Candidate Sourcing: Your Ultimate 2024 Guide (+Tips & Strategies)
Passive candidates account for 75% of the workforce, according to LinkedIn. This means only 25% are actively job-hunting. To find, hire, and retain top talent, you need access to both groups via a targeted candidate sourcing strategy.
Candidate sourcing lies at the heart of your recruitment strategy. Indeed and Glassdoor’s Hiring & Workplace Trends Report indicate that tight labor supply will continue to impact hiring for years to come—hiring will become more difficult, and workers will have more power to demand changes. Also, people care more and more about where they work, with younger workers often pushing for social justice.
This is evident in Indeed & Glassdoor’s research. The majority of workers aged 18 to 34 said they’d consider turning down a job offer or leaving a company if their manager didn’t support DEIB initiatives (72%), the company’s leadership had a gender imbalance (67%), or the organization lacked ethnic diversity (65%).
In addition, job-seekers are prioritizing remote jobs above higher pay. All these statistics point to a rapidly shifting employment landscape, and future-focused HR professionals must adapt to stay ahead.
Contents
What is candidate sourcing?
Types of candidate sourcing
9 steps to successful candidate sourcing
Candidate sourcing strategies to consider
ROI metrics to measure for candidate sourcing
7 tips to ensure diversity in candidate sourcing
What is candidate sourcing?
Traditionally, employers or recruiters post job vacancies and wait for job hunters to apply. Candidate sourcing works the opposite way—it’s a longer-term process where employers or recruiters actively search for potential candidates to fill current and future positions.
If successful, candidate sourcing helps employers and recruiters develop a reliable, robust pipeline of qualified candidates they can contact when relevant job vacancies open up. These potential candidates may not necessarily be in the job market, but if their skills and experience match different role requirements, employers or recruiters may be able to interest them in exploring available positions.
Sourcing vs. recruiting: The differences
Focused on building relationships to generate a talent pipeline for current and future vacancies
Focused on recruiting the right candidates for current vacancies
Proactive
Reactive
Long-term goals
Short-term goals
A niche process that creates a strong pipeline of potential candidates
A broad process that covers the whole recruitment journey
The audience may not be active job-seekers
The audience typically consists of active job-seekers
Involves seeking and locating candidates who may not otherwise apply for available jobs
Involves getting active job-seekers to apply for available jobs
Begins in the early stages of the hiring process
Happens midway through the hiring process
Types of candidate sourcing
1. Passive candidate sourcing
Passive candidate sourcing entails getting to know individuals who are satisfied with their current jobs and not actively looking for a new role. However, if you can spark their interest, they may be open to discussing what your organization has to offer.
According to Randstad’s Workmonitor 2024 survey, 60% of respondents prioritize personal life over work life. Work-life balance now ranks as high as salary on workers’ lists of priorities (93%), surpassing all other factors. When considering their next career move, work-life balance is even more important (57%) than a higher salary (55%).
Passive candidates aren’t found via sources like job postings or active job search platforms. Instead, passive candidate sourcing is about building and nurturing relationships with those with the skills, qualifications, and experience your company needs. If you succeed at this step, the candidate is likely to be interested when a relevant opportunity arises.
HR tip
Develop a talent pool of passive candidates by identifying the type of experience and culture fit you want to achieve in your new hires. Continue to nurture your passive candidates by sending them personalized messages about the company, its initiatives, or future open roles that may match their interests and skills. This shows you’ve taken the time to understand their experience, skills, motivations, and aspirations and could encourage them to engage with you.
2. AI candidate sourcing
IBM’s Global AI Adoption Index reveals that about 42% of enterprise-scale companies have actively deployed AI in their businesses. Generative AI is gradually influencing almost every element of work, including HR. For example, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and Indeed use AI to assist job seekers in finding opportunities aligned with their experience and help companies identify suitable candidates.
AI is changing the recruiting process with several core improvements to the overall process. According to LinkedIn’s The Future of Recruiting 2024, GenAI tools’ top benefits for recruiters are:
- Faster/easier job posting creation (57%)
- Automated tasks that free up time for more fulfilling work (45%)
- Removal of daily mundane tasks (42%)
- Improvement in overall productivity (41%)
- Faster/easier engagement with candidates (35%).
Although AI brings many advantages to recruiting, don’t forget the importance of the human element in your candidate interaction. Candidates may form negative value judgments if they feel they are being evaluated solely through AI.
3. Active candidate sourcing
Like passive candidate sourcing, active candidate sourcing involves seeking out and speaking to potential candidates — the main difference is that these candidates are actively looking for work. This means you can easily approach them via platforms like LinkedIn job boards, career websites, or job applications.
These candidates are probably also applying for multiple positions based on where they are advertised or what they know about the company. This is where advertising and employer branding become critical.
