Beat the talent shortage in a better way with Impact Sourcing

Business is becoming more socially conscious, but this shift isn’t just about getting a “do-gooder” sticker for a company’s PR or website. Socially conscious actions have shown positive returns for both businesses and communities at-large – and none more so than Impact Sourcing. Read our primer on Impact Sourcing: what it is, why companies should consider it, and how ScaleHub puts it into action with the help of trusted partners.

What is Impact Sourcing?

At its core, Impact Sourcing is a type of business process outsourcing that helps global enterprises improve their outcomes while providing opportunities to people from communities with limited prospects. This can refer to geography/location, gender, age, cultural and/or socioeconomic background or other characteristics of underrepresented, economically and/or socially marginalized groups.
There are three primary models of Impact Sourcing (as defined by the Rockefeller Foundation):

● Direct: Traditional outsourcing providers, and shared service centers adopt Impact Sourcing principles and hire high-potential but disadvantaged people directly.

● Impact Sourcing Providers: With a social mission to hire high-potential
but disadvantaged people, Impact Sourcing Service Providers (ISSPs) serve as a key avenue for Impact Sourcing.

● Sub-contracting: In mature outsourcing markets, traditional outsourcing providers sub-contract to ISSPs.

Why should companies consider Impact Sourcing?

Impact Sourcing can be a two-fold gain for businesses: while it helps companies reach their goals with a wider pool of expertise, it also utilizes the untapped potential of communities with limited opportunities. In essence, Impact Sourcing is a win-win for both sides of the economic equation.

Four benefits of Impact Sourcing

Though it’s tied into corporate social responsibility, Impact Sourcing can also bolster global enterprise in the long run. Companies should consider Impact Sourcing because of the significant benefits it provides, such as:

• Social impact: this type of sourcing creates both a direct impact on families as well as an indirect impact on communities and regions at large

• Talent pool: Impact Sourcing pulls from a larger qualified and diverse workforce

• Delivery: reliable service delivery enables companies to meet client SLAs and expectations

• Cost: costs are lower or comparable to traditional BPOs

ScaleHub & Impact Sourcing

As ScaleHub delivers on a global scale, we see firsthand the impact of socially responsible engagement. ScaleHub has actively worked to include BPOs that also aid key social development initiatives in our Crowd Community. We can tell you, without a doubt, that Impact Sourcing with our BPO partners has made a significant difference.

For example, our work with Connected Women, a for-profit social impact tech startup headquartered in the Philippines offering online skills training and remote work opportunities for women. In working with ScaleHub, Connected Women is providing high-quality data annotation outsourcing skills for a variety of projects all over the world, for example:

● Data validation/ data entry of handwritten historical documents from the19th century with complex capture rules (for an Australian client).

● Data verification / validation of architectural blueprints with complex capture rules (in Dutch, for a client in the Netherlands).

● Data labelling for AI / NLP training to enable AI to read/understand unstructured documents.

Watch our webinar recording to learn more about Impact Sourcing

In a webinar on February 2, Susanne Richter-Wills, VP of EMEA Partnerships, and Peter Mueller, VP of US Partnerships, discussed the substantial advantages of Impact Sourcing and how it can be the future of talent acquisition. Gina Romero, Founder and Head of Special Projects at Connected Women, joined them as a guest to talk about how Impact Sourcing is enhancing clients’ capacity and making a significant change for Filipino women.

Watch the webinar recording here to learn how Impact Sourcing can positively enhance your talent acquisition and processing strategies.