5 candidate sourcing strategies for modern recruiters

Recruit Smarter. Faster.
5 Candidate
Sourcing Strategies
for Modern Recruiters

Introduction3
Provide a first rate career site experience4
Get the most out of job boards7
Use your employee referral program more effectively10
Build a talent community12
Leverage Social Media for Effective Social Recruiting15
Conclusion20
CONTENT

INTRODUCTION
As a recruiter you always wish for talented candidates to come across your job posting. But, in this candidate driven market where most of the
talented candidates already have a job there is a huge possibility that the right talent might be interested working in your organization but is just
unaware about the vacancy. This is why traditional candidate sourcing from job boards don’t always work.
Most recruiters have backup plans when it comes to sourcing candidates. But, even after keeping multiple contingency plans for sourcing
candidates, the results are not always encouraging because traditional candidate sourcing methods are getting obsolete. There is a need for a
creative and proactive approach to create a breakthrough sourcing idea. With more attention to passive sourcing coupled with a change in
recruitment strategy from requisition style sourcing to community building, you can select the best candidates for the vacant position.
So does your candidate sourcing strategy need an overhaul? To find out that answer you need to dig deeper and ask these questions:
Are you limiting your candidate sourcing and attraction strategy to posting job descriptions on job boards?
Are you using the same strategies again and again in the hope that it will lead you to better results?
Are you avoiding to learn about new sourcing strategies and methods?
Are you overly dependent on manual process for all your work?
If the answer to most of these questions is yes, then there is a need for you to overhaul your candidate sourcing and attraction strategy.
To help you in the process, we have listed down 5 candidates sourcing strategies that can take you forward in your journey to eventual recruiting
stardom.
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3 Recruit Smarter. Faster.

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Provide a first rate
career site experience
The importance of career sites in the journey of sourcing a candidate cannot be undermined. They have been the top resource when it comes to sourcing
candidates. They generate more hires than job boards, social media and referrals. This makes it extremely critical for you to have your career site at par with
the best in the industry.
But this will not happen overnight and you will have to work tirelessly but it is important to start working towards it immediately. Simply having a career site
is not enough in today’s time. It is important for organizations to invest in their career site by writing relevant content and job information along with
enriching the employee experience and company culture.

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Make your career site mobile friendly
Due to technology advancement, most of the candidates globally are using mobile devices to search for jobs. This
makes it extremely vital for you to have your career site mobile-friendly. Meeting the candidate’s expectations on
mobile will make you provide enriching candidate experience that will go a long way in attracting and converting
them into your future employee. Here are some other tips to make your career site mobile friendly.
1). Keep the content short and crisp as it becomes overwhelming for candidates to scroll long paragraphs of
content on a mobile device;
2). Never include graphics or videos that take too long to load as it can frustrate the candidates.
3). Simplify your application process by avoiding pop-up windows in your mobile application process.
Make your career site SEO friendly
According to a research conducted by CareerBuilder, 73% of candidates start their job search using Google. But,
still employers do not take requisite steps to ensure that their career site is SEO optimized. If the candidates are
able to search for your jobs with specific keywords on Google, it significantly increases the number of candidate
applications you receive.
Add an option to opt for job alerts on your career website
Passive candidates are always waiting for an opportunity to subscribe to job alerts. Think about how travel related
consumer sites post alerts when their plane fare drops during the off season. In the same way, you can use job
alerts to attract great talent. Research shows that for job alerts. According to a survey by Indeed,“44% of
candidates are subscribed to job alerts.”
Meeting the
candidate’s
expectations on
mobile will make
you provide
enriching
candidate
experience that
will go a long way
in attracting and
converting them
into your future
employee.

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Make your career site SEO friendly
According to a research conducted by CareerBuilder, 73% of candidates start their job search using
Google. But, still employers do not take requisite steps to ensure that their career site is SEO optimized.
If the candidates are able to search for your jobs with specific keywords on Google, it significantly
increases the number of candidate applications you receive.
Add an option to opt for job alerts on your career website
Passive candidates are always waiting for an opportunity to subscribe to job alerts. Think about how
travel related consumer sites post alerts when their plane fare drops during the off season. In the same
way, you can use job alerts to attract great talent. Research shows that for job alerts. According to a
survey by Indeed,“44% of candidates are subscribed to job alerts.”
Have a page on your career site that talks about diversity and equal rights
Most of the organizations today talk about diversity and equal rights, but most of them are not
working on it. If you have a page on your career site that provides relevant information pertaining to
diversity and equal rights it can create a positive impression amongst candidates, which can go a long
way in making them think about joining your organization.
$
SEO

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Get the most
out of job boards
Job boards are those sites where you publish jobs and look out for resumes. They have become a fundamental part of the hiring
process. By using them effectively you can source quality candidates at a relatively lower cost. To maximize your chances of sourcing
great candidates through job boards you need to follow the tips given below.

