At SourceCon Fall in 2016, Lori Schifman shared with our roundtable this URL to find nurses:
http://www.rncentral.com/nursing-library/careplans/100_really_useful_web_sites_for_nurses/
That was a “wow” moment for the entire table! I asked how she found it and she informed me she typically looks for “top sites” when sourcing candidates. That’s an excellent way to identify directories and associations of interest and another example of how the circle of sourcing can make us think outside the box.
In fact, Schifman’s technique is how I found Trustoria and BizStanding, two directory websites that I mentioned during my SourceCon presentation in the Spring of 2017. I was looking for top sites to find engineers and stumbled upon both using natural language and sifting through some of the results.
In Google, search: top sites to find engineers
Trustoria is a person focused directory that spans several industries, including engineering, healthcare, and even food service. You can pull a name, job title, and company work for and then cross reference for more information. Oh, and it is free.
You can search through the built in search engine, or run a site search (site:engineer.trustoria.com).
Bizstanding is a company based directory. However, a real advantage with using Bizstanding is that this directory not only lets you site search companies of interest, but it also lets you see profiles of former employees including name and job title. These are usually the basic information any Sourcer needs to cross reference.
Like Trustoria, you can use the built-in search feature or run a site search in using the syntax in the slide (site:bizstanding.com/p/).
You can find many of these directories if you just tell Google what you are looking for. Another example we found through this type of search was a directory of labs all over the world. You can also filter by country and state. No fancy Boolean required for this search.
Research Lab Directory (Global and State Search)
http://www.contractresearchmap.com/
The contact information may be limited depending on which lab you pull, but this is a good place to build a competitor list and start cross referencing. Oh, and it’s free, of course!
Look for Patterns and Keep it Natural.
With all this natural language talk, I have to bring up a recent discovery that led me to a whole crew of niche talent.
I noticed one organization had a very specific set of words for departmental employees on Linkedin:
“oncology biomarker development at #######”
I plugged this into a site search and pulled a ton of biomarker candidates from this one company. I’m sure it was a branding protocol, but boy did it help me out. Notice patterns like this when you search, natural language or a particular set of words can lead to a targeted list of talent (and drastically reduce your time hunting).
You can also identify associations of interest and use acronyms to pull in some additional talent. Another great sourcer I met at the roundtable, Christopher Szonn, told me about this Directory of Associations for nurse practitioners.
Directory of Associations of Nurse Practitioners
This is a huge find since we are always looking for this type of role. I wouldn’t have even to thought to search this way if not for those roundtable discussions and some ongoing discussions on Facebook. Your circle of sourcing can help you in amazing ways, and Schifman and Szonn have demonstrated that to me on multiple occasions.