As online communities continue to grow, there are constantly new tools available that streamline the ability to locate talent. A recruiter who understands which tools to use has an advantage over the competition when it comes to finding truly passive candidates. The secret to sourcing success for passive candidate generation is having a diverse toolbox versus searching only the most obvious venues.
Firstly, make sure to take advantage of an abundance of online communities. Being a skilled social recruiter does not stop at LinkedIn. It is obviously a great resource today with a high Alexa traffic rating and an abundance of professional profiles; however, a large population of talent acquisition is sourcing through the same people, making many profiles more “active” versus “passive.” To reach truly passive talent, a recruiter needs to dig deeper into the less-traveled websites if they are going for the gold. These types of resources include industry specific blogs, professional forums, or even online multimedia sites. Believe it or not, YouTube and Flickr can be great candidate resources and they both allow user “messaging” with a free account.
Next, Boolean is a must today for name generation in particular. Any recruiter who knows how to use our (I work for AIRS) advanced Boolean techniques has the ability to locate passive talent a competitor may never find. This is highly beneficial when higher trafficked resources, such as job boards or LinkedIn, are exhausted. These types of sourcing techniques can uncover lists of industry professionals’ names, members of specific professional organizations, or even online resume type documents that would never show up in a simple Google search.
Finally, build and use advanced sourcing tools. RSS feeds, custom search engines, data miners, posting tools. and apps are all good things to add to a sourcing strategy for 2013. The following list can be used as a guide to follow for implementing these:
RSS Feeds & Custom Search Engines: Build RSS feeds and target custom search engines using a free Google account (this same Google account can also be used for messaging through Google-owned communities). Creating RSS feeds to monitor a competitor or set of competitors is incredibly beneficial for preparing future sourcing strategies. Custom search engines can be used for sourcing specific online communities, organizations, or even competitor websites for names.
Cross-posting Tools: Social media cross-posting tools that allow users to advertise their openings on multiple social sites in one post save a ton of time. These types of tools include Hootsuite and Bullhorn Reach.
Data-mining Tools: Data mining tools allow recruiters to pull candidate data into an organized Excel spreadsheet from search engine results or specific web pages without having to copy and paste.
Apps: Apps useful for recruiters today can be found for both browsers and mobile devices. Using the Google Chrome browser or mobile apps is a start, but definitely don’t stop there. There is an abundance of free posting and management tools available today for both browsers and mobile devices.
Though not everyone has time to implement everything, trying a few new things can go a long way.