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Select the job boards that are right for your business
Every recruiter faces the problem of budget limitations. This makes it all the more important for you to spend your time on resources that make most
sense. Search for those job boards that can help you find the most qualified candidates as investing in such job boards will bring about a higher return
on investment.
It has generally been observed that large, mainstream job boards assist in attracting several qualified candidates. Use CareerBuilder, Glassdoor, Indeed or
Monster and then compare which one of these gives you the most qualified candidates.
Specialized job boards are specifically designed for a particular industry segment or business function. If you are looking to hire sales people, opt for job
boards like SalesHead.com to source quality sales people. Similarly, you can post on local job boards like Nexxt that help you reach candidates who reside
near your business. It is important to look for a niche job board that can work best for your business.
Write Job Descriptions That Motivate Candidates to Apply
It is very important for you to make the candidate believe that your organization is the best. Although the promise is an integral part of the recruitment
process while sourcing candidates, the most important factor is whether the candidate wants to join your organization or not. This can be accomplished
with the help of a well-written job description.
There are certain job descriptions that promote the job and not the organization. This is where recruiters go wrong. In a good job description the focus
should be on the challenges and outcomes for that position in that organization. Don’t just furnish the information pertaining to the job responsibilities
alone. Instead, try to answer questions like“Why should candidates join your organization?”and“What are the different challenges that they are going to
face after joining?”.
Here are some tips for creating perfect job descriptions.
Set the tone right straight away with a perfect job title
Catch the attention of the candidates through a brief, engaging summary of the job
Be specific while outlining the job responsibilities
Clearly state the desired experience
Provide an overview of the organization
Give useful insight about the package being offered

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Prepare a search criteria and stick to it
It is extremely critical to know what exactly you are looking for. It is the search criteria that will help you narrow down the results. One of the most
important criteria is location, unless you are looking to hire remote jobs. From your job description, opt for different criteria like skill sets required,
education and experience mandatory and so on.
Use your recruitment software
Without using a recruitment software, it will become very difficult for recruiters and hiring managers to keep a check on all your job postings and
candidate applications. You will have to use emails and spreadsheets which requires lots of manual administrative work which can easily become
cumbersome and confusing. The best way to avoid this situation is by using a good recruitment software like TalentNow’s RecruitX to automate
publishing jobs on job boards and sourcing candidates from there.
You will have to use emails and spreadsheets which requires lots of manual administrative
work which can easily become cumbersome and confusing.

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Use your employee referral
program more effectively
Current employees are the brand advocates of your organization. The problem is they are often not used effectively for hiring purposes. Encourage them to
provide referrals of their friends, family, relatives and professional contacts that can be a great resource for your organization.
Never think about procrastinating this idea just because you think that it will require a big referral scheme from your side. The key is to remember that top
talent knows other top talent so it is likely that your high performing employees can provide you information pertaining to a great talent that can be
suitable for the position you are hiring for.
No wonder then, that employee referrals are one of the most successful hiring channels for recruiters. According to a research by Deloitte, 51% of recruiters
rank referrals as one of their top sources of hiring. Starting an employee referral program is one of the easiest things to accomplish. But, if you want good
employee referrals it will be totally dependent on the way you promote your referral program and the way the program is received by your existing
employees. Given below are 7 ways you can make your referral program a huge hit by maximizing your candidate sourcing efforts.

