One of the best (and sometimes worst) things about working in sourcing is the sheer number of tools that are available – it’s enough to make Bruce Wayne jealous. Today, with more options than ever, it’s easy to overlook those that don’t get publicized but that doesn’t mean they are not worthwhile.
For today’s sourcing recruiter, it’s beneficial to have an arsenal of tools that can handle any situation, and you can’t begin to fill a tool belt without stopping by the Chrome Web Store first.
Search Switch is an extension that allows searching across various search, social and shopping sites from one place. Once installed it’s as easy as clicking on the magnifying glass in your tool bar and going to town searching everything from Google and Bing to Facebook and Twitter to Amazon and Slideshare.
Although IE Tab is not a pure recruiting / sourcing tool it is very valuable as a time saver, especially for those that use Chrome and have to use SharePoint or any other tool / site that prefers Internet Explorer. With IE Tab, you can render any tab in Chrome (or Firefox) as an IE browser tab with all of the same functionality (or lack there-of).
Not all tools are found on the web – Outlook’s Social Connector Plugin is a very useful tool for a number of reasons – it allows you to see view, connect with, and keep up with people on LinkedIn and Facebook without leaving Outlook.
To get started look on the ‘View’ tab, click on ‘People Pane’ and then allow access to LinkedIn, Facebook, or both.
Once you have provided your log-in information and granted access, a pane will pop up at the bottom of the emails you send and receive to allow you to view the LinkedIn / Facebook account associated with that email address – you can even connect directly with that person from Outlook.
This tool is especially handy for those who are on LinkedIn probation and are required to provide an email address to send an invitation as it already uses their email address as part of the process.
We all know that no one tool will transform you from a minor league player to a major league all-star but having a myriad of tools to help locate, contact, and connect with candidates and be productive can help one to take a big step in that direction.
