Time to Hire

EP 31 Leigh Cuevas on Using Direct Sourcing to Build Proactive Talent Communities

• Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association (RPOA)

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Leigh Cuevas joins Lamees Abourahma to discuss the three critical shifts every TA leader must make: moving from reactive to proactive sourcing, turning sourcers into passionate brand ambassadors, and building engaged talent communities before you need them. Discover the proven framework that cut one aerospace manufacturer's time-to-fill in half while boosting retention to 87%. This is a conversation you won't want to miss.

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Lamees Abourahma 

Welcome to the Time to Hire podcast. I'm your host, Lamees Abourahma, and in this episode, I welcome Leigh Cuevas, Senior Director of Direct Sourcing at AgileOne. AgileOne is an RPO Association gold member and a leading global talent solutions provider. 

In this conversation, Leigh introduces us to direct sourcing - a strategy that's rapidly transforming how organizations attract and engage talent. With nearly three decades in talent acquisition, Leigh brings a passionate and practical perspective that challenges how we think about recruiting.

Whether you're a talent acquisition professional, HR leader, or just curious about the future of recruiting, this episode offers actionable insights into what Leigh calls a people-driven, tech-supported sourcing strategySo grab your notebook, and let's listen to Leigh’s brilliant presentation on the future of direct sourcing.

Leigh Cuevas 3:01
Thank you, Lamees. I'm so excited to be here. Welcome everyone. Thank you for joining today's session and really looking at the future of direct sourcing and how we're going to elevate talent acquisition. So I'd like to really just start exploring a topic that's becoming increasingly relevant across industries, and that's direct sourcing. I'm sure we've all heard those words before. It's not direct hire, it is direct sourcing. So we're going to jump into what that means later, but specifically we're going to explore how blending technology with people-centered strategies can reshape the way we attract, engage and retain talent, and this session really is meant to offer practical insights. I'm going to give you guys a real world example and a case study and strategies on how you can consider adapting within your own teams, whether you're in early journey or really looking to evolve your model.

So here's our objective that we're going to walk through today. And it's what is direct sourcing? What is the current landscape of talent acquisition, and kind of my viewpoint on it, principles of a direct sourcing strategy and then also aligning with your brand. How do you do that? I'm going to show you a case study where we'll apply those practical strategies, and then I'm going to challenge you on thinking and reflecting upon some questions you can take back with your teams.

So what is that mystery, right? What is direct sourcing? And it's really the way that we are transforming the way we hire across every worker type. Direct sourcing originally kind of started out in the MSP space, but really what we're looking at with that strategy is where organizations can use their employer brand with the talent community and sourcing technologies, really, to attract and engage that talent.

So what are some of the key pieces to direct sourcing? Well, number one is a branded talent community. It's really a micro site of a platform where candidates can express interest, join and stay engaged with your company, even before you even open up roles, right in positions. Curated talent pools is another one. Candidates are pre-vetted. They're organized by skill. They can be organized by geography or even a role type, making it easy for you to fill roles quickly. You guys are going to hear me say that a lot today. Again, it's going to give you guys faster time to fill with talent that's already identified. They're already engaged, and roles will be filled faster. There it is again, and it also is going to improve your ROI. Why? Because it's going to reuse talent that you already have in your talent pools, and also your ATS is so previous alumni silver medalist, it could be referrals, and typically direct sourcing platforms integrate right into your ATS or your VMs. And here's a big surprise, it can also be a standalone solution.

So here's why it matters, and you're going to hear me say this a lot today, direct sourcing brings your brand to the forefront and center. It allows you to build and curate a pipeline of engaged, pre-vetted talent that reflects who you are as an organization. So when you have a need, they're ready to go, right? This is about speed.

