Direct Sourcing is high on the priority agenda for HR leaders in 2022. But maybe we can learn more from the Romans about how to get it right than any modern day management consultant today.
Roman was built in a day after all
You’ve probably heard the expression “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. It’s an expression that reminds us that every great thing takes time.
According to the legend, in 753 B.C., Romulus and his twin brother, Remus found Rome on the site where they were suckled by a she-wolf as orphaned infants. Even though they were regarded as master builders, the architecture of Rome actually took many years to build.
That, however was the physical city. Speak to academics and historians, and you will find that what made Rome one of the world’s most successful empires came from an idea. It was the idea that all conquered people could become Roman. To be Roman was a set of cultural values. It was an state of mind. And aspects of the success of that belief system are evidenced by nothing more innocuous than a popular fish sauce.
What HR leaders can learn from garum
Take the blood and viscera of salted fish, along with small whole fish such as anchovies. Put the mixture in a brine solution and leave it in the sun for two months. Then boil it for a bit until it becomes a gunge, creating a clear liquid called liquamen.
This is apparently how you make the awesomely popular fish sauce the Romans called garum. So successful was garum that remains of garum amphorae have been found in Spain, England, and the Mediterranean. The relevance of it for HR leaders is that garum was a ubiquitous taste. It formed a small part of the idea of Rome—values, attitudes, culture… and taste. The conquered elite of Gaul, Briton, Spain, and Germany weren’t forced to turn over their lands. They were sold the idea of Rome. That they could trade in their mud huts and gruel for villas, wine, and garum. They willingly paid their taxes to pay for an army that would protect that new standard of living.
In a small way, garum is evidence that a group of people from different backgrounds can be persuaded to believe in something new.
The ‘new deal’ in workforce supply and demand
The Great Resignation is not a moment in time that will soon come to an end. It is a statement by the world’s workers that the old deal is broken. Workers are not sold on the promissory note of a job for life. They don’t believe it. And why should they. Many corporations have moved from a reorganisation every 4 years in the early 2000s to every 18 months in 2022.
Chances are, those workers anticipating a job for life will find themselves facing rounds of redundancy every few years. The pandemic made people realize their life was precious. Our society became more alert to the fragility of life. It also caused many of us to develop new habits. Suddenly, we we’re able to able to work from home, jump on a Peloton on our lunch breaks, or grab a coffee whenever it suited us, without paying $5 for a Starbucks every time.
Lifestyle and values changed. Workers have started to reset their value stack. We have become more opportunistic. To a large extent, the fact that demand for talent is outstripping supply, hands workers the keys to the HR goody bag.
Think of the Great Resignation as an early stage symptom of an attitudinal change. Herein lies the new deal in workforce supply and demand.
Direct sourcing is more an idea than a technology
Think of Direct Sourcing as the antidote to the Great Resignation. The term is used in the talent industry to describe technologies and methods used to build a talent pool with the help of your brand. To implement Direct Sourcing, your organization will need a strong brand presence, a digital job board, and an applicant tracking system. Its helps to work with a dedicated company that manages your Direct Sourcing operations and develops systems to find, onboard, track, and manage your DS workforce.
Direct Sourcing should be considered more of an idea than a system. It’s about transitioning from sourcing workers through staffing agencies to building and nurturing your own prorietary talent pool from which to source from. This talent pool consists of people who have an interest in working for your company. It includes former employees, freelancers, retirees, past job applicants, as well as people recommended by trusted employees.
It’s about transitioning your talent strategy towards an on-demand model that serves up the quality talent you need, when you need it, on your terms.
Making Direct Sourcing ‘enterprise ready’
In truth, to make Direct Sourcing work, it takes more than good branding and a job board. An organization needs to transition from a ‘permanent employment first’ culture to talent on-demand.
Modern talent engagement portals combine a blend of technologies, many of which heavily rely on software robots and AI to power them. That said, running around the market seeking out the best-in-class portal technology should arguably not be your first call as a HR leader.
To make Direct Sourcing work, your first job is to educate stakeholders and senior executives about its benefits, and the importance of investing into long-term solutions that will make your brand stand out to prospective workers. You then need to invest in a solution used to manage your talent pool, such as an applicant tracking system (ATS) that acts as a database for your pre-vetted applicants. This provides a fast, efficient way of finding and hiring candidates on an as-needed basis all while saving money on staffing agency costs.
If you know it’s likely that your business model or resourcing approach will keep changing in a 2 year cycle, why not employ workers on a 24-month contract, working with a third-party Employer of Record? This approach will help to minimize costs and reduce risk, giving your organization the agility to adapt its resourcing approach without major cost of change. And—what if you can instantly tap into over 12 million ready to work candidates on-demand, and create your own talent pool of pre-vetted candidates eager to work for your brand?
Now, that’s the kind of idea any Roman would approve of.
Let’s make Direct Sourcing work for your organization
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