July 7, 2023
“Acquiring the right talent is the most important key to growth. Hiring was — and still is — the most important thing we do.”
– Marc Benioff
Marc Benioff spoke volumes about talent sourcing when he said that the right talent is the most important key to growth. Why do you ask? If you delve deeper into the concept, you’d know that while hiring talents, you need to keep a lot of things in mind. It all starts with the assessment of what you’re looking for in a candidate. When you hire a candidate with all your might, you would want the candidate to put in the effort & become an integral part of the organization. A candidate’s contribution to the organization is all that counts for a bright future.
The ideal world for recruiters looks something like this: candidate applications flow on the career site of your website & you’re spoilt with choice as a recruiter to hire the best candidates. What we don’t understand is that this isn’t the scenario for most recruiters. Recruiters today have to be innovative, speculative, determined, and more proactive in their approach to hiring candidates.
Since candidate hiring doesn’t happen in a day, recruiters have to juggle multiple tasks in a day to ensure a seamless recruitment process. In all this, one thing remains constant—the search for ideal candidates. Talent sourcing as a concept embraces the whole process of hiring candidates.
According to LinkedIn recruitment statistics, 60% of candidates use online job portals, 56% find jobs through professional networking sites, and about 50% of candidates find them through word of mouth. From this, we can understand why it’s important to emphasize talent sourcing strategies. Before we dive in to know about the strategy, it’s vital to understand the concept in detail.
The aim of talent sourcing is to find out the ideal candidates for a job role. The entire process of researching, identifying, scrutinizing, and reaching out to candidates is known as talent sourcing. Broadly speaking, talent sourcing is generating a consistent flow of skilled candidates.
Getting hold of talented candidates in today’s time has been a little difficult. Recruiters undoubtedly leave no stone unturned in finding the right way to pick candidates that fit the roles. But how long does it take to get hold of candidates? Does automation play a crucial role in making their tasks easier? What about talent sourcing software?
As we’ve mentioned earlier, talent sourcing involves strategies to ascertain the right moves. Many recruiters use talent management software in order to find interested candidates. With 70% of the global workforce being passive talent, it’s no easy task to find the ones who are looking for change—or turning passive candidates into active ones.
The relevance or need for talent sourcing starts when there’s an opening & the position needs to be filled. As no organization can afford to keep a role vacant for long, the search for suitable candidates begins. Adding pressure on the existing employees is definitely not a healthy practice. Recruiters are left with the options of none other than keeping a full-fledged talent pool consisting of skilled professionals.
If you have set aside a talent pool full of qualified candidates, you’ve much less to worry. Effective talent sourcing can help bring the best of the best candidates to you. With strategies, you’ll be able to streamline the process & cut down on the time taken to finally hire a candidate.
Now that we’re through with why talent sourcing is required, let’s dive into talent sourcing strategies.
Talent sourcing is about finding the right fit for a position. The search for suitable candidates is not an easy task—recruiters know it the best. A wrong hire can lead to resource waste (read: time & money) for the organization. What no recruiter wants is to spend weeks after a candidate & the candidate not turning up on the date of joining. So, what does it take to get a candidate onboard and ensure that the candidate is the right choice?
Believe it or not, most recruiters take a look at the candidates' list they already interviewed previously. Probably, they missed their chance earlier because they didn’t fit in the role they applied for. This time, you can give these candidates a chance if their skills appear close to what you’re looking to hire. Candidates like such have an interest in your organization, so giving them a second opportunity may turn out to be the right choice.
Never forget to look into the ATS of candidates you’ve interviewed. Stay connected with these candidates in various so that they don’t lose interest eventually. When there’s an opening, look into the candidates you have in your pipeline. You may find the ideal candidate from your existing talent pipeline. Talent sourcing gets easier when you execute this method.
Social media is no more a thing that’s ‘good to have’, it has become more of a ‘must have’ for all. Much emphasis goes on building a stable social media presence. Take a look at each brand that follows smart marketing strategies, you’d see how well they maintain their pages. Same for candidates too—their profiles speak of their experiences, skills, accolades & so much more. Good thing that candidates consider themselves no less than a brand.
If you’re thinking of only LinkedIn as the go-to social media channel, you’re wrong. Even though LinkedIn is considered one of the best platforms to find professionals, not every professional is present there. With 706 million LinkedIn users, you can’t ignore the platform at all. We suggest you move beyond it. Keep more options open.
The best people to assist you in the search for suitable candidates are none other than your existing employees. Talent sourcing works incredibly well with your employees getting involved in the process. The good thing about these employees is that they know everything about your organization. Seeking help from your current employees while you’re set to hire new ones is a great step.
Talent sourcing is a tricky task and we highly suggest that an employee referral program can be a hit in most cases. Over 45% of employees who are referred by colleagues are seen to stay on the job for more than four years. This is quite a big figure to look at when we compare referral hires to hiring sourced through job boards.
Never ignore your passive candidates—this is probably the best advice you can get. Remind yourself from time to time that passive candidates can turn into active hires at any time. To ensure that these candidates stay with you, never stop nurturing them. Passive candidates can change their minds anytime they want if they find a better opportunity. Staying in touch with these candidates increases their chances with them.
Maintain regular communication with passive candidates which includes sending them regular updates about your organization. Let them think about you when they’re planning to switch jobs or seeking a new opportunity.
While reaching out to a candidate, think from their mindset. What might be important to that person you’re trying to offer a role at your organization? To start with, we always suggest adding a promising subject line. As we know by now already—personalization is key. Personalizing can never go wrong when trying to make an impression on a candidate. Add the unique value proposition about your organization—including the good things you’re offering to candidates.
Highlighting the importance of company culture, attract the candidate to know about your organization. Talk about the aesthetics that your company believes in, the values that it beholds, and the changes it wants to bring about in the future. Talented candidates value these virtues more these days.
Automation brings more efficiency into anything. If you use automation, there’s a tool that you can use at every step of recruiting process. With the help of automation, you can find ideal candidates easily. Tools help you identify candidates that will be most suitable for the position. The role of automation in recruitment is undebatable. Also, look out for tools that are useful for recruiters to keep in touch with candidates.
Send out the latest updates, news about openings, and other vital information—all through automation tools. Keep your talent pool busy and enhance employer brand experience to candidates with the help of automation tools.
Before we end our discussion, we want to leave you with food for thought. Do you think there’s any difference between talent sourcing and recruitment? If so, why do you think so? Well, we have a small take between the two.
To begin with, talent sourcing is about converting passive or potential candidates into active ones. Recruitment comes in next, contextually, it means turning applicants into full-time employees. Therefore, talent sourcing is the beginning of the entire recruitment process.
Talent Sourcing is more about planning, strategizing, and implementing. Even though it’s the starting point of a recruitment process, we cannot think without it. Before you start with talent sourcing, have a full-proof plan of how you envision doing it.