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Ask the CEO to launch the employee referral program
This is a golden opportunity for you to make the CEO of your organization push the program by sending an
introductory email or message on your intranet thereby killing two birds with one stone. Number one, it will
create a positive synergy in the minds of the employees, ensuring them the authenticity of the rewards associated
with each successful referral. Number two, it will encourage the employees to refer their best resources to you to
be in the good books of the CEO which in turn will result in better quality employee referrals.
Raise the stakes with rewards
Never hesitate to come up with incentives for great referrals. If you are currently offering one paid leave or a $20
gift voucher not many employees will be keen to suggest referrals to you. Instead, try to make the rewards more
attractive. You can make it like a lottery win by offering them a top prize to join in the program like iPads, LED TVs,
a paid vacation, etc.
Introduce gamification to amplify the competition of referrals amongst employees
Put on a leadership board and introduce gamification in the employee referral program by publicly sharing the
stats related to the employee who has referred the most candidates, who has the most referred candidates in the
interview process and who is responsible for referring the highest number of hires. With the help of a little
competitiveness, you can stimulate employees to get more referrals to become the toppers.
Provide a basic employee referral training to your existing employees
Many a times, employees do have referrals, but do not know the process of referring them to the organization.
The best way to deal with this situation is by training them while onboarding or in a team sourcing meeting. This
can be a quick training that provides them a useful guidance about how to search through different social media
networks for a suitable referral and how to submit the referral through a system of your choice.
Never hesitate to
come up with
incentives for
great referrals. If
you are currently
offering one paid
leave or a $20 gift
voucher not many
employees will be
keen to suggest
referrals to you.

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Build a
talent community
According to a research conducted by the Society of Human Resource Management, an organization with more than 1,000 employees spends approximately
$ 4,285 per hire. These organizations hire around 550 employees on a yearly basis, which means roughly $ 2.4 million is spent on recruiting. One way for
organizations to save their time and money in the recruiting process is by building a talent community. Let us look at some basic steps of creating a great
talent community.
There are two options available to you for building a Talent Community - Invest in build a native community or create groups on social networking sites. You
can create groups on Linkedin and Facebook and start inviting users to join. If you are planning to use a third party website for creating your community,
ensure that there are enough members of your target audience there and you can target them easily.

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It is also critical for you to engage your group with relevant content about your
organization or industry. You can do this by:
Emailing your organizations news and milestones on top of the regular new job alerts that will keep your
group interested in your community and they will keep coming back for more;
Circulating interesting articles about trends affecting your industry;
Encouraging the group members to discuss their opinions by sharing their thoughts;
Posting a smart comment about an important industry trend can initiate out-of-the-box ideas and
top-quality thinking about the topic at hand;
Hosting contests to ensure maximum participation by the group members;
Sending them a weekly or monthly update email with new product releases, interesting things that your
employees did recently, job fairs or other job related events that your organization is hosting / attending;
Encouraging the members to share the interesting posts on their social media networks;
Ensuring that there is a regular communication with the group members so that they remain engaged
with your community for a long time.

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After building a talent community, you cannot just sit on it and let it turn into the recruitment version of a slush pile. Periodically review
the people in the community and see which one best fits for the latest positions in your organization. Once you see the right talent, send
the job to the person through email and ask them to apply for the position. The right person will thank you for your time and effort to
reach out to them. This will give you much better applications in return. Always make it a point to check on a regular basis if a person is
qualified enough for your latest opening.

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Leverage Social Media
for Effective Social Recruiting
Social recruiting is one of the best ways for sourcing active and passive candidates. It is the right time for you to build your employer
brand on social media networks like Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.
Let us take a look at some tips for effective social recruiting.

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Select the right platform
This is a golden opportunity for you to make the CEO of your organization push the program by sending an
introductory email or message on your intranet thereby killing two birds with one stone. Number one, it will
create a positive synergy in the minds of the employees, ensuring them the authenticity of the rewards associated
with each successful referral. Number two, it will encourage the employees to refer their best resources to you to
be in the good books of the CEO which in turn will result in better quality employee referrals.Recruiters need to be
vigilant while trying to find talented candidates on a particular social media network. Note that every social
media network has a particular audience. Hence, it becomes critical for recruiters to select the right social network
platform to source quality candidates.
Most of the time, recruiters start with LinkedIn or Twitter for candidate outreach. You need to profile your
candidate and find out where they mostly spend their time on social media. For example, a graphic designer
might spend most of their time on Pinterest or Behance whereas a salesperson will most likely be active on
LinkedIn.
Each platform that you select will have a slightly different approach for candidate sourcing. For example; on
Twitter you will have to use hashtags to join the right conversations and increase your reach beyond your existing
followers. While on Facebook, it might be appropriate to join job groups and visit career pages to source quality
talent. There are various opportunities for you to promote your message, you just require to shift your mindset
from one social network to another.
Note that every
social media
network has a
particular
audience. Hence,
it becomes
critical for
recruiters to select
the right social
network platform
to source quality
candidates.

