Editor’s note: Between now and the new year we will be counting down the top 20 SourceCon posts of 2013. This is number 20.
Visualizing Your Sourcing Strategy
When discussing the difficulties recruiters have with finding great candidates for their roles, a common theme that I see, that they pay little attention to is that they have have no sourcing strategy.
When I first started as a recruiter, Nicholas Byrne, who trained me, always said, “How many times are you going to do your search until you get it right?” This still rings in my ears now! What Nicholas was basically asking was was what was my strategy to get the desired outcome?
As Sourcers
We all know it’s important to have a strategy to start. It may not be complete, but at least have a plan.
I have the view (right or wrong) that if you have a plan, and it is written down in some form, then it’s real. If it’s in your head, then it’s a fantasy and will never happen!
As we dig deeper and gather more knowledge of our target market, including potential leads and suspects, we should flesh out our strategy, leave no stone unturned, and build a detailed view that demonstrates to our stakeholders we have covered the market, identified all the key people, and hopefully missed no one!
Build your Compelling Sourcing Strategy in a Mind Map
By building a compelling sourcing map or strategy as a Mind Map that perpetually grows as you become more aware will enable you to gain greater in-depth knowledge of your market, candidate skillsets, et. Be sure to document and track your output.
This is a powerful way to visualise your target market for your stakeholders and will achieve significant buy-in to your approach. In return, as a sourcer, you will receive invaluable input from stakeholders and gain great credibility and influence as your stakeholder will be 100% confident you are leaving nothing to chance in the search for the candidates that match your need!
Building a visual Mind Map of your Sourcing Strategy will provide:
- Real-time intelligences of your targeted market that you will perpetually grow and reuse
- Competitive information for current & future business needs
- Confidence you have covered the market and/or identified the gaps
- Greater creditability and influence with hiring managers & candidates
- A snapshot of what the future may look like
2 mind mapping tools you can use to build your Sourcing Map/Strategy are:
Mindjet Mind Manager – which is PC based reasonably expensive, the Rolls Royce mind mapping software.
Mindjet Connect – Web version of Mind Manager PC based product called Mindjet Connect. Good tool to start with at low cost.
Below is an example Sourcing Map that will give you a visual representation of what I’ve discussed.