Strategies for Sourcing Candidates to Build a Talent Pipeline

To increase your chances of sourcing candidates who are best suited for your future growth, it is essential to develop a robust talent pipeline. A good talent sourcing strategy will enable you to find the right candidates facilitating lower employee turnover and higher productivity. An effective strategy is imperative for targeting the right candidates. A comprehensive talent sourcing strategy ideally includes building a career page on the company website, branding initiatives to position the company as a great place supported through various online channels, and developing a strong offline recruitment network for sourcing candidates through employee referrals and participating in industry events or meeting candidates in person.

TALENT SOURCING STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING A TALENT PIPELINE

Align sourcing strategy with hiring manager expectations

Before you start with candidate sourcing in recruitment, understand the hiring manager’s expectations completely and his views of an ideal candidate. Aligning with your hiring manager early to ensure that you are on the same page is important for the success of your talent sourcing strategy. There are a few tips to improve your communication with the hiring manager and stay on the same page:

• Engage with the hiring manager soon after receiving the job requisition to understand more about the must-have qualifications and the nice-to-have qualifications.
• Evaluate a few candidates together with the hiring manager to understand who can be a good fit for the role.
• Align your sourcing channels to look for the ideal candidate with input from the hiring manager and discuss with them regarding the right list of role-specific keywords before starting the sourcing and screening process.
• Analyze the talent pool with respect to the role requirements and ascertain whether requirements need to be further relaxed or tightened up in order to find the best-fit candidates.
• Stay in constant touch with the hiring manager through all stages of the recruitment process to fine-tune your search and to keep a check on the quality of hired candidates.

Diversify Talent Sourcing Channels

Using a diverse mix of online channels for sourcing candidates can be very helpful for recruiters. Most recruiters use their preferred channels first upon receiving a requirement which includes some of the popular online mediums, including LinkedIn or their own professional networks. However, recruiters must not refrain from using other effective mediums to approach candidates where candidates could be more receptive to their outreach. For instance, recruiters can add less conventional websites to their list if they provide a good outreach option and personalization touch to their messages. This can be a great way to build their talent pipeline and add other sourcing channels to the mix. You can refine your sourcing channels by asking the following questions:

• Are there multiple job titles for people working in this role?
• Where can you find people from this professional community? Which platforms are used by these job roles?
• Which companies use similar products, services, or technology?
• Where should you start the search for people required for this role? Take into consideration the perspective of someone who has deep domain knowledge for the roles you are sourcing.

Be Proactive in Sourcing Candidates

An effective way to build a strong talent pipeline is to be proactive while sourcing candidates and sourcing for roles that are not open yet. The most advanced recruiters start the search for future job roles they’ll need to hire and take a proactive approach to their talent-sourcing efforts. To plan for the future workforce, take a look at the business’s growth plans and corresponding workforce requirements. This will help recruiters to gain insight into the future role requirements, and they can start building a talent pipeline in their ATS for the future.

Follow up with prospective candidates

There will be a few candidates who may respond to the first cold outreach but may not go through the hiring process. Staying in touch with such candidates who did not want to make a move when they were first approached or who were not selected for a particular role is critical to building a talent pipeline. Such candidates could be approached for other roles at a later stage, and following up with them in six months or a year could help bring them back to the active pipeline.

Employer branding to attract candidates

Building a strong employer brand is crucial to attracting talent to the company. An outreach message from an employer with a good reputation has a higher chance of getting a response and is looked at favorably. Negative employer branding or outreach for an unknown employer could waste a talent sourcer’s efforts as well. Employers can work to build or repair their brand in several ways, such as managing the reviews. Reviews play a major role in building an employer brand. Most candidates check the company’s reviews before responding to their outreach or accepting an offer. It is helpful to respond to reviews and regularly check the review sites to help employees feel engaged and heard.

Conclusion

A competitive talent sourcing strategy is needed for sourcing candidates in a candidate-driven job market where the demand exceeds the supply for the workforce. Workforce shortages driven by factors such as the Great Resignation in the US and skills shortages in the UK are making it difficult for recruiters to source quality candidates and fill all open vacancies. Candidate sourcing strategies can not only help you find the right candidates but also build a strong pipeline for future requirements.