What is recruitment sourcing?

Are you looking for the ideal candidate, but they're not applying to your job posting? Don't worry, in today's recruitment market, this is perfectly normal, and your employer branding won't change that reality. In many sectors (IT, Construction, Sales, Healthcare, etc.), qualified candidates are scarce, making it necessary to shift from an inbound strategy (where the candidate applies) to an outbound strategy (where you're the first to show interest). The concept of candidate sourcing, therefore, refers to the process of searching for and contacting relevant candidates for a job opening.

The essentials

• Sourcing , in the job market, the number of offers is greater than the number of profiles with the right skills.
• As a preliminary step before presenting a candidate to the company, sourcing helps identify candidates who, for various reasons, might not have applied for a job offer (advertisement not very visible, profile already employed and not actively seeking employment, etc.).
• Sourcing represents approximately 50% of the working time of a headhunter, who can also be described as a recruiter specializing in direct approach .
• If you hope to quickly recruit top talent and handle the recruitment process internally, sourcing candidates is the right solution, but it will require a significant investment of time, energy, and money. time you Fortunately, excellent solutions exist today to help you successfully recruit in the short term while optimizing your time and expenses. We will detail these solutions later in this article.

A closer look at the principle of sourcing

3 simple steps

Sourcing refers to the process of finding candidates at the source , directly approaching them and generating their interest in a position and a company. Sourcing can be broken down into 3 steps:

1. The choice of sourcing channels
2. Pure research and selection of relevant profiles for the position to be contacted
3. Drafting and sending the initial message via the chosen channel

The advantages and disadvantages of sourcing

Sourcing offers numerous advantages. It allows recruiters to reach the most qualified for recruitment. Indirectly, it also helps recruiters advertise their company.

However, caution is advised, and certain parameters must be taken into account for this recruitment to be effective. Indeed, the number of profiles contacted will impact the number of qualifications you ultimately achieve.

The role of digital sourcing

Digital sourcing allows you to reach a majority of your target audience by multiplying digital channels (social networks, search engines, CV databases, etc.). However, depending on the profiles you're looking for, your target profiles will have varying levels of online presence. For example, you're much more likely to find most active marketing profiles on LinkedIn, and less likely to find nurses.

According to a study by Apec , between 2008 and 2018, the use of digital tools increased fourfold in recruitment processes.

Who is the sourcing aimed at?

Recruiters in agencies

All recruitment agencies use candidate sourcing for their clients. Their strength lies in being able to quickly provide a company with a pool of candidates.

IT services recruiters

Sourcing is also necessary in IT services companies ( ESN ). These companies send employees to clients for a defined period and are constantly looking for new employees to meet client demand.

Thanks to intensive sourcing, IT services companies can quickly offer profiles suited to the position that the client is offering.

Talent Acquisition Specialists

If you work for an end client, sourcing is very useful for finding qualified candidates for your company, even if they are already employed. If you don't have a strong reputation and employer brand among candidates, the number of applications you receive will likely be limited, and you will then have to start the candidate search yourself.

How to source candidates?

Choosing the right channels

After identifying the skills required for the position, the next step is to determine the channel where you have the best chance of reaching your target candidate. This key choice is largely determined by the candidate's profile.

Obviously, a tech candidate does not use the same networks and does not go to the same events as a sales candidate .

Therefore, recruiters must take the time to identify the best channel to contact candidates. Very often, recruiters directly approach candidates online via LinkedIn or email , sending them a personalized message, but other solutions exist.

Attending meetups or career fairs, for example, can also be an effective sourcing strategy.

Examples of sourcing channels:

• LinkedIn, the largest professional network
• Viadeo, the French professional network
• CV databases, to find candidates who are receptive (e.g., Apec)
• Events and trade shows
• Email (provided you have some tech/marketing knowledge to find email addresses)
• In LinkedIn or Slack groups

Identify the right candidates

This is the most complex and important part of candidate sourcing! Once the channel is found, you have to successfully identify the candidates who best match the job posting. To identify candidates, recruiters can examine various criteria:

1. Candidates' professional experiences
2. Their studies
3. Their skills
4. Their posts and interests

Don't hesitate to use your imagination to find talent that hasn't optimized its online presence and would be harder to spot.