So I love analogies. My team will tell you this. So I'm a big movie watcher, so if you look at a Netflix recommendation versus channel service, channel surfing, and you look at it this way, direct sourcing is like Netflix, right? Using a viewing history to recommend movies you'll love, versus flipping through TV channels to find something that might interest you. I don't know about you guys, but me and my partner definitely sit on the couch at night scrolling through whatever we can find to watch, and then two hours later, we still haven't found anything to watch. So a good recommendation is always welcomed. So explanation here, instead of sifting through random candidates, direct sourcing uses a curated talent pool. Those recommendations right based on people who already have connected to your company, making it easier to find a good match quickly, right? That's a good recommendation.

So here's my challenge, when you think about direct sourcing, think of it as the connectivity across your entire workforce, delivering speed. It's going to give you depth, continuity and efficiencies, right? This is where talent strategy is going. I honestly believe this is where we are headed in the next couple of years. So when we blend workforce and need, we need blended strategies and blended solutions. So direct sourcing is that engine that's really going to make that work.

Leigh Cuevas 8:03
So let's talk about kind of that landscape in the current state of talent acquisition, and where we are today, and what that means on how we are going to move forward. Yes, technology undoubtedly is reshaping our field. Everybody's talking about AI, machine learning, sourcing, automation. How do we make it faster? How do we make it better, right? And really looking at it at a longer, futuristic concepts, right? They are now, currently, are embedded already within our organizations who are recruiting talent, from resume parsing to automated outreach and chat bot screenings. We've seen these tools deliver speed and scale. I have seen them. I've seen them work for sure, but here's where it's going to cause tension, right? And this is what we're already starting to see over the last probably two years, declining candidate engagement.

So candidate engagement rates are falling. Why? In my response, rates have dropped 40% over the last five years, as outreach volume has increased and the personalization has declined, right? My team, who are probably sitting on this call today, will definitely tell you, I want to see personalized messages going out to candidates, because it's going to increase our response rates. Over 70% of candidates say they are more likely to engage with a recruiter if the message is personalized. I've been in talent acquisition for 28 years. That, to me, should never change the personalization to a recruiter and connecting with those candidates is definitely something that drives engagement with the organization.

Next is automation versus personalization. Messages are getting lost in all the AI noise, right? Personalization often gets sacrificed in the name of automation. So 56% of job seekers say automated responses or interactions make them feel undervalued during the hiring process. And I can tell you kind of when AI and all these chat bots first started, I was on that job hunt, and I can definitely tell you, I have felt like that as well. 68% of candidates abandon the application process due to poor user experience or lack of the human touch. A recruiter actually picking up the phone and having a conversation is that human touch technology embedded in TA, we're all talking about tech so nearly 75% of organizations use some form of AI or automation in their recruiting processes and resume parsing tools now reduce that time to screen by 70% but here's the kicker, only 43% of recruiters trust the accuracy of AI only assessments. And I have actually heard recruiters say that.

Transactional candidate experience, while only 25% of candidates describe their hiring experience as highly personal, personable, 50% of candidates who felt that they were treated like a number said they would not apply to that company again. That's over half of your application, 50% that's crazy to me.

Fragmented Employer Branding. This one's a big one for me. Brand consistency is absolutely slipping, especially when we have multiple tools. We've got different platforms that are all involved in the way that you tell your story, and when they do not consistently align, it fragments and really dilutes your brand. And it's really important that your team, your platforms and your job descriptions all get that brand story right. So 64% of candidates say inconsistent messaging across platforms makes them question a company's culture and their professionalism. So organizations that have a strong, consistent employer brand will see more than 50% more qualified applicants and can reduce their cost per hire up to 43% that is huge numbers, especially when you can focus on one thing about your brand, right?

So what are we learning in all of this technology? Can absolutely extend our reach. It can automate us. But guess what? It cannot do. It cannot build trust. It can process that data, right? But it can't create alignment between a candidate's value and the company's mission and culture. Only your people can do that. This is why a blended approach is not just a nice to have. It's absolutely necessary as we build out our talent strategies, and we need to be tech supported. Yes, absolutely. I do believe in AI. I believe in automation. I believe it has its place, but unless you have people leading that, it will not work, because ultimately, that human connection that we all have to have is what turns a good candidate experience into an absolute great one. It's what builds relationships. It strengthens our brands and creates a lasting impact.

