What Is Talent Sourcing?

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Talent sourcing is the process of identifying, researching, and networking with job seekers in order to hire the best new employees possible. It’s an important part of finding good personnel. Most of the time spent sourcing is looking for ideal candidates and crafting a company brand that people want to be a part of. It’s a significant part of the talent acquisition process.

Talent sourcing could be called the process of finding and attracting candidates. Sourcers are the ones who come up with what the ideal qualifications are for a candidate and set to find someone who matches them – or comes as close as reasonably possible.

Key Takeaways:

• Sourcing is looking for ideal candidates and keeping track of them.

• Most sourcers create a talent pool to keep track of candidates that would be a good fit for the organization.

• There are three types of sourcing: passive sourcing, active sourcing, and direct sourcing.

• In larger companies, there will be a sourcing team in the human resources department dedicated to this.

What Is Talent Sourcing?

Talent sourcing is the process of collecting a talent pool. Most businesses, should they have the resources to spare, will look into trying to hire the best people for the job. Those that they think would be the best fit end up in the talent pool.

It isn’t quite that simple overall, as there are different types of talent sourcing. Sourcing can also involve creating a wish list of what you want in an ideal candidate. This, of course, includes their education, experience, and skill set, but it can also include other qualities. For instance, you want candidates that will fit in well with the company culture.

Talent sourcing is also a way to try to diversify your workforce. Part of your wish list can be that they’re a person of color, female, or LBGTQ+ – or even some combination thereof. Having a diverse team will make you more welcoming to other minorities that may be an excellent fit, in addition to also opening up other perspectives and bringing in new ideas.

What Are the Types of Sourcing?

As with most things, there are a variety of ways to source talent. Many sourcing teams will use a combination of sourcing styles in order to collect the best possible candidates for their talent pool. The larger the talent pool, the better chance your company has of getting excellent candidates for any open positions.

• Passive sourcing. Passive sourcing isn’t actually passive in terms of how the word is commonly used. The idea behind it is that your sourcers will reach out to ideal candidates who aren’t necessarily looking for a job to inform them of your interest. In this case, you’re unlikely to get a reply, but it’s a way to add to the talent pool.

• Active sourcing. This type of sourcing is when you need to fill a position more quickly. Active sourcing involves reaching out to candidates who are looking for a job. This can include new graduates, those who are between jobs, and also people who are looking to switch to new positions.

  Active sourcing happens at job fairs, job postings, and other standard job recruitment tools. Some companies will involve talent-sourcing agencies in their search as well.

• Direct sourcing. As implied by the name, this type of sourcing is done entirely by the company itself. When using direct sourcing, the company goes through a list of candidates that have been internally vetted. These can include:

  • Internal hires. For instance, promoting someone already on your payroll to a higher position or shifting someone from one department to another.

  • Boomerang employees. This is the term for those who left employment at a company to work for someone else, then returned to work for the original company again. As in, they boomerang back.

  • Manager referrals. If a manager refers a candidate, then it comes from within the company. Especially if the manager is trusted and good at hiring, then this can be considered their vetting process.

  • Silver medalist candidates. A candidate who was the second choice for a position is referred to as a silver medalist candidate. Oftentimes they’re fully qualified for the position; there was just another applicant that had a slight edge on them.

  • Returning retirees. It’s also possible to ask a former employee to come back out of retirement to fill a position. This is usually a temporary stopgap, as ex-retirees don’t tend to stay very long. It can, however, keep things running while you look for a longer-term solution.

Direct sourcing is the type of sourcing that gets the most buzz. This is likely because it’s the most difficult of the three to do effectively. It requires having a sourcing team that’s always looking for new talent. That being said, it can have several benefits, including:

• Cost reduction. There is no need to hire an outside source to help you with your sourcing, so that saves money. There is also a ready-built talent pool, meaning that you don’t have to go searching once a new position opens up.

• Assuring connection with candidates. As direct sourcing involves a number of candidates that already have a relationship – or had a relationship – with the company, it assures connection and is clear who will fit well into the company culture. As people within the company do the sourcing and vetting, a good mesh is much more likely.