Ensure that you post your job ads where your ideal candidates can find them, such as on LinkedIn or industry-specific job boards. Develop strong employer branding so potential candidates see your business as a great workplace and actively seek out your company when looking for a job.
4. Automated candidate sourcing
Automated candidate sourcing (also called automated talent systems, automated recruitment software, or automated online sourcing) can help you find suitable candidates and select whom to hire.
Automation can help you source potential employees in various ways. A common technique involves creating an applicant funnel (similar to a sales funnel), from which automation can weed out and remove unsuitable candidates. You can also use automation to reach passive candidates through targeted emails or advertising pop-ups.
Chatbots can also streamline the sourcing process. Simply program your chatbot with the answers to common job—and company-related questions. This way, it can lay the foundation for you by initiating contact and building relationships with potential candidates.
9 steps to successful candidate sourcing
- Identify hiring needs: Determine the skills, experience, and qualifications your company or client requires for their job vacancies.
- Develop a sourcing strategy: Create a plan to source and attract candidates. This may include choosing the right platforms, targeting specific demographics, and determining the outreach methods.
- Create job postings: Write and share job descriptions on various job boards, company websites, and social media platforms.
- Search for candidates: Actively search for potential candidates through LinkedIn, other professional networks, job fairs, job boards, and other sourcing channels.
- Screen applicants: Review applications and résumés to help you shortlist the most suitable candidates.
- Engage with candidates: Contact potential candidates via email, phone, or social media to arrange initial interviews.
- Interview and assess candidates: Conduct interviews and assessments to evaluate candidates’ skills, experience, interest in the available jobs, and cultural fit.
- Extend offers to the best candidates: Decide on the best candidate for each job, extend an offer, and complete the hiring process.
- Onboard new hires: Provide training and resources to help new employees integrate into the company and understand their roles. This can include orientation sessions, employee handbooks, and on-the-job training.
Candidate sourcing strategies to consider
Boolean search
A Boolean search entails using specific operators to refine your search queries for candidates. This technique helps you filter out irrelevant profiles and focus on finding the best matches for your organization’s job openings.
Learn and utilize Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to create precise search strings on platforms like LinkedIn, job boards, and search engines. Combine keywords, job titles, and skill sets to narrow down your search results, then save your successful search strings and refine them over time to improve your sourcing efficiency.
If you’re looking for a software engineer with Python and machine learning experience, you might use a search string like:
arduino
Copy code
(“Software Engineer” OR “Developer”) AND “Python” AND (“Machine Learning” OR “ML”)
Employee referral programs
Encouraging existing employees to refer potential candidates can be a great way to find quality hires. You can encourage participation by implementing a structured referral program with clear guidelines and attractive incentives and highlighting previous referrals that resulted in successful hires.
Salesforce has a robust referral program that incentivizes employees using bonuses and recognition. The company regularly communicates the importance of referrals and celebrates successful referral hires.
Social media engagement
Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram are powerful tools for engaging with potential candidates. By creating and sharing appealing content, you can attract interest from passive candidates.
Develop a content strategy that includes job postings, company culture highlights, employee testimonials, and industry insights. Interact with followers by responding to comments, hosting Q&A sessions, and participating in relevant industry discussions. You can also use platform-specific features like Instagram stories or Facebook polls to engage with your audience.
HubSpot uses social media to showcase its company culture and interact with potential candidates. It shares behind-the-scenes content, employee stories, and industry news to attract talent.
Talent pools
Creating and maintaining a talent pool allows you to have a readily available group of potential candidates who have shown interest in your company and may be a good cultural fit. You can use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to store and organize candidate information.
Regularly update your talent pool with new candidates you meet via job fairs, networking events, and unsolicited applications. Keep in touch with candidates in your talent pool by sending periodic updates about your company, its open positions, and relevant industry news.
IBM maintains a talent pool and nurtures relationships with potential candidates by sending them newsletters and updates about the company’s projects and achievements. This keeps candidates engaged and interested in future opportunities. It even has a business, Kenexa BrassRing, that offers a channel communication platform allowing customers to proactively deliver deliberate messaging to prospective employees.
Custom recruitment events
Hosting recruitment events tailored to your industry and the types of roles you are hiring for can be a great way to meet potential candidates in person. You can plan events like hackathons, coding competitions, career fairs, or open houses at your office.
You can also partner with educational institutions and industry organizations to co-host events and reach a wider audience. Provide opportunities for attendees to learn about your company, meet current employees, and showcase their skills.
Facebook hosts annual events such as Meta University, an internship program aimed at students. It also hosts tech talks and workshops to engage with potential candidates and build its employer brand within the tech community.
