Why source? Sourcing is essential to today’s recruiting strategy and allows you to fill your pipeline with quality candidates. In today’s competitive talent market, sourcing candidates is probably the most valuable skill to get ahead. By staying proactive and engaging passive candidates, you gain an advantage over the competition.
Unfortunately, some of the best candidates just don’t apply anymore. Thankfully, there are tools to help you with this. Here are some sourcing tools for recruiters that can help you in your daily sourcing quests:
Pick up the phone
Once upon a time, this was the only tool recruiters had. Have a conversation, talk to your network, build those relationships. Understand what it is that they are looking for. If you don’t build a relationship with your candidate, then how are they supposed to trust you with something as important as their career?
Candidate Relationship Management (CRM)
CRM is an approach to managing a company’s interaction with current and potential candidates. This allows you to engage with candidates your company has approached in the past. Your application tracking system (ATS) is specifically designed to store and retrieve resumes. This is filled with qualified candidates someone has already sourced! Use it to your advantage. They are local and they are familiar with your company.
Align your search and pipeline in one place. You can do this by adjusting a few filters such as “job title,” “location,” “skills,” and “education.” Many of these tools are focused on helping you identify candidates with specialized skills. Once you have sourced candidates that seem like a good fit, send them an effective InMail Message.
Keep your message brief and to the point – your InMail message should ideally be under 100 words. Be personable in your introduction, use conversational greetings like “Hey” and “Hello” vs. “Greetings” or “Dear.” With this small change, candidates are more likely to respond. If they are not currently seeking a new opportunity, thank them for their time, and ask them to reach out when they are back on the market.
Indeed
Indeed is a straightforward way to find job seekers who match your search criteria based on the specifications you set. If you do not get the results you want, simply type in another job title or set of terms. Expand your search, use different keywords, or change the location. Most of the time, you are viewing resumes that have only very recently been updated. Use the dashboard to manage your job posts, evaluate your candidates, and track the progress.
As you can see, there are tons of methods to add to your sourcing strategy. Try them all and see what works best for you! Utilize all the different social media platforms, ask for referrals, go to networking events and always stay proactive- someone may not be looking today but that can change tomorrow!
By Associate Director Deirdre Quaid and Associate Binela Brbutovic
