Sourcing. It’s probably one of the most overlooked parts of the hiring and recruiting process. In fact last week I referred to it as the red-headed step child of recruiting. I believe it is one of the most important pieces of our talent acquisition puzzle. It’s targeted. It’s specific and it’s one of the most nebulous of all recruiting.
Episode 91: Understanding Sourcing’s Role in Recruitment and Hiring with Arron Daniels (@arron_daniels)
Today’s Workology Podcast interview is one of the most innovative sourcers I’ve encountered. However, Arron Daniels cautions me and our podcast listeners that sourcing although sometimes it seems that way is in fact not magic. Sourcing isn’t a band aid for your recruitment strategies. Sourcing is a long term strategy and practice. Arron says for sourcing to really be effective it needs to be proactive. He suggests that sourcers work with talent acquisition leaders to discuss headcount outlooks and plans. Doing this helped him at a previous employer successfully hire 40 engineers through sourcing strategies.
Two Types of Sourcers
Arron tells me there are two types of sourcers. There are those who data gather who are also list builders. That’s sourcer type no. 1. The second type of soucers are those who builds list but also engage candidates by phone, social media, email and in person. The second type is where many talent acquisition leaders confuse sourcing with recruiting and make the assumption that everyone who sourcers can be a recruiter and vise versa. Their roles and strengths are different which is why it’s so important to discuss the role of sourcing in recruitment like we are today.
How to Measure Sourcing Effectively
I’m a data nerd. I love metrics, numbers and information. It’s important to use data and information to help us be effective in sourcing but also to communicate to leaders how sourcing works and elevates the recruiting process. Arron says in terms of metrics for sourcing, every organization is different making what metrics and data you should rely on unique. He suggest monitoring profiles viewed, percentage of viewed to interview and also viewed or engaged to hire. In the new and evolving world of sourcing, he likes to measure how many people have you found, percent of candidates accepted, hiring manager to interview, or hires or closes. I dive into the question about sourcing metrics because it’s something I’m currently evaluating and measuring at my company.
I asked Arron to share a geeky sourcing project he’s recently worked on to demonstrate the complex world of sourcing. Arron developed a GetHub search using the GetHub API, Excel spreadsheets, a url and a website. He tells me his project runs an X-Ray search of profiles from GitHub (tutorial listed below) that meet specific criteria. The spreadsheet uses an Excel formula that uses the data he pulls from Google plus the hyperlink that will kick him over to the hyperlink search link.
In terms of Arron’s favorite sourcing tools online he suggests Meetup.com Pipl, and About.me. Everything is a database. Arron says he’s found a candidate’s parents contact information using the web and picked up the phone to get in touch with his candidate. By talking to the parents, he gets a direct line to the candidate and they have called him back 100% of the time. Like me, Arron has also used dating website to source. He found a candidate on OnlyFarmers.com. As Arron said, everything online is a database.
How Chrome Extensions Are Used in Sourcing
Arron talks about Chrome extensions as a great sourcing tool. He says they allow you, as the sourcer to customize your browser and use tools to enhance your sourcing efforts. Chrome extensions exist to do literally everything. He suggests the following:
- Extensity is a great chrome extension that is quick on and off button and helps increase bandwidth. Helpful if you have too many Chrome extensions running and want to record a podcast with Arron like me.
- Connectifier which was acquired by LinkedIn last year is back although slightly different similar to 360 Social. It allows you to search for candidate social information when viewing Indeed resumes as well.
Tune into the podcast to hear more tips, best practices and sourcing tools that Arron is digging.
Connect with Arron Daniels on LinkedIn.
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*A special thank you to my production team at Total Picture Radio.
One Comment
Thanks for useful advice. Also If you need to seek out the really suitable talent for a certain position in your company, use complete talent acquisition platform – https://www.signalhire.com/content/resume-database to streamline this time- and cost-consuming quest.
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