May the Source Be with You!
This week I want to talk about one of my favourite subjects – all things SOURCING! And, being more specific how we as TA & Recruiters can be more proactive when it comes to both attracting & engaging candidates. We all know that the current market is ALL about the candidates. EVERYONE wants them, but how in the sweet source can you find them? It’s a fact that ‘post & pray’ can be largely ineffective and even more so when you get to the niche & unicorn-type roles. The truth of the matter is, if we’re on the back foot and always relying on reactive hiring, then inevitably we’re likely to be losing out on the best talent.
I believe that this is why the need for TA teams to have dedicated & defined resources in this space cannot be understated. Dedicated sourcing individuals or entire functions can proactively & continuously work on pipelining, talent pooling, market mapping & candidate engagement – this means bench-strength in your funnel ready to activate when a vacancy arises, and THIS means increased speed to hire, reduced empty chair time, potentially a lower cost to hire and even a higher quality of hire. Any of these can only result in happier stakeholders!
For anyone considering introducing a sourcing element to your team, the news flash is that sourcing is a long-term play, it’s a constant effort, there is no ‘on-switch’ & it doesn’t happen overnight.
It also requires a very specific set of skills, not all recruiters are natural sourcers & vice versa so specialism & specialists can offer a distinct hiring advantage. It’s about working smarter and not harder, leveraging the many tools, the tech, the insights, the expert tactics that are available.
Setting up a sourcing function is a journey in fact that we’ve been on in the past 12 months. In fact the headline of this musing is from a recent presentation that I gave at one of Andrea Kirby’s Talent Table Events where I shared some of what we’ve been doing (and yes, I went a little Star Wars nerd with my theme but that’s a story for another time & galaxy, far away…)
Even though we may not have it all figured out just yet, we’ve learned a whole lot along the way and here are some of those insights & of course, the watchouts:
- Get Set up for Success: Define your sourcing model & team construct & have clear division of accountabilities between sourcing & recruiting. Ensure that the handoffs and engagement points are communicated & well understood so that everyone knows where they fit plus their role & responsibilities.
- Build Capability: Sourcing is so much more than just jumping on LinkedIn. We created a training plan and developed a curated sourcing playbook which constantly evolves as the cool tools & tech out there does – sign up for all the free trials, experiment with AI, follow all the local sourcing experts*, learn from anyone you can!
- Define your Success Measures & Track Impact: This one may look different from company to company but for us so far it’s about where the Sourcer can impact in the hiring process – naturally we track converted hires but for me the sourcing ‘sweet spot’ is the intersect with the business need & acceptance of the candidate into the hiring process – think quality, shortlisted, interview stages and so on. The watchout on this one is that potentially focusing on the wrong KPIs here on either side of the funnel can generate the wrong sourcing behaviours. This continues to be a work in progress for us so all great ideas or insights here are most welcome – hit me up to trade musings on the subject!
- And Lastly DON’T: Kick your roles to the Sourcer/Sourcing team as a last resort – The titles may be close, but they are actually not in fact SOURCERERs & definitely not capable of working actual magic to conjure up that purple squirrel. Sourcing teams should be engaged ideally (way) before or at the start of a hiring process to realise the best value.
To wrap, calling out some of the smartest sourcing folks for you to connect in with & follow, these folks are all doing some cool stuff locally & globally: Denise Pereira; Jess Gibson-Jones, Martin Freeman, Irina Shamaeva, Balazs Paroczay, Jonathan Kidder
AND lastly, check out some of the other things around the interwebs that that caught my attention this week below, I’ll be a bag of nerves until approx. 8.30pm on Saturday evening when hopefully my Brisbane Lions will have secured their first Grand Final spot since I’ve been a Fan (hint: it’s been over a decade…) – and good vibes only Blues fans!
Building an Effective TA Sourcing Team
Katrina & her magnificent team at Join Talent have released some awesome commentary & resources in the past year and this is one of their recent articles, useful for anyone thinking about starting to create this capability in house. Their TA Insights series is also pretty handy to add to your read list, covering topics from KPIs to EVP, DEI, AI & everything in between.
How to Understand Usage of LinkedIn Recruiter in Your Team
On the topic of sourcing measures, here’s another handy one here featured in Hung Lee’s latest Recruiting Brainfood newsletter. Given that LinkedIn Recruiter licenses are likely to be the most expensive line item in your recruitment tech budget, it’s probably a good to understand how your team is utilising it. This insightful post is just what you need if you wanted to put together utilisation measures which might be more useful than those provided natively by LinkedIn.
Google sheds 100s of Recruiters in another round of layoffs
It’s another huge blow for the tech industry and the kind of article that strikes fear into all recruiters everywhere as it just feels a little too close these days. Spokespeople maintain that this is a direct result of slowing down overall hiring, yet another case I feel to seek to expand & diversify our recruitment capabilities beyond just recruiting when times are booming.
200 ChatGPT Prompts for Recruiters
Not sure where or how to get started with ChatGPT yet? Need a bit of inspiration? – Courtesy of the smart folks at FullStackHR here’s a list of 200 prompts & a video showing how to use some of the most useful HR/Recruitment related starters.
PODCAST Alert – Crafty Sourcer
One of the hottest new podcasts to drop lately and on my fave topic – Crafty Sourcer Denise Pereira takes you on a whimsical journey through the wizardy world of sourcing in the magical land of down under and APAC. Denise & her expert guests bring you a dose of clever hacks, tried and tested ways of thinking of Sourcing in a whole new light.
Brisbane Recruitment Meet Up Thursday 28th September
This week it’s Melbourne’s turn (see last week’s TWIT to register if you read this before the 21st) & next week Brisbane Recruitment Meet Up host our Meet up Event #3.
Katie & I are super Excited about this one – It’s no secret that Recruiting & Hiring these days feels a bit ‘Everything, Everywhere, ALL at once’…. We are all being asked to do more with less in TA & the burnout factor is real. RSVP via the link about to join us as we’ll be discussing some real-life strategies to deploy to help you & your teams work smarter, not harder in these hectic times! And it just so happens that this Brisbane Rec Meet Up is being sponsored by ATC, so the one and only Jo Vohland will be in the house.
ATC’s Event of The Year Agenda Drop
Folks, the ATC2023 Agenda is now live and what a line-up! Featuring case studies and insights from talent leaders at leading organisations like Google, Adobe, Optus, MYOB, Dentsu, Reece Group, and QBE (just to mention a few), insights and market predictions from leading experts, and even an interactive game show, this year’s ATC has something for everyone. Oh & did I mention it’s all taking place at Sydney’s legendary Luna Park? Check it out, and then head over to the ATC website to grab your tickets – hearing that there are just over 100 left, don’t miss out!
