You know what one of the differences is between a recruiter that is “good” versus “great” at sourcing? It’s not what you think.

It’s being able to see the “big picture” when it comes to finding quality talent. 

How many full-life cycle recruiters do you know who don’t (or won’t) readily share candidates? In the agency world this has proven to me to be more common than in corporate settings, but it’s a mentality across the board. I’ve noticed that recruiters who know how to *source* effectively share the wealth, even if they are full-lifecycle staffing professionals.

I’m currently working with several other recruiters; I source as well as have a client group of my own. It’s a nice mix for me and a definite challenge. I’ve noticed that one of my other colleagues who has worked primarily in a sourcing role is always thinking of the needs of the overall business, and therefore has no issue with sharing candidates. This recruiter has made it a best practice to know what the core business needs are, and to incorporate them when sourcing.

One of the reasons I’m fairly well known in the local Seattle community is because I share candidates freely, and I also keep people who are job hunting in mind and send them out when I come across opportunities. I’m not saying that other recruiters “hoard” candidates in general (well, some of my agency contacts do), but it seems to me that the sourcing specialty lends itself to a much broader mindset overall. Usually a sourcer is working for numerous pipelines or businesses at once, so the “big picture” becomes a work style. I think it is something most recruiters should concentrate on cultivating, no matter what their role. In my opinion, doing so will lead to better stats, a better reputation, and better recruiting karma.

What do you think? Do you see your fellow sourcers sharing or hoarding candidates? What about your own practices? Share your thoughts below.

image source: F Delventhal

Have you looked on LinkedIn lately in the Groups that are dedicated to job-related networking? You know all those people that put:

Looking for an opportunity in XYZ. My background is ABCDEFGH. I accept all networking invitations; visit my profile…

I see a lot of recruiters and hiring managers share with candidates that this is an ineffective way to use LinkedIn. So, why oh why are recruiters around the globe doing almost that exact same thing when looking for other recruiters? Here is an example:

Need 1099 Recruiters to help fill sales and employee benefit consulting opportunities. Meet Wednesday or Tuesday next week and get started. Paid daily, usually within 24-72 hours. Email for details.

Now, do you see a few issues with this? WHERE should they meet? What email address? Is this for remote on-site roles? I’d say that this is more of a pipeline ad, but I see enough of them that it’s not unique.

This sets an extremely bad example and follows on my last article on recruiting hypocrisy. And it isn’t just for recruiting industry jobs, either. I’m all for using the LinkedIn groups for sourcing, but please do it responsibly and don’t frustrate your potential candidate pool and your professional colleagues (and damage your recruiting brand in the process). Here’s a lesson in writing a LinkedIn job description for Groups and sourcing on them.

Elements of a Job Description

Your corporate posting may be too long for the LinkedIn character constraints, so choose the most important point for a job seeker. They can look up the company and marketing info on their own. Here are the basics:

1. Location: where is the job? If it is remote, where is the client’s HQ and what time zone are they located in? *Do they offer relo or only looking for local candidates if it is not a virtual job?*
2. Contact/application information: how do candidates follow up?
3. Responsibilities: what are the main expectations of the job?
4. Requirements: what experience and education is needed to be considered?
5. Timeframe: is there a closing date?

Sourcing Basics for Using LinkedIn Groups

1. You can join up to 50 groups on LinkedIn, and you can send messages directly to other members of the same group without using up your InMails.
2. Jobs go in the jobs tab…yes, even on groups that are specifically for matching candidates and recruiters/employment opportunities.
3. You can and should comb the members of any particular group from the “members” tab (see #1). Lots of folks are posting their availability and basic profile info on the “discussion tab” so hit the archive and see if anyone may be a potential candidate match *or* someone you can leverage for their networks.
4. Update your own profile with new jobs you have available often. Make sure to use the twitter post option; link your twitter account to your LinkedIn update and use hashtags. Conversely, you can update your LinkedIn profile off of Twitter by using the hashtag “#in” to cross-post. This is an especially good employment branding strategy.
5. Start discussions in industry groups and see who responds in ways that indicate they have the knowledge and skills that your clients may be interested in.
6. Work with your marketing department to use the presentation app on LinkedIn for new product sheets or press releases that might generate interest in your jobs.

Remember, recruiting isn’t just about filling pipelines. It’s about building relationships and aligning your recruiting and corporate brand.

Generally speaking, what Doke shared is that sourcing is viewed in the UK as an entry-level career, a stepping stone if you will to becoming a recruiter. While there are still remnants of this perception here in the States, there are more and more people who realize that sourcing is so much more than entry-level recruiting work. Doke said that there is a growing interest in the UK to understand sourcing’s unique place within established recruiting teams. We agree and would certainly love to have our UK sourcing colleagues join us in New York City for the next SourceCon conference that is coming up in February so you can learn how to educate your recruiting colleagues on your role within your companies!

Check out the whole podcast with Doke below. I certainly look forward to having more chats with her – as well as with many of you – as we learn more about global sourcing and how our profession translates across the world.

This is a question a good sourcer gets asked fairly frequently. My skill set, which like any good recruiter includes agency/corporate full lifecycle recruiting, has a strong Sourcing component. And by sourcing, I’m not talking about a junior recruiter doing a keyword search based on a profile or generic job description.

A good Sourcer enjoys research, marketing, and building long-term relationships with people. As I said in my conversation earlier this week, Sourcing as a separate specialty in Recruiting is a fairly recent “job title” as a senior recruiting role. Before the advent of major Applicant Tracking Systems, almost *all* recruiters had to be strong in both sourcing and account management. My Mom was a nurse recruiter back in the 80′s and her eyes glaze over when I talk about Boolean search strings and the various ATS’s I’ve mastered over the years. It’s only when I talk about posting a job or attending a live networking event that she actually has a frame of reference. For her it was about picking up the phone, reaching out to her professional colleagues for referrals and recommendations, and meeting with both campus and industry candidates.

In the 90′s, technology took much of the human element *out* of recruiting, while streamlining the recruiting process and allowing recruiters to handle much higher requisition loads in the process. I believe that search technology (thank you Google) has brought about the advent of “Sourcing”. Now that we can run targeted searches on large numbers of candidates, “sourcing” has become even more valued as a skill.

But Sourcing is more than just being able to run a Boolean search query. Much, much more. Sourcing is also about employment branding. As the first line in a *proactive* recruiting process, we are the initial representative of our organization. A large part of our success depends on creating long-term relationships, keeping them warm, and building trust and reliability. On top of that, we need to know the state of the industry both locally and nationally so we are aware of employment trends. Strong research and analytic skills are key to our profession.

And of course there is the very real human element. Like any good recruiter, we must be comfortable picking up the phone and talking to people. One of the best parts about being a senior sourcing professional, for me, is the luxury of forming strong professional relationships and gaining a reputation as someone to “send” trusted friends and colleagues to.

And last but not least, as the forerunner of the recruiting arm of an organization, candidates and potential candidates are almost *always* happy to hear from me.  I am calling them to talk to them about their professional expertise. To get to know them, what motivates them, and to make them feel valuable and to be interested in their careers. Who doesn’t like that?