You just finished developing a hiring plan for the next two years. Exciting, right? Until you think about the fact that, on average, it takes screening 250 resumes to net 4 to 6 candidates for an interview, only to fill one position. That’s if your hiring process is in tip-top shape. If not, you could risk even those applicants not accepting the job offer. PwC found that 49% of US tech sector applicants turned down a final offer due to a poor recruiting experience.
Finding outstanding candidates passionate enough about your company to go through screening and interviews is not a walk in the park. It takes effort to find the best potential candidates and get to know them well enough to convince them that your company is the best place for them to excel. But how do you do that without coming off as too pushy—or worse, desperate? And how do you nurture candidates for roles that aren’t even open yet?
It boils down to having an effective sourcing strategy. Sourcing high-quality candidates is a vital piece of the HR puzzle. Giving sourcers, recruiters, and hiring managers a headstart with ideal candidates speeds up the hiring process. In this post, we’ll delve into what sourcing candidates actually means and tips to sourcing candidates strategically.
What is candidate sourcing?
Sourcing candidates is the process of searching for qualified candidates who fit the job criteria for current or future open roles. Sourcing requires being proactive to ensure there are ample, qualified candidates in the pipeline for various roles. When sourcing candidates, sourcers use keywords or attributes to surface people whose titles, responsibilities, skills, and certifications match certain job descriptions. Then, sourcers reach out to these qualified candidates—no matter if they’re actively or passively looking for job opportunities. The goal is to establish a good rapport with potential candidates to build interest in the company and eventually persuade them to apply.
Sourcing vs recruiting
It’s important to note that although the terms ‘sourcing’ and ‘recruiting’ are often used interchangeably, they are two distinct functions.
Sourcing candidates is the finding, outreach, and pre-screening of prospective applicants. It comes before recruiting, and requires an understanding of the role to be filled to identify possible candidates, make contact, and generate interest in the position.
Recruiting is the step after sourcing. The recruiting process involves screening and interviewing, as well as the final job offers
Depending on the size of the organization, sourcing and recruiting the perfect candidates may be carried out by the same person or team of people. In addition, automation of sourcing and recruiting tasks gives recruiters more time to focus on a great candidate experience.
What are the must-haves for a strong candidate sourcing pipeline? Let’s get to it!
1. Leverage referrals and connections
You might already be planning where and how you can source the best potential candidates, but don't forget some obvious avenues. One of your best resources is right at your fingertips: employees. People who already enjoy working at a company can often refer friends or family members who have the potential to be exceptional candidates. Plus, employees probably have other network connections who are looking for new job opportunities. Employee referrals can be a double bonus, as they can vouch for the candidate while at the same time sing praises of the company to get the candidate excited about working there.
To fully lean into employees' connections, it's worthwhile to establish a referral program. Typically these programs offer existing employees compensation for referring someone who gets hired. It may seem like an unnecessary expense, until you experience the payoff: 45% of referred employees stay at companies for more than 4 years . Employee referrals make a calculable impact on recruitment costs, saving companies up to $7,500 per hire.
2. Use AI for candidate sourcing beyond LinkedIn
Let's face it, there is a ton of public data available to help you uncover potential candidates who would be perfect for your company. Setting up precise searches on LinkedIn, Github, and other professional networks results in a narrow view of an over-fished pond. An AI-based candidate sourcing platform broadens your search and offers you new ways of finding talent based on much deeper analysis than a profile or resume review.
A sourcing platform should integrate directly with your applicant tracking system (ATS) and even add a layer of intelligence to sort through incoming applications. It should also offer automation of the most time-consuming sourcing and outreach tasks. When you can trust your platform to find and reach out to the best matching candidates, then your recruiting team can focus on wooing interested candidates with personalized outreach about the company and the position.
