6 candidate sourcing strategies to find your next talent

What are the best candidate sourcing strategies?

The best candidate sourcing strategies build a clear candidate persona, use social media, join job fairs, run referral programs, adopt applicant tracking tools, and lean on a talent specialist.

• Candidate sourcing means you actively seek talent instead of just waiting for applicants.
• It reaches both active job seekers and passive people open to a move.
• Used well, it fills roles faster and raises the quality of every hire.

Finding the right talent can be hard. You often compete with startups and big brands for a small pool of skilled people. On top of that, the growing talent gap makes the job tougher. These are common modern recruitment challenges that most teams now face.

With the right candidate sourcing strategies, however, you can still find the best people for your open roles. ConnectOS tackles the candidate sourcing strategies you can use to find your next talent.

Candidate sourcing defined

Candidate sourcing, also called talent sourcing, is the active search for qualified people for a role. It looks for both active and passive candidates who match your needed skills, interests, and education. Then it draws them into the role you want to fill.

Sourcing uses many methods to move applicants through the talent pipeline. For example, you might post on job boards or use social media to headhunt. It is one of the most effective ways to hire. Per SaaS company Lever, only 36% of workers actively seek new opportunities, while around 90% are open to hearing about them.

Through candidate sourcing, you can get more from your hiring in these ways:

• Quality hires. You seek people who fit what your company needs. As a result, you filter better and hire stronger talent.
• Diversity. Sourcing helps you build a broad, diverse pool of people to choose from.

How candidate sourcing is measured

You can measure your sourcing efforts with these metrics:

• Time to hire by source. This shows how long it takes to hire someone from a given source.
• Cost per hire. It gives you insight into your return on investment (ROI) from sourcing. The tools and sites you use can change this number.
• Effort per conversion. This counts the interviews you run before a hire.
• Reasons for declining. This tracks why a top candidate turns down an offer.

6 Candidate sourcing strategies to find your next talent

The following candidate sourcing strategies can help you find your next quality hire. They also pair well with the wider types of recruitment methods most teams use.

1. Build a candidate persona

First, create a persona with your ideal candidate in mind. List the skills, traits, and work style you want to see. Then use that persona as a guide while you source. As a result, it gets easier to spot the right people and add them to your pipeline.

2. Maximize social media

Next, post roles beyond the usual job boards. As social recruitment grows, more firms find quality hires on social media. So put your listings where people already spend time.

You can use sites like LinkedIn and Facebook to source talent. In addition, you can reach out to existing connections and message them directly to spark interest.

3. Participate in in-person fairs

The internet is not your only sourcing tool. In-person events like job fairs still let employers and candidates meet face to face. So attend a few each year and see what they bring you.

4. Create an employee referral program

Your team’s contacts can be a great talent source, especially peers in the same field. Build a referral program that rewards staff for good recommendations. As a result, you can cut time to hire by nearly half and often lower turnover.

5. Invest in applicant tracking tools (ATS)

Sourcing gets messy when you rely on basic tools. So now is a good time to invest in an applicant tracking system and other automation. These tools streamline your tasks and handle the repetitive ones. In turn, you can focus on qualifying candidates. If budget is tight, start with a free applicant tracking system and add AI recruitment tools as you grow.

6. Get a talent acquisition specialist

Finally, a talent acquisition specialist can lift any sourcing plan. They help you pick the best remote and local talent for your team. It also helps to follow proven best practices in talent acquisition and think about global talent acquisition when you scale.

Talent sourcing and recruitment teams from ConnectOS are experts at sourcing and screening talent for many roles. For example, this includes staff in marketing, engineering, and design.

Candidate sourcing tools

The right candidate sourcing tool gives you a head start on finding talent that fits your needs. Here are some tools you can try today.

Recruit’em

Recruit’em is a free and reliable tool. It lets you search for candidates across social media, including LinkedIn and Twitter.

AngelList

Startups around the world use AngelList. It is not built for passive candidates. Still, it helps you find people keen to work with startups.

Hired

Hired brings employers and candidates together in one place. Compared with other platforms, it promises a 95% response rate from the people you contact there.

Smart Recruiters

Finally, Smart Recruiters makes hiring and sourcing easier. It brings applicant tracking, recruiting, and CRM tools into one system.

Frequently asked questions

What is candidate sourcing?

Candidate sourcing is the active search for qualified people for a role. It reaches both active job seekers and passive candidates. In short, you go find talent instead of waiting for it to come to you.

How is candidate sourcing different from recruiting?

Sourcing is the first step that fills your pipeline with potential hires. Recruiting then screens, interviews, and hires from that pool. So sourcing feeds recruiting with people to assess.

Which channels work best for sourcing?

Social media, referrals, and job fairs all work well. In addition, an applicant tracking system helps you manage the flow. The best mix depends on your role and budget.

How do you measure sourcing success?

Track time to hire, cost per hire, and effort per conversion. Also note why top candidates decline offers. Together, these numbers show what to fix next.

Do you need a talent specialist to source well?

No, but one can help a lot. A specialist knows where to look and how to screen fast. As a result, you save time and often land stronger hires.

Key takeaways

• Candidate sourcing is an active search that reaches both active and passive talent.
• A clear persona, social media, and referrals fill your pipeline faster.
• Applicant tracking and AI tools cut manual work so you focus on people.
• Simple metrics like time and cost per hire show where to improve.
• A talent specialist or partner like ConnectOS can speed up strong hiring.