The New Definition of Talent Sourcing

December 29, 2020 Jonathan Kidder 1 comment

Talent Sourcing is defined as the process of identifying, searching, screening, and submitting candidates for an open job requisition. Talent Sourcing is the first step within the recruitment process which involves in depth research on keywords, knowledge of skill sets, and analytical data. Recruiting for a niche role requires additional time and effort to attract passive talent within the field and that’s why Talent Sourcing is so important. 

 

The New Definition of Talent Sourcing now involves Candidate Engagement

Candidate Engagement means prospecting, cold calling, and screening applicants over a phone call. In the early days of Talent Sourcing and online searching this only involved lead generation and submitting contact information to recruiting teams. However, Talent Sourcing has evolved and now requires managing the beginning of the recruiting funnel. 

 

 

What’s the Difference Between Recruiting and Talent Sourcing?

Recruiting involves the full-cycle process from first publishing the job opening, to screening applicants, to submitting applicants, and setting first and final round interviews. Talent Sourcing is the process at the beginning of a recruiting funnel. You go out and actively find and prospect passive candidates and convince them to apply and become active in your process. 

 

Recruiters, Talent Sourcers, Lead Gen, & Client Leads

Each company does things a little different but I will define each job role. Recruiters manage the entire process within a talent acquisition team. Company may hire a Talent Sourcer who manages the beginning of a recruiting funnel and prospect for leads. Lead Gen professionals solely focus on just finding contact information and resumes and then pass that to Recruiters. Client Leads at some companies solely focus at the end of the recruiting process by preparing candidates for final rounds and presenting final-offers at the end. 

 

Does Talent Sourcing Require Special Skills?

Talent Sourcing has become the most challenging part in recruiting. Finding active and available talent is time consuming and tough. You need to fully understand the role and what you are searching for. You also need to understand advanced search Boolean techniques. It will take many years to fully grasp talent sourcing and it requires a lot of investment up front. Staffing companies may have junior level Recruiters solely focus on lead gen and candidate searching. But, in general Talent Sourcers are a niche that requires advanced search skills. 

 

What is the Talent Sourcing Process?

The process begins with getting approvals from HR and leadership to publish an active opening. You then would set up a call with the hiring manager to have an intake meeting. From that discussion you would start researching the competition and location (also called Talent Mapping). With your research and data collected you would then start your search using advanced Boolean search techniques. You would also use recruiting tools that help automate mundane searching tasks. From there you would reach out to candidates and try to connect with them over the phone. You would then set up a call and do a full phone screen. The phone screen would take on average 15-30 minutes where you would describe the role/team and then screen for basic skill requirements. From there you would schedule a first-round interview. After that point it’s common for the recruiter or client lead to take over the process. 

 

What’s New within Talent Sourcing?

The new process involves phone screening candidates. Every good Talent Sourcer will need to schedule an in-depth phone screen to go over the role and screen the candidates’ overall abilities. We have advanced searching tools that can now find leads with full contact information. A Talent Sourcers will become more about candidate engagement, candidate experience, and building networking relationships with leads. I feel Talent Sourcers who purely do research and lead generation will not have a future within our industry. They will get replaced by AI automation software recruiting tools. 

 

 

Here’s a vetted list of 50+ Boolean strings PDF to find and source the best talent online. 

Learn More Here

 

Recommended Reading:

How to Create a Job Posting on Facebook

How to Create a Recruitment Tracker Template

Diversity Sourcing on LinkedIn using Boolean Strings

Jonathan Kidder
Follow me

1 Comment on “The New Definition of Talent Sourcing

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.