So how are we going to do that? We're going to do that through the power of our people. And the core principles of a direct sourcing strategy is a human centered sourcing framework. And I truly believe that a direct sourcing strategy that is successful isn't just about building talent pools. Yes, that's important and it needs to happen, but it's about building those relationships. It's anchored in curiosity, purpose and brand understanding and there are just a couple of key principles that I really shape this framework around. And my team has heard me say this on many different occasions. Is people driven, tech supported, you guys are going to hear me repeat some things here, but technology helps us find talent faster. Absolutely, I love AI the top of the funnel. I love automation. It gets my team moving faster. But sourcing teams still need to understand the context, how a candidate's background aligns with the nuances of a team, a role, or even the culture of that company, and many organizations rely heavily on that AI driven solution. When combining technology with the art of human connection, that's when it works, right? When those two are absolutely going hand in hand, your sourcing team should be passionately invested in every role that they're recruiting on, going beyond just the matching and the algorithmic things to ensure that people you engage are genuine fit for the organization's mission and values. And companies that blend Tech with human sourcing see 31% faster time to hire and a 2.5% improvement in candidate quality. And the case study that I'm going to show you is actually going to show you some of that as well.

The next is being tailored, not template driven, and really focusing on the context. Direct sourcing isn't a one size fits all. People think that they can just kind of come and cookie cutter a sourcing model right into any type of role or any type of organization, you can't do that. Every organization has to have its own story, and that sourcing strategy should reflect that in every strategy that they build in insourcing, whether it's decentralized model or a highly specialized role, that structure must adapt to the business environment. It cannot be a cookie cutter solution. And many organizations and many direct sourcing programs really lean on those pre-packaged solutions, because it's easy, right? But if you do the leg work in the beginning, it pays off in the next six to 12 months. So you really need to approach your programs with custom built strategy driven by a deep understanding of your brand, so that your sourcers become an extrinsic part of your recruitment team, kind of bringing those recruiters and those sources together to tell a consistent story by delivering talent that aligns with the brand's voice and long term goals. So organizations, again, using custom talent curation align with business priorities, report 40% higher retention of talent. That's a big number.

My favorite one is passionate sourcing. My team definitely hears me say this a lot as well. Is passionate sourcing isn't just about filling roles. Yes, I get excited. I come from the world of old school recruiting, where I worked in a bullpen, I made placements. I rang a bell, right? I got excited every time I filled a role. That's definitely excitement, right? But when I talk about passionate sourcing, it's about sparking connection, right? And I want everybody to take a few minutes, and I want you to think about a conversation that you that left you just energized, right? That one conversation, and I'm going to give you an example. I'm going to talk about the kiosk people in the mall. I am a sucker for those guys. And those guys are they're selling, you know, glass cleaners and lotions and all kinds of stuff. And every single time they get me, I'm like, here's my credit card. Charge whatever you need to, because now my skin is going to look 20 years younger. You know why? Because they're passionate. They know their product, they love their brand, and they want to just throw that on you, right? So when you have that conversation that you were left energized, where someone's passion was so contagious, you walked away inspired, excited and completely sold. For me, that is passionate sourcing.

So this isn't transactional. It's purposeful. It's about wearing your employer brand into every interaction, weaving it in, right and every conversation that you have telling stories that really resonate and connect people to something bigger than just a job, right? You are that connection. So imagine that your sourcing team that leads with energy and curiosity and belief in your mission is in that team. They're not just pitching those roles right. They're really just championing your EVP, like it's personal to them. I love that, and anytime I ever interview a sourcer, and I do not fill that excitement from them when I say, tell me about sourcing. What do you love if I don't have that feeling and I don't walk away excited, I typically don't hire them, because I know that when they have that conversation with a candidate, that's exactly what they're going to feel like. I need to have passionate level sourcers. So that's what moves talent. That's what fills pipeline with people who want to be a part of your story. Because when you source with purpose, you don't just find talent, you also attract believers, right? I can tell you that last year, when I joined Agile One, I went to our leadership lab, and I spent two, three days with all of our leaders, and you could just feel our culture. It was palpable, and I walked away swallowing that Kool Aid, and I was a believer, and I still am to this day, but it definitely brings about passion in that feeling right, of being energized and contagious.