ROI metrics to measure for candidate sourcing
In candidate sourcing, ROI (return on investment) measures the financial return on the resources invested in the recruiting process. There are seven key metrics you can use to measure how successful your candidate sourcing strategies are:
Time to fill: The average time it takes to fill a job vacancy
Total number of days taken to fill all positions / Number of positions filled
Quality of hire: The value a new hire brings to the company, often measured by performance and retention
Average performance rating of new hires / Average performance rating of all employees
Source of hire: The distribution of hires from different sourcing channels
(Number of hires from a specific source / Total number of hires) x 100.
Cost per hire: The average cost involved in hiring a new employee
Total recruiting costs / Total number of hires
Applicant-to-hire ratio: The number of applications received versus the number of new hires per vacancy (e.g., if a position attracts 85 applicants before the company hires one person, the applicant-to-hire ratio is 85:1)
Total number of applicants / total number of hires per position
Retention rate: The percentage of new hires who stay with the company for a given period
(Number of new hires who stay for a specific period / total number of new hires) x 100
Candidate experience: A measure of how positively or negatively candidates perceive the hiring process to be
Average candidate satisfaction score usually gathered from surveys or feedback forms
Once you have the relevant figures, you can calculate your overall ROI in the following three steps:
1. Add up the total recruiting cost
Include all expenses related to recruiting, such as advertising, recruiter salaries, technology/tools, and travel expenses
Total recruiting costs = Advertising costs + recruiter salaries + technology costs + travel expenses + other recruiting expenses
2. Determine gains from new hires
Determine the company’s financial gains from hiring effective employees — look at increased revenue, productivity, and the value new hires have added
Gains from new hires = (Total revenue after new hires – Total revenue before new hires) / Number of new hires
3. Calculate your ROI
| ROI = | [(Gains from new hires – Total recruiting costs) / Total recruiting costs] x 100 |
For example, if the total recruiting cost is $50,000 and the gains from new hires amount to $200,000, your equation would look like this:
ROI = [(200,000 – 50,000) / 50,000] x 100 = 300%
This indicates a 300% ROI in candidate sourcing, meaning the gains are three times the costs incurred.
7 tips to ensure diversity in candidate sourcing
With diversity becoming increasingly important for job seekers — particularly younger candidates — focusing on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) in your candidate sourcing strategies will boost your organization’s reputation and business results.
According to McKinsey’s Diversity Matters Even More report, companies with significant ethnic diversity are 39% more likely to outperform businesses with limited ethnic representation.
Similarly, organizations where women make up at least 30% of the workforce are significantly more likely to financially outperform those where this figure is below 30%. Furthermore, diversity usually leads to greater opportunities for innovation, as well as broader experiences and a greater variety of strengths. Here are seven ways to ensure diversity in candidate sourcing:
- Make use of diverse job boards and platforms: Some job boards and platforms that cater to underrepresented groups include diversity.com and workplacediversity.com. You can also partner with organizations and networks that emphasize diversity in the workplace.
- Use inclusive language in job descriptions: This will help your organization attract a wider range of candidates and give you a more varied talent pool to choose from.
- Avoid jargon or overly technical terms: These may discourage more candidates from applying, leaving you with a limited, less diverse talent pool.
- Implement blind recruitment practices: Omits personal information (e.g., names, gender, photos) from résumés to minimize unconscious bias. You can also use software tools to anonymize candidate data during the initial screening process.
- Encourage diverse referrals: You can do so by incentivizing employees to refer candidates from different backgrounds. Educate them on the importance of diversity and provide them with tools to help them identify and refer diverse talent.
- Establish diverse interview panels: Interview panels should be diverse in terms of gender, race, and background so they can provide different perspectives and reduce bias. Interviewers should also undergo training on DEIB best practices and the importance of a fair assessment process.
- Track diversity metrics: At each stage of the recruitment process, track metrics like workforce composition, retention rate by demographic, and sourcing channels, as well as diversity among applicants, shortlisted candidates, and new hires. This will allow you to identify potential bottlenecks or biases more easily.
Key takeaways
- Be adaptable and innovative: Adaptation and innovation are vital in candidate sourcing strategies in a competitive labor market. Embracing AI tools, automated systems, and proactive candidate sourcing can streamline your recruitment process, making it more efficient and effective. These technologies help you identify and attract top talent quickly, giving your company an edge. You can also take advantage of AIHR’s Sourcing & Recruitment Certificate Program to improve your candidate sourcing skills and master end-to-end recruitment.
- Emphasize human connection: As AI and automation become more common in candidate sourcing, maintaining the human element is vital to optimizing the candidate experience. Building and nurturing relationships with potential candidates helps create a strong talent pool. Personalized outreach, clear communication, and ethical policies make candidates feel valued and respected throughout the hiring process, ultimately leading to better hiring outcomes.
- Commit to DEIB: A diverse and inclusive workforce drives innovation and business success. Implementing inclusive sourcing practices means your talent pool will include a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives. By prioritizing DEIB in your candidate sourcing strategies, you will attract top talent and build a stronger, more dynamic organization.
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