadblocks from ever occurring.
3. Your VMS isn’t connected with a talent marketplace
A talent marketplace is a technology platform that allows organizations to search for and hire internal and external workers on a project-specific basis. Alone, it can become overwhelming and quickly get out of control but integrate it with a VMS that’s equipped to handle integration of this scope, and you have complete line of sight into goals and can enjoy the range of benefits like enhanced access to talent, effective workforce strategy execution, and an improved hiring process.
Most importantly, organizations benefit from being able to access a much wider, more diverse pool of talent, increasing time-to-hire and reducing turnover rates. The synergy of a connected VMS and talent marketplace streamlines talent acquisition, providing businesses with a competitive edge in accessing, managing, and hiring the right candidates efficiently.
4. Damaged or missing brand reputation
People talk. Your contingent workforce…talks.
Have you ever had a fractured hiring experience? Perhaps you’ve applied to a few organizations, only to have one recruiter hop on a call and start discussing a different role than the one you sent an application for? Or you’ve gotten out of an interview feeling good, only to never hear from the recruiter again, and then get an obviously automated response 5 months later, regrettably informing you that you weren’t chosen for the job? You’ll remember these interactions and companies for years to come, if only to have stories to laugh over during dinner or prevent friends from applying to that organization. Maybe you even wrote a review on Glassdoor to warn others about some of the issues you faced.
There is no difference between the impact a bad experience of an FTE and a contingent worker can have on your brand reputation. Certainly, no one is going to be splitting hairs when they google your brand and discover even a few questionable reviews from talent that perhaps by complete accident, had a less than wholesome experience.
Fractured communication, legacy VMS technology, inefficient workflows, and not understanding the behavior and expectations of the contingent workforce pools you’re sourcing from can lead to these kinds of issues. Brand recognition is one of the most overlooked aspects of accessing top talent and can be the first touchpoint in an uphill battle for businesses with damaged or nonexistent reputations. As contingent workers grow in numbers and demand more from the places they work with, the price an organization can expect to pay will grow proportionately with the reputation it develops or fails to.
What you can do to start winning the best contingent talent
If any of these points of opportunity resonated with you, it’s something to get excited about. Positive change in these areas can happen relatively quickly when you have a clear strategy and a visible plan of action. In short, being able to source the best talent should be considered as a multidimensional approach that combines future-focused technology integrations and an understanding of human behavior and needs.
