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Articles tagged 'Technology & Resources'

The Sourcing Function

Some Thoughts on Sourcing Skills vs. Tools

by on Feb. 15, 2012

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brain-cogs

I talk to a lot of sourcers –I ask them about their work and which tools they use. You might say as a marketer, blogger, and speaker within the industry, I’m a keen observer of sourcers and recruiters.

One of my favorite questions to ask is this: What sourcing tools do you use?

A popular answer is LinkedIn Recruiter. Now, I am not a sourcer myself — but as a sourcer, does that make you upset? Does it make you worried?

It probably should. LinkedIn Recruiter is an effective (albeit expensive) tool that, for all intents and purposes allows people to call themselves sourcers. No research background necessary, no Boolean strings, no X-Raying Google or Bing, no geolocation tricks. And certainly, no need for telephone sourcing.

Is this how sourcers are trained now?

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The Sourcing Function

2 Top Lessons Sourcers Can Learn From The World Of Mixed Martial Arts

by on Jan. 12, 2012

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George St. Pierre-UFC Champion

What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.

- Sun Tzu, The Art of War

For as long as I can remember, I have been an avid fan of the martial arts.

My parents first enrolled me into Karate at the age of five. I loved it and stuck with it several years until I finally achieved my Black Belt. During much of my youth, I toured the U.S. competing in local, state, and national Karate tournaments. I won some, lost some, and enjoyed every bit of the experience. Training for competitions was never a chore – I craved it. Sport Karate taught me many lessons, especially about discipline and dedication.

Although I stopped competing in tournaments back in my teen years, I am still a huge fan of the sport. Today, the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) world has evolved into a highly competitive sport and is widely popularized by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The level of hard work and competitiveness in the MMA environment provides excellent lessons for sourcing professionals.

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Editor's Corner, Technology & Resources

Sourcers: Don’t Be a Tool

by on Nov. 17, 2011

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dont be a tool

I will never forget the few moments I spent with Bryan Starbuck (founder of TalentSpring, now Talent Technology) in San Diego in 2010 when he shared one of my favorite analogies that I still quote today:

“Sourcing can never fully be automated. Think about it this way: whether you are digging with a shovel or a backhoe, there still has to be a human being involved in some capacity – either moving the shovel or controlling the backhoe.”

That being said, anyone who denies that there are significant parts of sourcing that can be automated today is living under a rock. There really isn’t any need to spend hours upon hours writing complex Boolean strings – there are tools that can do that for you. There are marketing tools that you can use to draw people to you and endear them to your company, your brand, your opportunity. There are organizational tools that you can use to categorize your prospects and remind you that you need to stay in touch with them or that they’d be a good fit for this opportunity or that one.

Are you a tool? I don’t think so. So stop being a tool, and start using them instead.

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Industry News

List of 100 Most Valuable Digital Startups Includes Indeed, TheLadders

by on Sep. 23, 2011

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digital-100-2011

Indeed and TheLadders are two of the most valuable startups in the world. How do we know that? Business Insider says so.

The financial and business site posted its list of the 100 most valuable digital startups today. Not surprisingly, Facebook is #1. According to Business Insider, Facebook is worth $80 billion, up from last year’s $50 billion.

(After today’s product and feature announcements by CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the company’s f8 conference, who knows how much the company will be worth. A Huffington Post article calls the changes “profound,” putting Facebook “at the forefront of a paradigm shift.”)

While none of the other companies on the list even remotely approach the lofty valuations of Facebook (#2 is Zynga at $11 billion), Business Insider says Indeed, the job search vertical, is worth a cool $450 million, ranking it 37. TheLadders it values at $225 million, placing it at 59.

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Social Media, Technology & Resources

Sourcing Mobility — 16 Apps for the Sourcer “On The Go”

by on Jul. 22, 2011

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iPhone sourcing apps

Creativity and innovation involve the process of creating something new or better. As sourcers, we are constantly brainstorming creative and innovative ways to find and attract candidates. From the new social media sites we join to the unique queries we write in search engines, the importance for creativity and innovation is stronger than ever.

