February 23, 2022

Are Sourcers More In Demand Than Recruiters?

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Episode Highlights

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In this episode, ‘Are Sourcers More In Demand Than Recruiters?’ HR recruiting experts, Ryan Brown and Rosanna Krug cover some of the new market trends within the HR landscape. 

They discuss: 

  • Skillsets that have gone remote
  • Skillsets needed to be a recruiter vs a sourcer
  • Positions in high demand
  • Increased specialization for roles 

If you are a company debating whether you are in need of a recruiter or a true sourcer, Ryan and Rosanna discuss how you can navigate through that process. If you want to get the full insights, give their video a watch! 

Episode Transcript

Well, we’re going to bring in Ro, who is my manager and the VP of our HR practice.

She is an absolute rock star and she’s going to talk to us a lot about what’s going on in terms of market trends within human resources. So let’s bring in Ro. Let’s bring her in. Hey Ro! Hi ladies. Thanks for having me. Thanks for coming back. You’re becoming a regular on this show. I know! I needed to make my appearance in 2022, so I’m glad I started early.

I’ll be back though. Good. Well, we’re so excited to have you. I know that a ton of has been going on in the HR market and across a bunch of different things that have been happening. It’s probably no surprise that we’re going to talk about recruiters. We’ve been talking about recruiters nonstop for what feels like well over a year.

So we know what’s going on in terms of how hot the market is and why don’t you just fill us in, like in terms of some of the trends we saw maybe last year with recruiters, what happened in terms of the later half of the year with remote work and kind of, where do you see things trending this year? Yeah. So like you said Ryan, we talk about recruiters all day, every day.

So as far as remote work, that is definitely the skillset within the HR team that we have seen pretty much go fully remote. I mean, as we all know, being recruiters, our job can really be done anywhere. So I think we pulled data recently in our placements from like Q3 and Q4 of last year, almost a hundred percent-

I think it was 98% of our jobs within talent acquisition were remote hires compared to like business partners and some of the other searches we see. So the recruiter market is going fully remote, which is great because we’ve been able to recruit folks all over the country and it’s just opened up a ton of opportunities for people.

It’s true. I don’t think we’ve ever in at least in the four and a half years that I’ve been here, touched as many markets as we have in the past year, because we’ve been able to look at folks that normally we wouldn’t have been able to because of like hybrid or in-office environments, but it’s a really unique way to find new talent.

Yeah. And we’re working with some companies where we’re working with recruiters overseas. So I mean, it’s just really opened up all avenues as far as talent acquisition, talent. And we’re seeing a lot of different levels of positions too. Like traditionally we would see a lot of contract recruiters, and a lot of

I don’t know, two to five-year corporate recruiters. Right now we’re working on, if you have recruiting experience in any capacity call Ryan or I! We can help you out. I love it. We definitely have a role for you. Yes! And in addition to recruiters, like what other trends and what other roles are you hiring for? So we’re actually seeing a lot of sourcing positions.

So it’s always been a skillset that falls under TA. A lot of the big companies, you know, years ago, the Facebooks, the Amazons of the world, they’ve built out these massive sourcing departments, which makes sense because they’re doing so much hiring. But now we’re seeing even startups and midsize companies really invest in their sourcing talent, which is awesome to see because you’ve got folks that maybe are entry level that don’t really know recruiting and want to get in,

and that can be a great opportunity for someone that’s doing a career transition. Or there’s people who really just, they love sourcing. They’re very organized. They maybe don’t want to be as candidate facing or work with hiring managers as closely. So there’s actually a really great career path within the sourcing space as well.

So really over the past six months, we’ve seen a lot of clients coming to us wanting dedicated sourcing talent. It’s interesting you bring that up because that’s something that we’ve been building out here at Hirewell too. And probably not a lot of people know about that quite yet, but it’s something that’s in the works for us.

Can you fill people in on maybe what we’re doing internally? Yeah. So as you know, most of, you know from viewing us that we had our big acquisition last year with Prytek, and part of that was acquiring a company that really builds out a sourcing tool for companies. So the technology piece of sourcing is huge

and I really think it’s kind of the way of the future within the recruiting space. So stay tuned because that’s going to be kind of under our umbrella as an organization moving forward. And it’s nice because it’s something that we can talk to our clients about, but then also help them find actual sourcing talent as well, or even do kind of a mix of both.

Yeah, agreed. And I also think it’s unique that like we’re going through the same type of transition that our clients are too. So we understand where that need is coming from, maybe even how to like find the right people or adjust the way that you’re looking at talent because we’re doing the same thing.