The next is being persistently curious right, and persistent curiosity. And great sourcing isn't static, right? It's going to require a mindset of exploration. And anytime I see your source or board, I get worried because they're not exploring. They're not looking and finding, right? They're not looking for better things, looking beyond the resume, tapping into adjacent industries and engaging networks that are always on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a great tool, but guess what? There's a lot of other stuff out there, and I love to hear my team bring new and exciting things to the table. So many organizations really depend on pre-built talent. Your team should excel relentlessly in curiosity and finding new ways. They should continually explore new avenues and really keeping talent pools fresh and engaged and relevant. And this is definitely part of our direct sourcing programs, and some of the audits that we go through is really just diving into our talent pools and making sure that those talent pools are renewed, they're refreshed, they're audited. Is people engaging? What is that engagement rate and really uncovering deep rooted curiosity that is uncovering those hidden gems with typical candidates, right? So offering your organization's first access to untapped, high potential talent is really where persistent curiosity happens. And 76% of professionals are open to new opportunities, but not actively looking, requiring a proactive and creative sourcing method. This is people who are not applying for positions. This is not a post and pray approach. This is passive level sourcing. So how are these passionate and curious driven sourcers going to align with your brand?

If you’re enjoying this podcast from the Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association, I’d love to invite you to join us in person at the 2025 RPOA Annual Conference this September in Chicago.

This year’s event is all about the powerful stories shaping strategic talent acquisition in uncertain times.

Over a day and a half, RPO leaders, talent acquisition executives, and industry innovators will come together to learn, connect, and grow. Hope to see you there, and now let's get back to our podcast.


Leigh Cuevas 
So there it goes. Sorry about that. So the people that are really reaching out to your candidates every single day, the very first point of contact with your brand is typically your sourcers. And I don't know if you guys have heard that saying, you know, first impressions are everything, and they absolutely are, especially when they are calling from your organization. So in a direct sourcing model, that role becomes even more important. Sourcers need to be aligned with the organization's values, missions, and especially the tone you guys are going to hear me say this later on, as well as storytelling plays a big role here, and candidates want to understand not just what the job is, but why it matters? How does it fit in the bigger picture of the organization, and what's the work culture really like? And people should ask that, people should ask that question. I always do this kind of authentic, really engagement, you know, helps us move beyond just job matching and, you know, tour brand advocacy, and it's a central part of really building long term candidate relationships.

So here are some key areas that you really need to think about how you're aligning with your brand. So 75% of job seekers say that look and feel of a job posting, especially the language and the tone, impacts their perception of a company's culture. Folks read your job descriptions. They need to match your storytelling. They need to match your culture. They need to match that tone. 83% of candidates say a negative interaction with a recruiter or sourcer can damage their impression of the company, while a great experience makes them more likely to apply, refer others or become brand advocates. And I'll tell you guys a really quick story here, when I was head of talent at a recent healthcare system here, I had a sourcer, and this guy, it did not matter anybody, he got on the phone. They either got hired or they got interviewed, because he was so passionate. He was so driven, and he had a consistent brand story telling method, because that's what he did. He got people excited, really about working for the organization. So he just bled that brand and that culture, right? And he made it personal.

So companies that invest in consistent brand storytelling See, 67% hire candidate engagement across sourcing and outreach campaigns. 69% of job seekers say that more likely to apply for a role if they fill their recruiter genuinely understands and represents the company's mission and values. So that same source I just told you about, we were having an issue filling a very high level position, and it was an entire apartment. They had about 10 positions open, and he got a hold of one guy, and that one guy literally referred five other individuals for those same roles, and we filled those 10 positions, probably in a matter of about 60 days, because he was able to really genuinely have a conversation with that person who then got really excited about coming up being a part about the organization. And we found our other hires. So it just takes one.

