No college offers a recruiting degree or one in sourcing. Although there are some very good training programs available, most of what recruiters learn, they pick up on the job.
One of the most important parts of recruiting is sourcing candidates. Where can they be found? This involves a good bit of detective work. The recruiter needs to do a lot of research. He or she needs to know where to look.
Some of the sources for talent are rather apparent – websites such as LinkedIn and Indeed can yield many of the people the recruiter is looking for. But to get at all of the talent out there, the recruiter needs to look beyond these more easily accessible sources, and to do this he needs to collect information. Here are some good strategies recruiters can use to gather the information they need to source job candidates.
- Information on competitors
Recruiters need to keep data in their files on the competition to know what they are up against and what kind of talent competitors are getting. The recruiter needs to know the strengths and weaknesses of companies in their market. Recruiters need to collect salary and benefit data on the companies, as well as employee reviews.
- Marketing
This is now an important element of a recruiter’s portfolio. Recruiters need to know where which hashtags are the most useful, how to create or post the most interesting content, as well as how to manage a social media calendar. To attract and locate the best candidates, recruiters need to be proficient in the use of social media, which has become one the most important aspects of the job.
To do recruitment marketing well, recruiters again need access to information on marketing and how to do it effectively. The recruiter needs to gather the information, organize it and have it on file for when it is needed.
- Web browser extensions
Some recruiters recommend web browser extensions as an efficient way to store contact information, as well as tracking and mining data and staying organized.
- CRM
Experienced recruiters also recommend a CRM database to store information about job candidates. These could be people who have applied for jobs in the past but were not hired, people who were referred by current employees, or internal job candidates. This will help a recruiter develop a pipeline of candidates.
- Lists
Recruiters also need to put together listings of certain information, such as professional associations, and lists to help with data mining, scraping and extracting.
- Keeping track of metrics
This will help a recruiter to determine where the best talent is located, and the best way to approach job candidates to increase the chances of success.
For example, it will help sourcing to determine how many times a recruiter needs to contact a candidate before they get a response. Recruiters also should maintain a database of which types of messages are most effective, and keep track of emails to see when they are accessed.
Other important information to maintain:
- Where the best candidates are coming from.
- How long it takes to someone to apply for an opening.
- How long it takes from initial contact with a job candidate until the person is actually hired.
- Whether candidates who have been sourced by the recruiter move through the hiring process any faster than those who have applied for a job on their own.
Looking for great people for temporary, temp-to-hire and even direct-hire opportunities at your Southern California company? Let us help you! Contact the Helpmates branch nearest you to learn more about our recruiting services.