Yeah. I mean, we feel the same, you know, I guess pains as our clients. We’re building out our team here at Hirewell and you really have to go out and you have to hunt people down in this market. People are not applying to jobs. They’re not going and just like clicking on postings and so it’s a true talent to be a great sourcer. It so is. And we’ve been talking about that.

Like I think, you know, and you can talk probably a little bit more about the challenges people are seeing and why they need sourcers right now. There used to be the joke- I’ve talked to a few recruiters this week and they’re saying like, ‘The post and pray’ just doesn’t really work anymore.

Yeah, those days are over. And I think roles are just becoming so much more specialized. I mean, I know we’re talking a lot about recruiters right now, but even the recruiter roles that Ryan and I work on, they’re very specialized to specific tech or SaaS recruiters or a recruiter coming from a startup. So you can’t just place any recruiter.

Same with sales, I’m sure Em. Like they’re very specialized roles where you really have to go out and like hunt this talent out. Yeah. And inbound traffic just isn’t really what it used to be, it feels. No. And in this market, I mean, everyone’s hiring. So even if you are looking like you can apply to, you know, all these different jobs.

So if you really want to find someone and source them out, you’re going to have to have someone to reach out to them. Totally agree. When you’re talking to clients or maybe like if a client came to you with a need and they’re stuck between potentially bringing on like a true sourcer or a recruiter, like how do you navigate figuring out like which role would be right for you?

Yeah, I think it depends on what their foundation is from a talent acquisition team. If they don’t have a strong recruiting team already, they probably shouldn’t bring on a sourcer quite yet, because most recruiters are full lifecycle and have some sourcing talent. But if they’ve got a great team of recruiters and they’re wanting to add kind of that first layer and additional support and have the team that can really help get sources up to speed, that’s what I would recommend, you know, a sourcer. If it’s a company that’s looking to hire their first talent acquisition person, they’re going to want to go downward the recruiter route for that role. But if they’ve got a solid foundation and they’re wanting to build out larger functions within talent acquisition, sourcing, recruiting coordination, you know, those types of teams are being built out even in mid-size and smaller organizations now.

Yeah, great point. And I also think it’s something to consider like on the contract side as well, right? Like if we think you need to bring on a recruiter, maybe you don’t. Maybe you just need someone to come in and build out the pipelines and have really creative sourcing strategies and help facilitate that early process.

And then the recruiters that you already have as part of your organization can facilitate the candidate process after they’ve been identified. Completely. I mean, it’s a different skillset where people who maybe don’t want to be a full lifecycle recruiter, they can really thrive in sourcing if they enjoy that, they’re very organized,

they have that hunter mentality. So it’s exciting to see some of these companies build out new positions for folks. Totally. And there’s like a really creative aspect that comes with sourcing too. I know I’ve partnered with Robyn, who leads our internal sourcing here at Hirewell and we’ve talked a lot about like diversity in sourcing and how to get creative with that.

But it expands more than just that. Like there’s so many different avenues that maybe, you know, if you’re not specialized in sourcing, you don’t know about. So it’s a really unique skillset and it takes a long time to cultivate those skills too. It does. And it changes so often. I mean, even all the different functionality within LinkedIn and how you can approach it.

If you’re not in it all day, every day or on a regular basis, you kind of, you know, you lose your skills quickly. Totally. And we’ve had a lot of success on our team who are hiring junior folks that were starting them in a sourcing role so that they can really understand the HR market, they partner with the more senior folks on our team,

and then once they get that foundation in sourcing, they then move into a full life cycle. Yeah, Emily prime example. Me, I started as- I used to call it, I was a sourcerer- not a not a sourcerer. Not a sourcerer, it’s a sourcer. We cleared that up really quickly for me. But the title is kind of fun, a sourcerer. But yeah, no, it is. You’re right. It’s such a good, you know, for some, there’s both opportunities. It’s a great place to start and grow from.

But for some it’s like, that’s what people want to do full-time for, I don’t want to say forever, but yeah. There’s definitely so many options. Yeah, you’re a prime example from sourcer to Director in a few years. Look at you! So proud! I had really good teachers. Shout out Shannon and Ali!

We love that. Well, thanks for joining us Ro. As always, your insights are really valuable. We appreciate you sharing what’s going on in the market and we know we’ll see you again soon. Of course have a good one. Bye ladies. Bye Ro!

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