Organizations that train sourcers, which we did, to act as brand storytellers, see a 50% increase in quality of hire and 33% stronger long term candidate relationships. And I've definitely seen that when you train your sourcers how to tell the story your EVP, bring that to life for your organizations, for your clients, it definitely adds value. And it definitely does increase long term candidate relationships, for sure.

So what are some practical strategies on how we're going to evolve and evolving kind of the sourcing functions, and I've got six main pieces here. So number one, elevating your current model. I'd like you to kind of reflect on where you are over relying on automation or under leveraging human insight. And these are some questions I think you need to ask yourself, do your sourcers truly understand your EVP, your mission, your culture. And I, you may be shocked if you turn around to your team and go, "Hey, sell me the organization. Tell me what it's like to work here. What do you say to candidates? What is your EVP?" I will tell you. I have pulled sources into a room of upwards of 30 people sitting in a room. And I would bet my right arm that all of them are going to tell a separate story, or they're going to have something different that they each all say it's not consistent. Right?

Number two is fostering curiosity and collaboration. So encourage sourcers to explore non-traditional talent pools. Create a space for team learning, you know, host sourcing jams or peer coaching or market mapping sessions. I can tell you that in our weekly req sourcing meetings with my team, think was a couple of weeks ago, we had somebody come on and really walk us through how they strategize with ChatGPT on finding candidates and building boolean strings or looking and comparing candidates to job descriptions. It was a really, really powerful session, so my team was able to take that back and really apply that into all of their accounts.

Number three, use technology to enable, not replace lead automation, handle the repeatable task. And I know we've all heard this, but keep it authentic, human centered Outreach at the core of your engagement strategy. I think that is the if you get anything today, it's that right there, human centered Outreach at the core of your engagement strategy, direct sourcing is great. Yes, it's all about sourcing, but the most important thing in direct sourcing is that engagement process, that curation process, and really your engagement strategy that you roll out.

And I also encourage you in this space, print out your recruitment model. Print out your recruitment processes, and really look at it and literally go through there and highlight what you can automate and task and what absolutely has to be a human centered outreach and approach and being authentic in that process, it actually may be eye opening for you.

Number four, build and nurture talent communities. Invest in the long term engagement. I can tell you that when we launched req sourcing programs, we launched 30-60-90, months, 12 months engagement strategies so that we're staying connected with alumni and silver medalist, and it could be past talent, right? So, so even when roles aren't open, that's the other thing too. Is when you're not busy, make sure your team is curating those talent pools, that they're connecting with people, and they're adding people to the community, because that in the long run, when roles do come open, they're going to be ready to go.

Number five, align sourcing with brand storytelling. Do you have brand ambassadors? Are you equipping your sourcers to act as brand ambassadors? Are they able to tell a consistent, compelling story that reflects your clients, your organization, but also the values and the culture. Are they spreading that word, right? Are they kept telling a compelling story?

And number six, and I think this is something else I'm really passionate about, is, let's measure what matters, right? Go beyond just filling rates and time to hire and time to fill. Yeah, we all know those. We all work in the RPO space, and we have our town acquisition teams. But measure what matters. Track your engagement metrics. Who are you engaging with? Every single one of our accounts, we've got an engagement rate that we are consistently growing, and if that isn't growing, I'm getting concerned. Measure your candidate experience scores and sourcing impact on that brand advocacy and retention. Run a sourcing training with your team on brand storytelling, and then watch those candidate experience scores, watch her engagement metrics, and see what they do. So number six was really measuring what matters.