3. Source candidates from a diverse talent pool
Diversity was the top recruiting priority for 57% of talent leaders in our survey. Diverse teams bring more perspectives, backgrounds, and ideas to the table. A Gartner report revealed that employee performance is 12% higher in diverse versus non-diverse organizations. Plus, sourcing for diversity can expand your talent pool to more candidates, including industry veterans with years of less traditional experience. To achieve a diverse workforce, you have to draw from a diverse talent pool while remaining mindful of the law.
In the US, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) requirements come into play. Under both guidelines, employers can create targeted outreach campaigns to boost the number of diverse candidates in their pipeline. This could include sourcing candidates from women-in-STEM clubs at universities, networking with organizations like Out in Tech, and so on. To orchestrate these campaigns and ensure talent searches comply with the law, many organizations turn to software. Findem, for instance, allows sourcers to analyze the probabilistic diversity makeup of their talent pool and prioritize diverse candidates for outreach.
That said, the EEOC and OFCCP rules change when a candidate becomes an applicant. Paraphrasing the OFCCP, it defines an applicant as:
- An individual who submits an expression of interest in a job;
- An individual who is considered for a particular position (their substantive qualifications are reviewed);
- An individual who meets the basic qualifications for the position; and
- An individual who, at no point before receiving an offer of employment, expressly removes themselves from consideration for the position or otherwise indicates they are no longer interested in the position
Once someone is considered an applicant, you can't discriminate against them based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, skin color, race, religion, citizenship status, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran. With this in mind, it's crucial to fully leverage your sourcing team to build a fair and representative talent pool at the start of the recruiting process that will translate into a fair and representative talent pipeline, and ultimately, into a stronger, more balanced organization.
4. Sourcing candidates for future roles
Staying ahead of the curve is one of the most significant benefits of candidate sourcing that will help later down the line in the recruitment process. Sourcers are trained to communicate with many different candidates on all kinds of social networks, such as Reddit or LinkedIn. Although some conversations on these platforms are surface level and the candidates may not be ready to leave their company now, their circumstances could change in a few months or years.
Keeping these candidates warm and staying in touch is a worthwhile investment一you never know who might come out of the woodwork to fill future job openings. Consider creating nurture campaigns for evergreen roles so your company is top of mind for potential talent, prompting them to think of you when they're ready to make a move. Using a combination of an ATS and a candidate sourcing platform keeps data organized, offering a wide range of capabilities such as snoozing active candidates or setting reminders to reach out to past candidates.
5. Lean into attributes for sourcing candidates
Keywords rarely unearth the best prospective candidates. Not only are keywords rarely filled out properly on the largest job boards and talent communities such as LinkedIn, Indeed, or AngelList profiles, but they only reflect a candidate's past work, not their future potential. Keywords aren't informative of soft skills, either. How do you know if someone's personality is more laidback or aggressive? Do they show signs of leadership? Can they take a product from ideation to completion? Are they a team player?
You need to source high-quality candidates based on attributes, the inherent traits that make them uniquely prepared for a particular role. Findem is the only platform that can source candidates based on attributes, in addition to keywords. Attributes can be tangible, such as whether someone is an ‘open source contributor', ‘past founder', ‘female', ‘has a PhD' or ‘builds diverse teams'. Or attributes can be intangible, such as whether someone has ‘entrepreneurial spirit', ‘embodies the company values' or is a ‘go-getter'. With Findem's advanced search features, sourcers can define and identify attributes to better understand the traits and experiences of existing talent and what they need in potential hires.
6. Diversify online candidate sourcing
Finding all your candidates in one place is a recipe for disaster. It can severely restrict the talent pool, and it runs the risk of contacting the same candidates over and over. Instead, find out what hiring managers desire in an ideal candidate so you can expand your search. Encourage hiring managers to broaden their horizons by asking whether the candidates must come from Fortune 500 companies, elite universities, or specific geographic locations. Now is the time to ask for specifics. Does this person need to have experience preparing for an IPO, leading a certain type of project, or other specific experience? Findem sourcing experts handle hiring manager intake calls and weekly meetings for many of our customers.
