What is Sourcing in HR?
Diverse and accessible sourcing are key for recruitment success. Use this guide to revamp your sourcing tactics.
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Every effective recruitment effort requires efficient sourcing. After all, recruiters cannot screen, interview and hire applicants if there are none to begin with. But what is sourcing in HR?
In essence, sourcing in HR refers to the process of identifying, attracting, and engaging potential candidates to fill an opening with the organization. The goal of this process is to specifically attract the right talent to apply for the role as effectively and efficiently as possible.
To this end, recruiters employ various tactics.
Job boards such as Indeed and LinkedIn, for example, are the go-to for many teams as these sites receive heavy traffic from job seekers. Recruiters identify their ideal candidates and design job posting with them in mind. Combined with social media, employee referrals, and other strategies, job boards are but one facet of the sourcing process.
An effective sourcing strategy helps organizations build healthy pipelines of qualified candidates to help reduce recruitment time and costs while finding the best talent to fill the role. An effective strategy also employs tools that feature automation to help streamline the process and enhance their sourcing potential. It’s just a matter of finding the right tools and strategies that work for your organization’s recruitment process.
Sourcing is only one stage in the greater recruitment process. Although this process looks different from organization to organization, and industry to industry, the steps are often the same.
Talent sourcing refers to an essential component of recruitment. Sourcing in recruitment refers to the process of proactively seeking out candidates rather than waiting for them to apply to a job posting. The goal here is to create a pool of qualified candidates to tap whenever the need to fill a position arises.
Maintaining a healthy talent pool helps recruiters reduce the time-to-hire and ensures a source of talent to choose from. As we mentioned before, this can be achieved in a variety of ways such as online job boards, tapping social media, and employee referrals. What’s more, talent sourcing is particularly important for tapping passive candidates, valuable talent already employed but open to a new position. These candidates specifically require a strategic approach and an inviting recruitment process.
This process has been made even easier in recent years thanks to advancements in technology. Recruitment software and applicant tracking systems available today enable recruiters to automate much of the sourcing process such as screening resumes and messaging potential candidates.
At the end of the day, talent sourcing is about identifying and attracting the top talent available - which can be difficult. According to Forbes, top talent is off the labor market in as little as 10 days. That means organizations with slow time-to-hire and inefficient sourcing strategies are just not the talent they need to remain competitive.
In the modern workplace, diversity is king. McKinsey’s 2020 report “Diversity Wins: How Inclusion Matters” cited data that the most diverse companies are more likely than ever to outperform their less diverse competitors in terms of profitability. However, diversity has long been a challenge for recruiters.
As such, it’s important to create diverse sourcing strategies to address unconscious bias and make a more inclusive hiring process. However, recruiters of the past have often made excuses for the lack of diversity in their candidate pool, citing that underrepresented communities just weren’t applying to their open roles. Fortunately, more and more recruiters are recognizing the fallacy in this thought process. They understand that recruiters must take an active role in diversifying their candidate pool to ensure equity in their hiring process.
In fact, there are many steps recruiters can take today to diversify their applicant pool. For one, they can post roles on new job boards, especially those that often cater to diverse candidates. These job boards are specifically designed to attract talent from underrepresented groups and help recruiters reach a broader candidate pool.
Additionally, organizations are encouraged to partner with organizations such as HBUs, historically black universities, and participate in job fairs and relevant events to connect with more diverse candidates.
All the way, organizations need to showcase that they are a welcoming workplace by highlighting their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in their job postings, other relevant recruitment material, and websites. This way, recruiters are able to indicate that they represent a company that is safe and inclusive for diverse candidates.
Finally, actively engaging in the communities you wish to reach can also bring in more diverse talent. These include public events, mentorship programs, and collaborating with other organizations that focus on diversity and inclusion in recruitment.
It’s important to note here that these are only a few examples of the steps recruiters can take to create diverse sourcing strategies to broaden their candidate pool for a more inclusive and innovative workforce.
One of the biggest challenges to diversity in recruitment is simply accessibility. An accessible hiring process levels the playing field and gives candidates a more equal opportunity to show why they’re the right fit for a role. That’s why many recruiters are turning to on-demand phone interviews to improve their DEI efforts.
This is in part because phone interviews are more accessible in terms of technological access. According to Pew Research, 97% of Americans own some form of cell phone. Contrast this with video interviews in which candidates possess a space to conduct the interview as well as additional equipment.
On-demand phone interviews also have the added benefit of allowing candidates to interview at a time of their convenience. That frees both the candidate and recruiter from having to find time in the standard 9 to 5 window. Rather, the candidate is able to approach the interview on their time, making it remarkably accessible to those with busy or abnormal schedules.