There have been many theories on what sparks innovation and creativity, but one trending topic has been mobility in the workforce. As technology continues to advance, we have found ourselves in a period where flexibility and telecommuting have become more important than set hours and being on-site.

For my sourcing team and me, we tend to be more creative outside of the normal 8-5 work schedule. I have found that I write my best search queries before 8 AM or after an intense yoga session. I am also more productive in my home office. My top sourcer tends to be more productive between the hours of 3-7 PM, and rarely have I ever seen her before 10 AM.

As we see are starting to see companies shift outside the normal paradigm, there has also been an influx in remote opportunities for recruiters. Now, VPNs allow us to connect remotely, Skype lets us have face-to-face interaction, you can find just about anyone on the Internet, and mobile phones are advancing so quickly that you can work just about anywhere. In fact, you can almost recruit solely from your smartphone.

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Technology & Resources

What’s In a Sourcer’s Toolbelt?

by on Jul. 20, 2011

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batman-utility-belt

A Sourcer’s Toolbelt is never full – there are always cool new tools and resources to use to help us find candidates for our job openings. To give you an idea of what many sourcers use when they’re out looking for candidates, I’ve complied a list of my most prized tools as of today — but as always, I’m on the hunt for more.

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Social Media, Technology & Resources, The Sourcing Function

The Names Sourcer in 2011 & Beyond

by on Dec. 3, 2010

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toolbox1

Effectively Create and Grow a Recruiting Firm’s Web Brand Presence via the Efficient Use of the Growing List of Communication Tools

When I assess what has brought about the most change and will continue to bring about the most change in names sourcing and Internet recruiting, I’d say it’s the staggering growth in the creation of new tools that expand the reach of communication and brand management.  In essence, the sourcing toolkit has expanded greatly and the subsequent reach provided helps to increase brand awareness to passive and active candidates.

Yet the increase in the number of tools doesn’t necessarily equate to an increase in efficiency in getting your message to the right people and helping to cut down on your sourcing time.  It’s one thing to have a tool and it’s another to learn how to use the tool properly.  Hence, the ability to effectively increase the reach of your messages, and to control and expand your firms’ brand, will equal the knowledge of how to use these tools.

For this reason, I’d say that for recruiting firms to survive and thrive in 2011 & beyond, it will be an absolute necessity that the names sourcer / researcher branch out beyond the traditional role, embrace the new tools of communication, and learn how to effectively use them to create and maintain a firm’s web brand presence.  This has become clear to me, not only in my current role, but reflecting on past positions, and relates especially to non-corporate, third party recruiting firms. 

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Corporate Sourcing, Leadership

Sourcing Strategy: One Size Does Not Fit All

by on Sep. 23, 2010

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Picture-4

Scott Pitasky, Corporate VP at Microsoft for Talent and Org. Capability, shared today at the SMA Staffing Symposium in Seattle that at Microsoft, he feels it is best for sourcing strategy to be devised at the business level and not at the corporate level. The reason, he said, is that different business units will search with different tools and in different locations due to the variable types of talent they seek. “One size does not fit all,” he said. He also said that goals do not equal strategy. Instead:

Strategy is goal + why + how. This tells you both what to do and what not to do.

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Industry News, Technology & Resources

Google “Wave”s Goodbye

by on Aug. 4, 2010

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google_wave_logo

At 2pm Pacific time today, Google posted on its official blog that it would discontinue developing Wave as a stand-alone product. It states however that it “will maintain the site at least through the end of the year and extend the technology for use in other Google projects.” Google says that “Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked.”

Many in the sourcing and recruiting community made attempts to develop Wave into candidate communities and spread the word – like the LinkedIn group called “Google Wave for Recruiting!“. This is not unlike the exponential rise in popularity of niche Ning communities for recruiting purposes. Just take a look at the number of professional communities to tap for candidates on Ning just by doing a simple “inurl:ning inurl:professionals” search – nearly 3,000 results.

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