Did you know that many companies spend upwards of 10% of their yearly turnover on marketing and branding? This isn’t just for retail brands either – financial services, technology and many other industries are spending big to grow the strength of their brands and win new customers. Savvy HR leaders leverage these marketing investments to enhance the organization’s employer brand and communicate the employee value proposition (EVP) across the whole employee lifecycle. So, when it comes to hiring contingent workers, why aren’t we doing the same?

Direct sourcing is the process of attracting contingent workers using a branded talent community. It sounds simple enough, but how does this benefit HR and Procurement?

Historically, HR and Procurement have often played very different roles within organizations. Procurement is responsible for contingent labor which includes engaging with external suppliers for payrolling, sourcing, and onboarding talent. While HR is responsible for the permanent employee lifecycle including sourcing, internal onboarding, career progression and more.

However, the growing proportion of contractors, freelancers, and flexible workers in the job market means that HR and Procurement, which previously sat in separate siloes, are now overlapping. Permanent hires are looking for contract work and contingent workers are suddenly open to permanent positions because of the ability to work from anywhere. As a result, the two teams need to consider how they can work together in a way that benefits both departments.

Attracting and building a flexible workforce

LiveHire data shows that 46% of workers who applied for contingent roles are also open to permanent positions. Similarly, 33% of those who applied for permanent positions are open to contingent roles. The role preferences across each department are no longer black and white and Procurement and HR can use this to both their advantages when it comes to hiring talent.

With the talent shortage today, both teams need to work together to ensure no talent slips through the cracks. This can be done by using employer branding to attract all types of talent to a single talent community destination.

Benefits of using employer branding to attract all talent

1.       Leveraging the brand to attract more talent across different channels
2.       Creating a consistent candidate experience for all types of talent
3.       Total talent management and visibility

1. Leveraging the brand to attract more talent

Candidates today are looking more than ever to work for companies that align with their values. HR is working tirelessly to create an EVP that aligns to those values and attracts the ideal candidates. Procurement can leverage this branding (with slight adjustments) to continue attracting the right type of talent to the organization.

Your talent system should provide a platform that enables Procurement to showcase the employer brand in the same way that HR does. Procurement should be able to source and attract talent from multiple locations (career pages, website, social media, job ads, etc) into a single destination.

Putting the brand front and center for contingent roles increases brand awareness, which can result in more applications and more qualified candidates that may also be open to permanent roles in the future. 

LiveHire’s platform enables organizations to attract all types of talent into a single talent community that can be searched and filtered by role type preferences, original sources, and more. This single destination is promoted across multiple channels by using the employer brand to attract candidates. 

2. Creating a more consistent candidate experience for all types of talent

It’s no secret that a bad candidate experience will result in higher application withdrawals, more job rejections, and a negative association with the organization that will heavily impact the bottom line.

How to create a more consistent candidate experience

• Deliver timely messaging
  LiveHire automates confirmation messages upon application and encourages communication throughout the recruitment process to keep candidates informed of their application.
• Reinforce the branding throughout the whole process
  LiveHire’s platform displays company branding and real recruiter names in all messaging and landing pages to ensure candidates know exactly who they are communicating with and from what company.
• Provide an easy way for candidates to communicate with sourcers and recruiters
  LiveHire’s two-way texting makes it easy for candidates to respond quickly, even if they are on the go.

Candidates who have a positive experience when applying for a job, whether it’s contingent or permanent, will inevitably be more responsive when being asked to apply for future roles and will reduce the withdrawal rate. In fact, on LiveHire candidates from the talent community and talent pool have the highest shortlist to hire rate across all channels.

3. Total Talent Management and Visibility

Creating a unified location for talent will ultimately result in an overall view of the talent workforce from the organization. 

LiveHire allows organizations to easily search and filter their talent community by role preference type including permanent, part time, contract, and FIFO. Users can also build talent pools with our smart-matching algorithms to uncover talent based on role preferences, skills and over 30 other role requirements.

With LiveHire, organizations can take a holistic approach to their talent recruitment, whether it’s permanent or contingent hires. HR and Procurement can help fill the gaps for scarce talent and reduce time to hire and cost to hire for both departments.