HOW TO BUILD A SOURCING STRATEGY?
We trained more than 5,000 recruiters from hundreds of countries over the last 5 years, and one thing is for sure with most of them: they start sourcing with a LinkedIn search. They open LinkedIn, add some keywords to the search bar (usually a job title), and scroll through the results.
…and this is the quickest way to total failure.
A sourcing strategy is the most crucial part of the recruitment process. This is your recipe for success. Without a solid strategy, you won’t see where you are heading or what’s ahead of you. Good candidates, great interviews, and successful hires will be the result of pure luck, not a solid, controlled recruiting procedure.
Creating a strong strategy is challenging, but now we’ve put together a guide to help you succeed in any position.
THE FULL CYCLE SOURCING STRATEGY
Follow these steps to build a solid sourcing strategy, then download the complete Sourcing Strategy Worksheet for your everyday work!
1. IN-HOUSE OR AGENCY?
Do you have the right capabilities in the team to fill the role in a timely fashion? Do you have the capacity? If not, do you have the budget to expedite the process with a third party agency?
2. ATS AND EXISTING POOLS
Do you have candidates fitting the profile in your ATS, CRM or other talent pools that you can reach fast? If yes, these are your low hanging fruits you should try to hire first.
3. ATTRACTION
Can you expect to receive applicants for the role? If so, where would it make sense to advertise it? Beyond your career site, consider job boards, social media, Google, offline advertisements. Are there any free advertisement methods you could use (groups, student networks, embassies, etc)?
4. TRADITIONAL SEARCH
Do you need to search or can you expect advertising and the ATS to solve the position? If you need to search, what traditional channels could you use? Can you access job board databases? Is LinkedIn strong in this market?
5. STRING
You now have your channels – but how should you search them? Consider your Boolean String: it’s all about the words you use in your search. Which keywords are in your candidates’ current job titles? What about their previous roles? What else is on their profiles? Which synonyms might they use referring to the same experience you seek?
6. LINKEDIN
LinkedIn is more than just a People Search Engine. Think about whether your potential candidates belong to Groups, have attended Events before, posted about a topic (or engaged with someone else’s Post). Try to leverage the Network of people!
7. BEYOND LINKEDIN
Candidates aren’t just on LinkedIn; some may not be active there. Where else might your talent pool be found online? Consider other professional networks, associations, general social media like Facebook, X, conference attendees, or educational alumni.
8. COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
Your sourcing includes your outreach strategy: how many emails will you send? How will you vary your subject lines, email bodies, and call-to-actions? How will you convey your message and convince candidates to consider a job change? What’s your story?
9. TOOLKIT
Tools can make your work more efficient. For repetitive tasks like sending many messages, consider automation tools. For large data sets, try data scraping. Additionally, use contact finders, AI tools, ChatGPT and other productivity extensions. Work smart!
10. FUTURE PROOFING
Is this a one-off position or will this be a constant demand? If the latter, what can you do to make the life of your future self easier? Where and how can you build pools, how can you keep in touch, so next time you don’t have to start everything from scratch?
NOW GET THE COMPLETE STRATEGY WORKSHEET!
Hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse from our sourcing strategy worksheet.
Now it’s your turn: download the full version from the link!
▶️ What you’ll get:
- Detailed strategy-building phases
- Leading questions for elaboration
- A worksheet to track your answers