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Use Linkedin Premium
Getting the most out of Linkedin as a recruiter requires and Linkedin
premium account. The LinkedIn premium services for recruiters, also known
as Recruiter Lite, gives you the option of advanced search, unlimited visibility
of your extended network, automatic candidate tracking and integrated
hiring with a recruiting-specific design and last but not the least 30 InMail
messages. Let us look at some of the reasons to opt for LinkedIn Lite.
The primary reason to opt for Recruiter Lite is it provides visibility of user
activity across different licenses. This helps you to ensure that the same
candidate is not contacted by multiple recruiters from your organization
which will obviously hurt your recruitment efforts.
Apart from the advantage of InMails, with the help of this LinkedIn premium
feature you can take advantage of Projects, Clipboards and Reports to
organize your time effectively. With the help of projects it is possible for you
to group users together under a specific heading like Project Managers in
Auckland. From there you can see the number of people contacted and
those who have responded. Reports allow you to track the usage of LinkedIn
account in terms of volume searches, InMails and daily logins.
It is also possible for you to share and discuss profiles with other recruiters
and hiring managers in your organization.

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Engage in useful conversations using LinkedIn and Facebook groups
Actively participate in groups before sending out a word about your recruitment needs. If you send a one-off post
of job opportunity it may sound promotional which might not yield quality response. This makes it extremely
critical for you to engage with social media communities and provide value to its members by posting regularly
about general stuff.
Use LinkedIn to become a content creator
LinkedIn is a perfect platform to showcase your organization that can be used to engage talented individuals. For
example; When several positions opened at Falcon.io, employees were given an opportunity to share the listings
on their personal social media pages. Falcon.io's Customer Experience Manager Dino Kuckovic published an
article titled "Why join Falcon? Reason 1 of 100" highlighting the culture and his excitement related to the job
openings with his growing team by giving examples of what it is like working in the organization.
With such articles, you can connect with talented candidates that is attracted towards the values of your
organization. These individuals will be motivated to work for your organization and will be able to understand
what your organization is trying to achieve and how they can be an active contributor?
This way you will not have to run after candidates and conduct interviews for those who have no knowledge
about your organization or do not have any motivation except for collecting paychecks every month for the
position they are hired.
If you send a
one-off post of
job opportunity
it may sound
promotional
which might
not yield
quality
response.

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Make it mandatory to respond to any job related message on social media
You would do a great job if your recruiting team does a similar job as a customer service team on social media. Let the candidates know that you are
listening to them by responding to their Facebook messages or tweets related to jobs. Even if you are handling a team of recruiters and are not directly
handling social media marketing let your marketing team know that they need to respond to every social media message pertaining to jobs. This way you
can enhance the candidate experience and will go a long way in sourcing quality candidates.

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Candidate sourcing is an art that needs to
be learned by recruiters. In fact modern
recruiters need to don the role of sourcers
before initiating the recruitment process.
Before we sign off, here are some
concluding points for you to remember.
CONCLUSION

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Reach out to the candidates in the right way
It is important to have a strategy to create engaging career sites, posting great job descriptions and listing on social media platforms. But, for the passive
candidates you will have to ensure that there is a direct contact with them either through a call or email. If you are trying to get in touch with them on
social media platforms contact them personally. Start the conversation by introducing your organization first. In order to generate curiosity in the minds of
the candidates never provide all the information upfront. Finally, use personal branding to develop relationships with the candidates.
Use offline mediums to connect with the potential candidates
Engagement with candidates is the key to winning them over. This can mean that you need to understand whether they are attracted towards monetary
or non-monetary benefits. In case they are attracted towards non-monetary benefits like free perks & meals, flexible timings, half-yearly appraisal etc. this
shows that they have a positive feeling for your organization.
Connect with potential candidates by meeting them in professional events and let them know about the brands you are willing to work for. This should
include the rejected candidates as you can get an opportunity to discuss with them about their future plans. This way you will be able to create and
maintain a positive employer brand in their minds.
Use social media platforms
Always try to join social groups, start social discussions, post comments, likes and share. What better way to engage with candidates than socializing with
them on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus etc!
We hope the candidate sourcing strategies we have discussed in this ebook will give you ideas on sourcing the right candidates faster and easier and help
you become a successful recruiter.

Recruit Smarter. Faster.
What is Talentnow?
Talentnow is a technology leader in recruitment software
domain and has helped several leading organizations
seamlessly manage quality manpower recruitment. RecruitX is
a SaaS based ATS product from Talentnow which is built
exclusively for recruitment agencies and staffing companies.
sales@talentnow.com 079 4900 6666www.talentnow.com

5 candidate sourcing strategies for modern recruiters

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