Directly sourced workers often sit in a different system from your agency workers, so no one sees the whole workforce. Here's how a VMS brings both together and makes your direct sourcing strategy pay off.
More organizations are adding direct sourcing to their contingent workforce programs. Instead of relying only on staffing agencies, they build their own pools of trusted contractors, alumni and freelancers, and re-engage them as new work comes up. The payoff can be faster hiring, lower costs and stronger relationships with the people who already know your business.
But those benefits only show up when directly sourced workers are managed as well as everyone else. Too often, direct sourcing runs in a separate tool or a spreadsheet, apart from the vendor management system that handles agency workers. The result is two sets of data, two processes and no single view of the workforce.
This article explains why your direct sourcing strategy belongs inside your VMS, the capabilities that make it work, and the best practices that help it scale.
Direct sourcing differs from the traditional method of hiring contingent workers, where organizations use staffing agencies to fulfill their requirements. Direct sourcing, instead, focuses on building a pool of freelancers, consultants and temporary workers that can be hired internally instead of through a vendor. It’s like becoming your own staffing agency.
When companies augment their existing contingent workforce hiring program with a direct sourcing strategy, they can access benefits such as:
These benefits can only be realized, however, if these workers are managed correctly
This begs the question, should organizations manage their directly sourced workers in the vendor management systems they use to manage their entire contingent workforce program, or should they use a different system to separate their direct sourcing strategy?
When implementing a direct sourcing program, one of the first places companies look is towards a standalone piece of technology that’s solely responsible for the management of direct sourcing.
In recent years, there have been an increasing number of technologies designed specifically for direct sourcing. This technology is still relatively new to the industry, but it is created to help companies build centralized internal talent pools of contingent workers and automate the processes around engaging and managing these workers.
This makes it easier for hiring managers to source and manage contingent workers, since they can access talent pools of engaged contingent workers in one centralized system.
The functionality of direct sourcing technology is similar to a freelancer management system (FMS). Some of the top functionalities of direct sourcing technology include:
Direct sourcing technology, in some cases, has integrations with vendor management systems.
A vendor management system is a platform, typically accessed through the cloud, that acts as a centralized system where your organization can manage its entire contingent workforce management program.
By centralizing your contingent workforce management program your organization will gain complete visibility over both your contingent workers, and the staffing agencies you use to source them. This increased visibility gives you actionable insights into how your program is performing and how much your business is spending on its contingent workforce.
Through automation of contingent workforce management processes such as procurement, management, and payment, your business will save significant amounts of time through process efficiencies that allow you to focus on valuable tasks that drive profitability.
Functionality of a vendor management system, includes:
When companies start a direct sourcing program, many look first at standalone direct sourcing technology. These tools focus on building and engaging talent pools, and some integrate with a VMS.
The catch is fragmentation. A standalone tool manages directly sourced workers in one place, while your VMS manages agency workers in another. Spend, compliance and performance data end up split across systems, and nobody can answer basic questions like how many contingent workers you have, what they cost, or which channel fills roles fastest.
That's why we recommend running your direct sourcing strategy inside your vendor management system, or at the very least connecting the two through Open APIs. One system means one view of every worker, whether directly sourced or agency-supplied, and one consistent process for onboarding, compliance and payment.
A VMS gives you a single view of every contingent worker, whether directly sourced or supplied by an agency. You can see who is available, who is credentialed and who is ready to deploy, without switching systems.
Your VMS becomes a living record of skilled workers, organized by role, skill or availability. When a new assignment opens, hiring managers can re-engage people who have already worked for you, cutting sourcing time and cost.
For project-based or shift work, the VMS manages schedules and assignments, matching worker availability with demand and preventing double-booking.
4. Worker communication
Job alerts, onboarding updates and assignment details go out from one system, keeping your talent pool active and connected to your brand rather than an agency's.
Every worker meets your compliance standards before starting. Credential tracking, document uploads and e-signatures speed up onboarding and reduce risk, for directly sourced and agency workers alike.
Approvals, onboarding steps, timesheets and invoicing follow the same automated workflows across both channels, cutting administrative work and errors.
Directly sourced workers still need to be paid and employed compliantly. Most programs use a specialist employer-of-record and payroll partner, connected to the VMS through Open APIs, so compliance and the worker experience are both covered.
Built-in dashboards track fill times, redeployment rates, cost and worker performance across direct and agency channels, so you can see which approach works best for each type of role.
One of the main problems that businesses face when it comes to management of their contingent workforce program is the use of fragmented systems and processes. In fact, most organizations manage their program and save information through manual spreadsheets - or worse, emails.
The result is a complete lack of visibility and control into how much their contingent workforce costs and how their program is performing.
It’s for this reason why we recommend you manage your direct sourcing program within your vendor management system. This will ensure that you keep all of your contingent workforce data in ONE place - giving you complete visibility and control of your entire contingent workforce program.
That’s why if you are thinking about implementing a direct sourcing strategy, then it’s important that you check whether your existing VMS has direct sourcing capabilities - or at the very least is able to integrate with a direct sourcing technology.
Start with roles that repeat or that suit known talent, such as recurring project roles or seasonal work. Keep specialized and high-volume needs with your staffing agencies.
A talent pool only works if people stay engaged. Keep in touch between assignments with regular, branded communication.
Use your VMS so every worker, from any channel, goes through the same compliance checks before starting.
Keeping both in your VMS gives you one set of data to compare cost, speed and quality, and one process for hiring managers to follow.
Track fill times, redeployment rates and cost by channel, then shift roles between direct sourcing and agencies based on what the numbers show.
Book a demo to see how Conexis VMS manages directly sourced and agency-supplied workers side by side.
Direct sourcing gives organizations faster access to trusted talent and more control over contingent costs, but only when it's managed alongside the rest of the contingent workforce. Running your direct sourcing strategy inside your VMS keeps every worker, every channel and every dollar in one place. To see how direct sourcing fits into the bigger picture, read our Contingent Workforce Management Guide.
A direct sourcing strategy is a plan for finding, engaging and redeploying contingent workers directly, through your own talent pools, alongside the staffing agencies you already use.
No. Most programs use direct sourcing for repeatable roles and known talent, and keep staffing agencies for specialized and high-volume needs.
Yes. A VMS can manage directly sourced workers in the same platform as agency-supplied workers, with the same onboarding, compliance, time and invoicing workflows.
Not always. If your VMS can manage directly sourced workers, or connects to a direct sourcing tool through Open APIs, you can avoid running two disconnected systems.
Most organizations use an employer-of-record or payroll partner, connected to the VMS, so workers are paid and employed compliantly.
Track time-to-fill, redeployment rate, cost per hire and worker performance by channel, and compare them with your agency results.
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Conexis VMS is trusted by staffing agencies, MSPs and leading organizations to modernize and manage their contingent workforce programs. Here's why organizations choose Conexis VMS:
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