If you thought that corporate recruiting and sourcing were the same thing, you are not alone. Many employers erroneously use these words interchangeably. However, in a candidate-driven job market, it is more important than ever before for employers to understand the distinct differences between corporate recruiting and sourcing. Here’s a brief breakdown of what corporate recruiting and sourcing really are and tips on how to use these techniques to attract and hire top talent candidate.
What Is Corporate Recruiting
A corporate recruiter is typically responsible for all aspects of the hiring process from finding potential candidates right through to making an official offer. It’s a full cycle 360-recruitment operation where recruiters are responsible for everything, including job posting, candidate generation trough reactive (apply) mechanisms, candidate communication, filtering applicants, schedule and/or conducting interviews, and job placement
How Is Sourcing Different?
Sourcing, on the other hand, specifically deals with one element of the hiring process: identifying qualified candidates through proactive (search) mechanisms. It’s a dedicated function using a proactive recruitment model, where sourcing is always the first step of the hiring process and is conducted on an ongoing basis. Sourcing experts continually engage with prospective candidates, and they have an in-depth understanding of where to find ideal candidates. They research competitors, understand the hiring trends in the industry, utilize social media platforms, and more. Rather than strategize to fill a specific position within the company, sourcing experts oftentimes engage with viable candidates on an ongoing basis, so when a position is available, the connection is already made.
The Importance of Sourcing in a Candidate Driven Market
With unemployment at a 16-year low, it is now a candidate-driven job market. While initially, this may appear to be bad news for employers seeking out talented applicants, the truth is that many employees who are not actively looking for a new job are willing to change jobs for the right opportunity. According to a recent Bloomberg report, 63 percent of the workforce is open to changing employers if a better opportunity came along.
Only using standard recruiting tactics, such as job board posting and social media sourcing in a candidate-driven job market will attract only the 15 percent of candidates who are actively looking for jobs and do very little to attract the other 85 percent — the passive candidates. Since these candidates are not actively searching for a job, they are unlikely to see post place on social media or job boards. Sourcing helps to fill in this gap, by engaging with both active and passive candidates.
How to source smarter?
Today’s recruitment is becoming more and more advanced. Sourcing isn’t as simple as searching on LinkedIn and hoping you find the right candidate. Instead, you need to understand your candidates, identify their online behavior, and know what entices them to switch jobs. This allows for meaningful conversations that can entice even passive applicants to apply for new job opportunities.
With corporate recruitment, recruiters must spread their resources across all aspects of the hiring process. In many cases, the sourcing process doesn’t receive the time and investment it deserves. It is only when sourcing is conducted as a dedicated role and function that effective sourcing techniques can be developed and used to attract better-quality candidates.
3-Tips for Integrating Smart Sourcing with Corporate Recruiting
Integrating smart sourcing into your corporate recruiting process can help to improve the candidate quality, reduce time-to-hire rates and boost the overall candidate experience. There are, however, several tips that can help ensure a smooth transition into smart sourcing integration.
- Step 1. Sourcing as Dedicated Function
The first step is to designate and build out sourcing as a dedicated function of the recruiting process.
- Step 2. Retain Sourcing Skills
You must be committed to retaining specific souring skills, such as recognizing who the most qualified candidates are, understanding how they think, knowing where to find them and how to engage with them, and identifying why and when they are ready to change jobs. This will enable your organization to recruit both active and passive quality candidate effectively.
- Step 3. Build Sourcing Pipeline
Developing a pipeline to engage with difficult-to-find talent is a must. This pipeline will help attract, engage and connect with this in-demand talent faster and more efficiently.
If time is of an essence, intensify your corporate recruiting efforts by developing a partnership with smart sourcing experts, like Tulsie, and connect with the other 85 percent as well.
Our team at Tulsie understands talent. We know how they think, we understand their online behavior, we know what entices passive candidates to change jobs and, most importantly, we know where to find top talent candidates. We source these high-quality applicants for you to help your company grow to the next level. Learn how our expert sourcing services can help to elevate your recruiting process.
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