Candidate Sourcing

Identifying top notch candidates to fit your recruitable search assignments will require more than looking in your database, the Internet or files to find someone who fits.

Recruiting is the lifeblood of your business. With the shortage of top talent available and corporations screaming for qualified individuals they can hire, the 21st century is truly a candidate’s market. So, gathering names of qualified candidates is something that should be done on a daily basis. Multi-tasking all of your calls to include referral requests is a must. Who do you know? and Who else? will be the most frequently used phrases in your recruiting vocabulary.

Most placeable candidates know and respect the value of a good Recruiter. In most cases, they are flattered that you have chosen them to present your job opportunity to. Be confident and professional and you will be pleasantly surprised on the positive response you receive. I always get a kick out of the professional who answers the phone, and when asked “Is now a good time to talk confidentially?" replies, “Hold on, let me close my door.” Who isn’t interested in improving their current situation and enhancing their lifestyle? Having a solid base of candidates who are ready to make a change will be your key to success.

There are many ways to identify candidates who are motivated to make a change. Without contacting them and presenting your opportunity in an exciting, enthusiastic manner, finding them will not matter.

Let’s talk about the different ways to source candidates. During the course of your typical day you will be talking to many people. Your purpose might be marketing, reference checks, follow-up calls and general business calls. Each one of these calls represents an opportunity to ask for referrals. “I have this excellent opportunity for a ______________.  Who do you know that is qualified? Who else?” If you make it a practice of doing this throughout every day, you will be amazed at how fast your candidate pool will grow.

The method you will use the most (at least for fillable search assignments) will be target recruiting. These calls will be to individuals within your specialty who fit the general requirements for your recruitable search assignments. These people will be working at companies that are in direct competition with your clients. Why would you call them? It stands to reason that they will normally have the skill sets and product background your clients are looking for. If you can affect your client’s bottom line with someone who can hit the ground running from day one, your chances of a placement escalate tremendously. Coming up with names within a source company will be your biggest challenge as a Recruiter. This is an area where good Recruiters do their best work. They become like Columbo. Their creativity and imagination are in direct proportion to the number of qualified candidates they identify.

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