Leigh Cuevas 
So I'd love to walk you guys through a case study here where I've kind of applied a lot of what I've been talking about. And this was a leading aerospace manufacturer, and we built a sourcing first talent strategy in the aerospace industry. So the challenge really was the client's recruitment model was recruiter driven. It was very reactive. It was all very siloed. We had recruitment admin people over here, we had recruiters over there. We had sources over here. Nobody was communicating with each other, and the sources were primarily used for sometimes niche roles or hard to fill positions, or sometimes they weren't being used at all. And while the broader hiring process lacked a lot of consistency, especially in storytelling, you know, and employer brand alignment and in candidate engagement.

So there's a lot going on right, and the time to fill was definitely above benchmark. The retention in the first 12 months was definitely declining, which is not great, especially in manufacturing and we were really challenged in specialized engineering and operation roles because of this challenge.

The team size was about 21 recruiters, sourcers, right? It's a mix of people. And we really focused on four main things, a recruitment model audit, and I'll walk you guys through that here in just a second, sourcing integration. How are you weaving sourcing into every step of the process, storytelling, the brand right, talent, community development, and then, what are some of the outcomes? And I'll show you those here in a second, but faster time to fill. We improved candidate engagement, we built stronger retention based on what we rolled out.

So what did that look like? So first we tackled a sourcing first model, right? We restructure the 21 person team, and we really focused the sourcers on owning top of the funnel activity, all that engagement with reaching out to candidates and really building out the brand. And recruiters focused on candidate conversions. So some of the key actions in that sourcing first model was we defined clear handoffs between roles, right? We built persona based sourcing strategies. We launched large talent communities based on those strategies, and we aligned to the workforce plans for the organization for 12 months. That was probably the hardest part.

Number two, brand storytelling training. We unified our messaging through a custom training series using the head, the heart and the hands framework. And the head is what we do. The heart is why it matters, and the hands is how the candidates fit in to that story, really and really building around that messaging. And then sources and recruiters took that back, and they co-created together a brand aligned pitches and role narratives in that particular area.

Next, we took market driven strategies, and this was a really big eye opener, I think, for the for the client and also for the team, was real time labor insights. And I know we all talk about this, and it's not something new and shiny, but is it effectively being used? And no, it was not. So we took talent availability and a competitor analysis so that we knew exactly what we were up against to fill these positions. We did compensation and skills benchmarking. We also took geo targeted sourcing and event strategy, and how do we launch that with our talent communities? And then we use this data to really refine our channels in messaging for relevance.

And then next, we enhanced our engagement and really looked at replacing generic outreach with personalized data, informed messaging. This was probably my most favorite part of the whole audit, align and activate how we solution this. And we did a lot of A and B testing on subject lines. We embedded Storytelling Across all candidate touch points, and built automated nurturing campaigns to kind of keep everybody warm. But we also made sure that that branding and that messaging was all consistent, through recruiters, through sourcers, through recruitment admin and also our job descriptions and even the Careers website, we had to keep it consistent, and that was some of the key things.

And this project here, of audit, align and activate the solution, probably took about 12 months to really get the engine going. So what were some of the direct results from that? First year retention went up to 87% from 72%. Our time to fill - this was mind blowing for me - was 28 days from 56 days, and I truly believe that's because we really aligned those handoffs between recruiters and sourcers, and then our outreach response rate went up to 42% from 19%. We grew our talent community by 3000 plus pre-engaged candidates. They were in a talent community. They weren't sitting in a talent pool, you know, just sitting there. They were engaged with the community hire manager. Satisfaction. It went from 3.4 to 4.7 which was a really, really great success of these results.

What made it work? Well, number one, collaboration. I don't know about you guys, when you get a sourcing and a recruiting team that are communicating and they're just right in sync with each other, I truly believe they're unstoppable. So sources and recruiters aligned around a shared strategy and that messaging framework, there was consistency on a unified brand and voice and EVP across those channels. And then also the team was curious, right? I think they got more excited about seeing a lot of these results happen of all the activity that we did during this project. And the team really embraced the market data, the storytelling and the people first mindset in that direct sourcing strategy, so proactivity, we built those talent communities created in a warm bench.

