“Anyone can do this, right?”
Sourcing is one of those things that seems easy to an outsider. I mean, you’re just finding lists of people that match keywords, right? Doesn’t LinkedIn do all that? ????
Sourcing is research. Creating ideal candidate profiles based on relevant previous experience. Business problems they’ve solved. Locations. Compensation. Likelihood of interest in your specific opportunity (which is another topic in itself.)
Sourcing is also communication. Messaging must be compelling. Relevant. Targeted. Detailed. Punchy.
????If you ever heard someone say “research and communication are easy” you’d write them off as an idiot.
So who actually does this type of work? There’s 4 main profiles:
1. Professional sourcers. Experienced. Highly skilled. People who have chosen this as their craft. They *love* these aspects of the recruitment process. They found their niche and aren’t going full desk.
The challenge?
There’s not very many of them. Experienced research analysts don’t grow on trees.
2. Junior recruiters in training. Sourcing is core to the recruitment process. Anyone who sucks at sourcing won’t turn out to be much of a recruiter. It’s a natural starting point for training.
The challenge?
Like any junior role, there’s going to be a learning curve. Nothing wrong with that. But you have to realize there are limits to the search complexity or output you can expect.
The other challenge?
????Most of them move out of this into a recruiting position. All that training must be redone. Over and over.
3. Recruiters. They’re all (theoretically) capable and experienced here. Not at the level of a professional sourcer, but they can get the job done.
The challenge?
Time. If you’re working with any level of volume, complexity or urgency, they’re buried. Doing, you know, recruiting.
4. The HR/TA admin. The person who runs the process elements. Scheduling interviews. Travel. Benefits. Onboarding. Etc.
Sure, throwing sourcing on their plate.
The challenge?
Not understanding that it’s a fundamentally different job than everything else they do. And how complex it is. Or that they might not want to do it to begin with.
So it’s typically done without real training or guidance. And in those scenarios, the results are about what you expect.
Tldr: Sourcing is a pain in the a$$ because there’s not enough people do it. Most either move onto something else, don’t have the time for it, or weren’t trained in the first place.
Pitch in 3…
2…
1…
????Good thing Hirewell has resources for it. Need a hand with sourcing? Hit me up. Or Jeff Smith. We got you covered.
(Subtle I know.)
Partner at Hirewell. #3 Ranked Sarcastic Commenter on LinkedIn.
