Methods for Sourcing Candidates

Hi Friends,

Hope you are enjoying sourcing!!

I have already explained Job Board and Job Portals in my one of the earlier Post. Today I am going to explain about sourcing methods other than Job Portals which are freely available. Before that let me again remind you

What is Sourcing:-

Recruitment can be broadly split into two main areas – sourcing and selection. Sourcing is the stage which encompasses candidate attraction, while the selection stage encompasses the interview and offer process. Sourcing will begin once approval has been officially granted to fill a vacant role within the organisation. When sourcing potential candidates, the aim will be to make the vacancy known to as many qualified people as possible.

Types of recruiters

There are two primary types of recruiters: agency and internal. Both types of recruiters fulfill staffing needs but who they staff for differs. Agency recruiters work at staffing firms that specialize in finding candidates within a specific industry. While they usually specialize in an industry like marketing or technology, they recruit for multiple, if not dozens of companies within that given field. Internal recruiters work for only one company, providing hiring support for all open roles within their company.

Agency recruiters often focus on depth, i.e. finding Java developers if they work for a technical staffing firm, while internal recruiters focus on breadth, i.e. finding both a sales manager and a public relations specialist for their company. Most companies utilize a combination of internal and agency recruiters.

Sourcing methods:-

Employee Referral

Recruiters love working with candidates referred to them by internal employees at their company, or candidates they’ve previously placed. Referrals tend to be strong candidates because they’re reliable enough to that someone is willing to vouch for them. In order to attract more referral candidates, many companies offer a monetary incentive for their employees to recommend people from their network for open roles. Recruiters can save a lot of time hunting down candidates when they get referrals passed along to them.

Personal connections make a huge difference when you are looking for a job. 80 percent of open positions are never even advertised, according to Forbes.

Job Posting

Posting Jobs on various Job Boards (explained in one of the Earlier posts)

 The only downside is that they’re reactive. You have to wait for the talent to come to you, in hopes that the right candidate is among them.

Boolean Sourcing for Google
Boolean sourcing allows recruiters to search for candidate information from all over the web.

You can find resumes and cover letters that are stored within personal websites, job boards and social platforms by using a unique set of search commands.

These commands tell search engines exactly what you’re looking for, and help drill down your search results to reveal the candidates who truly align with your requisition.

Getting started with boolean sourcing is as simple as learning some basic commands. The following operators work best when used within Google.

OR	The command OR will return results containing at least one of your specified keywords or phrases. For example, entering programmer OR developer OR engineer would produce results containing any of these terms but not necessarily all of them.
""	Use quotations to return sites containing the exact phrase you’re searching for. For example, senior manager would return pages containing either of these keywords, but"senior manager" would only return pages containing that exact phrase.
-	Use the minus or dash command "-" before a keyword to return pages that exclude that word. For example, if you searched "marketing -manager" your results would exclude any pages that contain the word manager.
*	Use the asterisk (*) within your query to identify a placeholder or wildcard terms. For example "Master's degree in *" would return pages containing the phrase "Master's degree in Marketing," "Master's degree in Computer Science, " etc.
()	Brackets are for grouping Boolean phrases, and are generally used in more complex search strings. For example, if you searched for (Engineer or "Software Developer")(CISCO OR Microsoft OR HP), your results would show pages containing any of your job title keywords that also contain one of the company keywords. This is a great combination for finding talent who has worked for one of your target competitors.
site:	Use the command site: to search pages within a specific website. For example, search for Facebook profiles by entering site:facebook.com. Searching for site:facebook.com "web designers" Phoenix would return Facebook profiles containing both keywords Web Designer and Phoenix.

Use these basic commands to create more elaborate search strings and effectively find candidates through Google. By adding more criteria to your search queries, you can produce more relevant results and ultimately find the best candidates who align with your job.

Social Sourcing : Facebook

Leverage the social platforms where your prospects already spend a lot of their time. Sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook offer unique tools to proactively find your next great hire.

Facebook is a free tool that allows anyone to use specific queries to search for individuals. Find people who work for a specific industry, near a special location or for a particular company.

Typing in a search query

Go to Facebook, locate the search bar at the top, and type in a query.

Sample queries include:

·         People who work at [Competitor] and like [Job function]

·         People who like [programming language] and live near [Location]

·         [Title] who live near [Location]

·         [Title] At [Company] In [Location]

·         Female [Title] who live near [Location]

·         [Title] who live near [Location] and speak [Language]

Here is an example of a common Facebook Graph query:

LinkedIn

One of the most popular recruiting tools these days is LinkedIn because of its ease of use. LinkedIn makes it easy for recruiters, who usually have a recruiter account, to search for candidates based on their work history, job title, or college. One of the primary advantages for recruiters is finding qualified candidates on LinkedIn who would be otherwise impossible to locate because they aren’t actively looking for jobs.

 Initiate Conversation

When you finally find the candidates you’re looking for, connect with them! Send them a message about your available position and ask if they would be interested in the opportunity.