I remember sitting, it was probably about six months into kind of this client, and I remember sitting with this team, and they were talking about some roles that they were struggling to fill, or whatever. And I remember watching light bulbs go off because we had already started invested in these talent communities, like, "Hey, I just talked to a candidate the other day that had those skill set," and then somebody else said something, and somebody else saying so it was really about again, that collaboration, that consistency, and then that proactivity really coming to life for this team and how they engaged, and reduce that time to fill without really sacrificing the quality of the candidate because they were already pre-engaged.

So here's my reflections for you guys today, and this is really looking at reflecting on your own talent strategies, whether it be in your organizations today or with a client. And I'd like you to ask yourself six questions, are your sources storytellers or just searchers? Are they just somebody who waits for people to apply? Do they proactively go out and are they really looking for candidates? Are they equipped to communicate your brand story with purpose, with your passion and relevance to the organization.

Number two, is your sourcing model proactive or reactive? Are you continuously building and nurturing talent communities or restarting from zero every time each new requisition comes out, your sourcing team should definitely be highly involved with those hiring managers that know that when roles are coming, they should already start to be building out those talent pools and really diving in to looking at your talent communities as a source of hire.

Number three is your outreach, human centered or automated noise. Now I want to be clear here. I'm not bashing automation. I think automation is great where it belongs. But does your messaging feel personal and value driven, or is it templated and transactional? Does it have to feel goods? I think that's what I like to call it, that human centered approach. So is your outreach human centered or automated noise?

Do your sourcers and recruiters operate as one team? Your sourcing and recruiting team should be like this, like flow of water, because when that doesn't happen, it becomes very segmented, and they need to be in alignment and clarity across the candidate journey, because your candidates are going to pick up on that. So is there alignment and clarity across the candidate journey, from attraction to conversion? That is a huge one.

Number five, are you using data to lead, not just report? Data should be telling you a story, and I'll give you a really quick story. Same engineering client, they wanted a hardware engineer and they wanted a software engineer, all in one person. So we ran some market insights, and we found 50 people in the 50 mile radius of their facility. And of those 50 people, one person only fit that job. Guess where they worked? They already worked there, at the client. So guess what? We were able to split the positions, because typically you don't see hardware and software engineers together. It's very rare. So we were able to split those positions, and we filled both those roles in 30 days. So data does lead, and should lead, leveraging those market insights to really shape where and how and who you engage with, and how you're advising your hiring managers on what roles to open and close.

Leigh Cuevas 
Number six, are you investing in a long term engagement or short term fixes? And I'm all about the long term engagement piece. I know there are some organizations that love that reactive short term fixes, but I will tell you where we are going in the next couple of years, your talent communities strategically need to be aligned to your workforce plans, because when individuals in these communities are nurtured, you're not going to be in that reactive state all the same all the time. So are your talent community strategic, aligned to workforce plans nurtured even when you're not actively hiring, make sure your teams are consistently nurturing and engaging with those talent communities.

So here's my challenge for you today, what's one bold step you can take this quarter to make your sourcing more strategic, most importantly, more human and more community driven. And Lamees, I'm going to pass it back over to you guys, free to you right now. I can't I think I see you. Yep, there you are. This has been really great. I love doing this stuff. I'm here. If anybody wants to ask questions, Lamees, I know you're going to kind of lead with the question piece too. I also want to offer up to we've just launched our new direct sourcing playbook. I'm happy to share that with Lamees that she'll be sending that out after the presentation, but thank you guys for listening. I'm super excited about this space and Lamees, thank you again. To RPOA, for the invite.

Lamees Abourahma 
Yeah, absolutely. And thank you for being with us. Lots of very tangible, very hands on, practical advice and information. A lot to digest, a couple of thoughts, and we're opening time now for any questions from the floor as well. But listening to you, Leigh, what came to mind? As I mentioned at the opening, I've been doing webinars for the RPOA since 2012 so it's been a long time. It's been interesting to see RPO evolve over the years. So I would say maybe five, six years ago, we started hearing about branding and recruitment marketing, so that started becoming part of the RPO technology, probably in the last five or so years, in the last two, three years, definitely became more direct sourcing. Is one topic that probably covered this is, this might be the third webinar that we do in that topic. So it's more recent, more newer to the RPO space, just as you explained to me before, as well. It's coming from the MSP. And you can see that evolution, I guess, from the RPO, and where these two spaces are coming together? Yeah, absolutely.

