The Dark Secret of Sourcing
I recently read an article on one of my favorite recruiting websites, Electronic Recruiting Exchange, www.ere.net. The article was titled “Seven Days Without Sourcing Makes One Weak”. I couldn’t have come across a more perfect title and know how true it is. I have been in the staffing industry for about 15 years with my former role in managing and training recruiters. In training classes I was facilitating, I found myself describing the common scenario where Monday is a new day and we quickly jump to a job board and print out a bunch of resumés for a very hot order and then something comes up…yada, yada, yada…the next thing we know, it is Thursday around 3pm and we suddenly come across those printouts of resumés from Monday. I am always amazed as I look around the room after this story and meet their eyes as if they are saying “Yes! You too?” This is a secret that recruiters share and don’t often speak of. Every recruiter has good intentions but unfortunately this is an industry of constant interruption and balancing too many plates in the air. Even top performers have those lingering resumés that slip through the cracks or go days without a single new sourced resumé.
The consequences of not staying on top of your sourcing can be costly. Ultimately candidates have many people calling them so speed is everything. This leads to lost candidates, lost positions and ultimately you are behind the curve ball on the job orders you are working on. As a former Bullhorn customer, I have had the experience of trying to mesh proven techniques of managing your sourcing plan with Bullhorn; in fact, one of the reasons I love Bullhorn is that it is a natural fit to some of these common sourcing strategies. My clients know I am a true believer in tasks and tearsheets. Trust me, I am not a hypocrite, as a manager of staffing I lived it and preached it… now in an Account Manager role, I still live by my tasks and tearsheets! I wanted to offer some advice in creating a Sourcing Plan and integrating it with Bullhorn. Sourcing plans should help you plan to be pro-active on your typical staffing needs. No one truly forgets to be reactive, as is the nature of the industry. A good sourcing plan is a typical plan of attack no matter the job description. I have suggested to recruiters to follow this plan in order:
- Search Tearsheets – Tearsheets are a great place to store your pre-screen and evaluated candidates. This allows you to make some quick submissions to your orders.
- Bullhorn Queries – You should always have queries of typical job openings that have been saved and can regularly be run as new resumés are added to the database. If they fit your query they will be right at the top of your list.
- Leverage External Sources – For example, utilize Dragnet to source candidates from CareerBuilder, Monster, and other sources.
- Use Your “People I Placed” Distribution List – I always recommended recruiters create a distribution list of people they put to work. This way you can use this list to email for employee referrals… remember “birds of a feather flock together.”
Lastly, utilize tasks and your calendar to plan for sourcing time and set yourself tasks on individual jobs to remind you to source. Use the resources you have to not let things fall through the cracks. I hope some of these ideas help.
Referenced Article: “Seven Days Without Sourcing Makes one Weak” by Shally Steckerl http://www.ere.net/2008/07/23/seven-days-without-sourcing-makes-one-weak/