At the same time, stay active on social media. Common places to source promising talent include LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed, and AngelList, but there are other social media platforms, too. Twitter, Facebook, or forums like Quora and Product Hunt can be worthwhile with the right strategies. Find hashtags that relate to your company or job profiles and see who else is posting with those hashtags. Join professional groups, but don't just lurk—post interesting questions, and continue the conversation with suitable candidates with an invite to your next networking event or job fair.
7. Identify best event locations to find talent
Sourcing isn't limited to online activity. In fact, many valuable candidates are sourced through in-person networking events. Of course, attending these events can be costly, so it's important to prioritize based on the candidates you're likely to make an impression on. To start, make a shortlist of industry conferences that the most relevant candidates would attend. Then, consider how to facilitate more personal conversations at those events, such as going to happy hours or networking sessions. Keep track of where you could have more productive chats and prioritize attending those events in the future to save on expenses.
Once you have a few external events bringing in candidates, explore internal events that you can have more control over. This could be hosting career fairs, hackathons, or expert panel discussions on topics related to your company's products or services. You could also start an apprenticeship or internship program to get to know candidates in person and discover top-tier talent before they're even applying to jobs. These strategies can improve the quality of hire and speed along the sourcing process at the same time.
8. Don't forget about outreach to passive candidates
Passive candidates can be diamonds in the rough, so it's not surprising that 74% of companies report an increase in outreach to passive talent. But it requires finesse to keep your company on a candidate’s radar while still coming across as genuine.
Outreach to passive candidates should be highly tailored to their accomplishments and needs in their next role. Invest the time to build relationships with potential candidates before you need them. People are much more inclined to respond to your emails or calls if they've already met you in person or virtually.
Take note of what you learn during casual coffee chats to use in future correspondences. Not only does this personal touch show you're paying attention, it also shows you want to ensure the role you're proposing is a good, long-term fit with the potential hire's goals. Again, employee referrals can help take advantage of passive talent opportunities. People who aren't actively job hunting are more likely to consider a company that a friend or family member enjoys working at and recommends.
9. Analyze your candidate sourcing metrics
Keep a close eye on which candidate sourcing efforts work and which don't in order to optimize your sourcing strategy. The key is to leverage technology that provides centralized visibility into sourcing metrics across all channels. Your platform should help to determine KPIs, benchmark progress against competitors, find process gaps or opportunities, and view metrics in real time. With this information at hand, you can analyze your pipeline's diversity, candidate application rate, and the relative effectiveness of sourcing between platforms, in-person events, online forums, agencies, and employee referral programs.
The more sourcing channels that can be handled automatically, the more time the team has to analyze what's working and what's not. That can make a big difference no matter what the talent market looks like. In a hot market, you have to move fast to gain a competitive edge. In a slower market, you may have fewer resources and need to make value-based decisions. Either way, analytics are your new best friend.
10. Build your employer brand
Candidates want a preview of what it's like to work at a company and how a company treats its current employees. That, in a nutshell, is your company's brand. When the market is competitive, your company's brand can be a major differentiator for potential candidates. Who doesn't want to work at a company that values its employees?
When reaching out to candidates, emphasize the best parts of working at your business. Do you have an amazing company culture with unique traditions? Maybe your managers are wonderful at empowering their direct reports, so employee retention rate is high. Highlight your company's benefits or other intangible aspects of the job, like flexible scheduling. Survey current employees to gather more anecdotes to share with potential candidates. Social media platforms can play an important role in how you build your image. Not only will showcasing the company brand entice job seekers to apply, it also helps them feel more at ease and know what to expect as an employee there.
Start sourcing the best candidates
Your job is to find the best candidates, paint a picture of what it's really like to work at your company, and convince them to join. It requires staying on top of passive talent, attending events, diversifying your sourcing methods, and always keeping future roles in the back of your mind. Of course, you can implement referral programs, plan ahead, and come up with a set of keywords and attributes to search for. But let's face it: it's far easier to input your wish lists into a platform that has scoured databases and honed in on the most qualified candidates for you.
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