Leigh Cuevas 
And I think this is something we really focused on. And I love Agile One for this, because, like I said, direct sourcing, really, it started out in the MSP space, and I love that it sits within RPO, because I'm a sourcer at heart. I've led large sourcing organizations. And I really feel like, at the end of the day, direct sourcing is sourcing, right? It's about engaging with people, building those talent communities, but it's also how we can, you know, really adapt that into hybrid approaches, because at the end of the day, you're still engaging with the workforce, whether they're, you know, full time hires, whether they're contingent labor, whether they're, you know, project based individuals. It's really about how you engage with them, what talent pools are going into, and what does the engagement look like, right? How are you building that consistent brand around the total talent workforce? Um, that's kind of how I look at that. And that's, that's really how Agile One also looks at direct sourcing as well. So, yeah, I think it's, I think it's exciting where we're headed.

Lamees Abourahma 
And I love the analogy that you came up with today. I think that Netflix analogy does resonate. It's, it's like, yeah, browsing Netflix experience versus flipping through the TV Guide. And yeah,

Leigh Cuevas 
I love, I love analogies. I think sometimes they just sometimes we over complicate things, sometimes in the way that we think about it, and analogy just makes things click. For me. It was funny because I was on a I was on a plane a couple weeks ago, and it was, it was Jet Blue, and the guy come up the stewardess, he come up the aisle with the cart, and I noticed he had, like, a really big iPad, and he was literally stopping and passing, obviously giving out the snacks and the drinks, but he was giving a personal connection to everybody in the row. He was saying their name. He said, Happy anniversary. He said, have you know, happy birthday. Hey, you're on your 100th mile, or whatever it may be it was. So I like that is a great analogy for how I see sourcers and recruiters kind of connecting with candidates. Hey, here's your birthday today. Happy birthday. You're gonna mean, hey, I want to talk about this position. So it was, it kind of connecting some of those analogies. I do that all the time. It's just the thing I do. I

Lamees Abourahma 
just created a memorable experience for you. And yes, we're gonna remove I

Leigh Cuevas 
will never forget that. Yeah, exactly

Lamees Abourahma 
Yeah, the other thought, and probably not as much as a question, but be interested to hear your response to this. But so technology and automation and AI there. Are different views to what the future of recruiting would look like with the adoption of more technology. So there is the probably the on the very extreme side, those who believe that technology is going to replace all functions, or 90% of the function, including sourcing. But I feel that you made a very compelling case for why sourcing will never go away.

Leigh Cuevas 
No, I truly don't. And I think if organizations think that sourcing from a human centered approach will go away, they're going to have a tough time hiring, because I truly believe it's going to need a human touch. I like to connect with humans. You know what I mean. So I think technology has its place, and I truly believe you need to look at your recruitment process and really look at what truly tasks can be automated and what can't, and what aren't we going to sacrifice on? I think there is a lot of tasks where, you know, organizations are going to have to make a decision whether we automate that, or do we actually have humans that are interacting. What's interesting too is now they've got, you know, AI the chat bots, right? You're typing with, and they're texting, and they're, you know, on the computer with you. But now we've got the AI agents that are calling you, and they found humans like they really found human, and I do think that will start to adapt a little bit more, but the recruiter still needs to be there. The sorcerer needs, still needs to be there. And I, I am a firm believer. I don't think it'll go away, and nor do I think it should.

I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Time to Hire podcast from the RecruitmentProcess Outsourcing Association. Give us a review wherever you listen to the podcastand always stay connected, stay engaged and stay informed of what's happening in thetalent and recruiting world by tuning into the RPOA, the place to go for RPO™.