• Streamlining the process. There’s a ready-made talent pool to go to whenever you need to hire, which makes the process quicker. It also removes outside agencies or third parties, keeping it all in-house, which simplifies matters.

How to Source Talent Effectively

Finding talent is a complicated process that doesn’t always yield ideal results. Good candidates may end up taking different offers, it may be hard to find a potential employee who meets all the criteria, and budget and time constraints are always an issue. However, there are some strategies that improve the likelihood of success.

• Know what you’re looking for. Draw up a wishlist of skills and qualities you’re looking for. Some people even create candidate personas for the ideal candidate and try to match this to current applicants.

• If using an agency, make sure to work closely with them. Don’t smother them, as they’re the experts, but at the same time, you’re the expert on your company. Make sure that they know what you’re looking for, and don’t be afraid to veto selections that you aren’t a good fit for your company.

• Revisit previous applicants. Some of those people may still be looking for a job – or may prefer to work for you. If you had some excellent applicants that didn’t quite make the cut, reach out to them to see if they’re still interested.

• Stay in touch. Don’t bombard candidates with emails, but at the same time, reach out to make sure that you stay in communication. This is especially true if you haven’t heard back from ideal candidates. They may still not reply, but you can avoid your message being lost in cyberspace or if they just forgot to reply this way.

• Make use of all types of recruitment. There are many different ways to source talent. You’re likely to run into different candidates in different places, so cast a wide net.

  • Employee referral. There are exceptions, but most employees don’t refer unqualified people. Their poor performance could reflect badly on them, so they tend to be conservative. Either way, it opens up a potential new talent pool, and you may find the ideal candidate there.

  • Job fairs. You usually run into people that are actually searching for a job here, which means that they’ll be eager to send in an application if you show interest. You may also run into recent college graduates that could end up being a real boon to the company.

  • Social media. Reach out on social media to look for candidates. Your business should have accounts on the most popular ones, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, which makes it easier.

  • Want ads. The majority of people look for a new job on job sites these days, such as our own Zippia. Make sure to post positions on several of them – you don’t know where an excellent candidate may run into your post.

  • Look at current employees. Most companies already have an excellent pool of talent working for them. Promoting people that are already employed with you helps with employee retention and cuts training time as they’re already familiar with your company.

• Create a pipeline. Having a sourcing system where you know where to look and who to talk to makes sourcing and recruiting much easier.

• Follow up on your metrics. Pay attention to what you had to do to successfully hire a candidate. A bit after they’re hired, go back and see how many times you had to reach out and what you had to offer to get their interest. Use these data to help you going forward.

• Be organized. Keep track of who you’ve reached out to and how likely they are to respond. Also, if you do get interested, make sure you have everything you need to make them an offer. If you hesitate and have to gather information, they may think you’re not really interested – or just plain disorganized.

Sourcing vs. Recruiting

Sourcing and recruiting are similar, but they aren’t the same. Both have to do with trying to locate new talent and are tied to hiring, but they’re different approaches to it. The main difference is going to be that sourcing is constant, while recruiting is when you need to hire someone to fill an open position.

When a company has someone who is a sourcer, their full-time job is looking into potential talent, even when the company is operating at capacity. They catalog promising candidates and keep tabs on them for when a position may open up or if the company chooses to expand. The task of sourcing doesn’t have an end date.

Recruiting, on the other hand, is proactively filling an open position. It’s all about job ads, going to job fairs, and sorting through resumes. Recruiting tended to be shorter term and focused on a particular position – or a few particular positions – that are open at the current time.

Alternatively, a candidate can be sourced and then recruited. So it can also be considered two separate parts of the hiring process. It’ll depend on the company that you work for, how much capital they have to spend on recruitment and their hiring process.

Author

Di Doherty

Di has been a writer for more than half her life. Most of her writing so far has been fiction, and she’s gotten short stories published in online magazines Kzine and Silver Blade, as well as a flash fiction piece in the Bookends review. Di graduated from Mary Baldwin College (now University) with a degree in Psychology and Sociology.