Using tools for a more effective sourcing strategy

Today, there are many tools to help recruiters find the right candidates. Applicant Tracking Systems ( ATS) , for example, are very useful for storing data on all the profiles contacted.

Indeed, you can save your exchanges with candidates, their skills, and your comments on each profile.

This will allow you to build a high-quality candidate database and capitalize on your past sourcing hours by nurturing talent pools with individuals you believe you could work with one day. A time-saver for your current and future recruitment needs!

How much does sourcing cost?

A method that can prove expensive and time-consuming.

Sourcing is undeniably a practical method , but it remains very time-consuming. Finding the right candidates across different channels takes time. Also, be mindful of the cost of certain distribution channels, which can quickly become expensive and increase depending on the volume.

We have also put together a list of foolproof tips to help you spend less in your sourcing process .

Effectively use tools like LinkedIn

LinkedIn is also a valuable, almost indispensable tool for recruiters looking to source candidates, as it allows them to contact people in just a few clicks, without necessarily being in the candidate's network (with a LinkedIn Recruiter subscription) . A guaranteed time saver!

Two aspects of LinkedIn are interesting:

1. You can search for candidates not only based on their skills, but also on their interests! Don't hesitate to follow the activity of the candidates who interest you most to increase your chances of recruiting them or to easily identify similar profiles .

Once again, LinkedIn Recruiter will give you access to hidden and more advanced filters, making it easier to identify attentive candidates. LinkedIn Recruiter pricing isn't available on the LinkedIn website, but expect to pay between €700 and €900 per year depending on the plan you choose.

2. It's also a great way to enhance your company's brand image . Maintain your own LinkedIn profile, post company updates, and share valuable advice with your talented audience.

Investing in software for an effective sourcing strategy

If you want to save time and have the most effective sourcing strategy possible, you need to invest in software . Indeed, the recruitment market has rarely been as competitive as it is today. Top talent is being courted from all sides, and attracting candidates is more difficult than ever.

Automated prospecting tools

automated prospecting tools . For a cost of approximately €70 per month maximum, they allow you to automate contact via email or on social networks.

For example, we recommend Waalaxy or Lemlist, two very easy-to-use tools that will cost you between €20 and €83 depending on the plan.

Job boards

Job boards aren't really sourcing tools because it's up to the candidate to apply. While very popular, they are job posting sites that allow you to quickly reach an audience interested in the position. However, be warned: you risk paying a high price to post your ad and receiving a disappointing flow of applications in terms of both volume and relevance.

The ATS

Choosing a next-generation Applicant Tracking System (ATS) will allow you to store all contacted profiles in a single database – a valuable time-saver for your future searches. Therefore, whenever you need a profile, you can simply search your ATS database to find relevant profiles among those you've already been in contact with.

For example, Marvin Recruiter is an ATS solution designed to save time and efficiently identify the right candidates quickly. It not only allows you to build an effective database of qualified candidates, but it also supports you throughout your entire recruitment process.

1. It allows you to follow each step of the process (from initial contact to the offer)
2. It gives you access to your own CV database with custom skills filters
3. You can leave notes on your interactions with candidates and collaborate with your team on these candidate pools.

The sourcing method combined with these recruitment solutions makes it possible to reach a large audience of candidates, to approach them effectively and ultimately to complete your recruitment more quickly.

Clearly, sourcing is an unavoidable method, but an unwise recruiter using it for its advantages can quickly find themselves overwhelmed.

With the Marvin Recruiter ATS, this problem is no longer an issue, and numerous profiles can be compared to determine the most suitable candidate for the position to be filled.

This allows all recruitment officers to save considerable time, which they can then reinvest in other recruitment processes and follow-up. This time saving gives you the opportunity to focus on the most valuable tasks and better develop the business.

This ATS also concerns a wide range of players in the recruitment world, which allows all profiles of recruiters to benefit from it, and thus optimize their work.

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