What is Talent Sourcing?

What is talent sourcing?

Talent Sourcing is a type of Social Recruiting, a structured method that identifies, interacts and establishes contacts with the talent of potential candidates for current and future jobs. Keep reading and we will tell you how to identify and retain talent.

The core of the entire process is the idea of ​​transforming individuals into candidates. Therefore, Talent Sourcing is the key to recruiting (usually the starting point) and an important aspect of establishing a strong talent pipeline.

Unlike the end-to-end process where recruiters must focus on talent acquisition (turning applicants into employees), recruiters focus on calls and other more traditional contact methods to build inclusive search chains.

Recruiting staff not only have to be able to generate leads, but also be interested in the organization and its role in finding talent.

For example, if an organization is looking for a UX designer who can be onboarded within a month, the sourcing program should cast the talent pipeline as widely as possible to create a complete talent pool, while keeping in mind the details of the description. of the position and the nature of the talent required.

Where to look for the best candidate?

Once you know the ideal candidate you need to search for, you will need to identify the channels through which you could search for ideal candidates. What also needs to be taken into account is that the "ideal" candidate can vary quite a bit between functions, levels and processes. That said, there should be certain traits consistent with the brand and work culture that remain common across all cases.

If you know where to look, you'll have half the job done. For example, while platforms like Behance and Dribble may be better suited for searching for designers, GitHub or StackOverflow are better suited for searching for developers. Therefore, a Talent Sourcer must know the latest communities and platforms that choose these potential candidates. Let's look at some:

1. Social Networks

Social media can be a great tool for finding the best candidates. In fact, according to a CareerBuilder survey, a staggering 70% of employers use social media for talent search. The reason social media is so effective is that many potential employees are passive in their job search, but respond to the right opportunity. Additionally, it is relatively easy to advertise and reach the desired people, especially compared to other methods.

2. LinkedIn

Virtually all of the professionals we have already listed can be found on LinkedIn. However, it is an especially good platform for sales and marketing professionals. Searchers can also see achievements, career history, and other information. No matter who you're looking for, make sure they have active accounts before contacting them or you'll waste your time.

3. Job Boards

Job boards are popular for a reason: they help connect millions of people to the best workplace each year. To use them today, it is no longer enough to publish a job description. If you want to get the attention of the real professionals in your industry, you should use more proactive techniques, like the ones on this list.

4. Employee references

One method that has been consistently effective is word of mouth. Referrals lead to quality hires much more often than almost any other source, but to get referrals for the positions you're looking to fill, you need to use your most powerful tool for this hiring strategy, which is your own workers.

In addition, recent technologies such as LinkedIn X-Ray Search or Recruiterflow can help you not only execute Boolean search queries, but also have one-click access to multiple profiles of the same candidate.

To find the best candidates, you'll need software like an ATS or CRM to capture the information and automate the process. You should also search on social networks, job portals and others. Look at the people you didn't interview last time and see if anyone stands out.

Connect well: How do you drive candidate engagement?

The talent search strategy is driven by the need to engage with potential candidates. Today, managers (also known as Recruitment Researcher, Recruiter, Talent Sourcer or Talent Scout) need to know where the talent is concentrated for a given position and the medium they choose to start and maintain a conversation with the candidate (whether through through job portals, social networks or email), it must be a means of conversation with which the candidate feels comfortable.

Interview and evaluation

Depending on the company, this is where a headhunter ends their service. In this step, talent sourcer passes his work to the recruiter, who can also be part of the interview support.

Recruitment and incorporation

Once the final decision is made, it's time to submit the offer, iron out the details, and officially hire the right employee.

Differences between talent sourcing and recruiting

Here comes one of the parts of the post that will help you the most understand what talent sourcing is. The main objective of talent sourcing is to convert non-candidates into candidates for your company. In this way, the search for talent is the central axis of this strategy and aims to obtain a portfolio of possible candidates with great potential.

On the other hand, recruiting is based on finding candidates for a specific job through different job portals, social networks or platforms. Furthermore, recruiters usually work only when it is necessary to fill a vacancy, that is, they are not actively searching for profiles of interest to the organization or entity.

Furthermore, another of the most striking differences that we see in talent sourcing and recruiting is that the person responsible for talent sourcing also works to generate interest in the organization, that is, they work on the corporate brand so that it is a desirable place in which to develop professionally.

Tips for best talent sourcing results

The talent sourcing process requires great preparation. We leave you 6 tips that will help you improve these techniques.

  • Identify talented profiles that fit your business: This point is the most important. Candidates may be very talented and stand out in the market but not fit the needs of your company, so you must be able to detect it.
  • Come up with an ideal candidate: Before starting to look for talent, you must define an ideal candidate model to be able to have a much more refined idea in your head of what you need.
  • Make the conditions and needs of the job clear: People with a lot of experience in their sector don't want to waste time. Therefore, you must make clear aspects such as salary, flexibility, working hours, day-to-day functions, without forgetting details, so that they do not back out once the interview has been completed.
  • Identify which job portals your ideal candidate is on: There are job portals that are much more suitable for some sectors or others, therefore, investigate which portal your profile is most likely to be advertised on.
  • Adapt the message to the candidate's profile: If we want to hire a more senior profile for a position of great responsibility we will use very different messages than if we want to hire a junior profile who is just starting out and wants to learn and contribute new ideas.
  • Constantly innovate your selection process: Don't get stuck, try to look for new forms of talent sourcing and that way you will be sure to recruit talent with great potential and novelty.