Creative sourcing is the method that involves identifying, approaching, and attracting qualified individuals for job positions within the organization. It includes devising strategies such as: using social media platforms, organizing events, career fairs, and seminars, using employee referrals, building a talent pipeline, and much more to bring out the unseen talent and connect with applicants who may not be actively looking for job opportunities.
It involves thinking outside the box because this type of sourcing demands some creativity, from recruiters or hiring managers, such as discovering unique skills, experiences, and perspectives of a variety of candidates.
The main objective of creative sourcing is to identify, attract and build a pool of best candidates, that possess great skills, unique qualities, experiences, goals, backgrounds, and potential that can help the company grow and be successful in the long run.
Adopt the best sourcing strategies, mentioned below in the article to find and attract potential candidates, in minimum time and effort and optimize your overall hiring process.
Creative candidate sourcing helps to construct a talent pool, by proactively searching and engaging with passive candidates, building relationships, and developing a pool of talented individuals for future hiring needs. The talent pipeline built through creative sourcing strategies, helps recruiters find the best candidates that match the job description in minimum time, saving their hiring costs.
Adopting creative candidate sourcing techniques is the most important aspect to find and onboarding passive talent. But wait what is passive talent and why should recruiters focus on attracting or onboarding them?
Firstly, we dig down into who are active candidates and who are passive candidates
Following is the definition of active job seekers and passive job seekers:
Active candidates:
As the name suggests, active candidates are applicants that are actively looking for open job roles, and who are currently actively searching and applying for job opportunities. These applicants may be unemployed or fresh graduates, who are looking for new career opportunities, want to start their career, or any other various reasons.
Passive candidates:
Passive candidates are individuals who are not actively searching for job opportunities, they are already employed but may be ready to consider new opportunities if presented with one.
Why should recruiters attract passive candidates?
They are highly skilled, technically competent, and experienced professionals, who are satisfied with their current job role, but may be attracted to unique job offers. As these individuals are not actively looking for job opportunities, recruiters need to find and engage them through different techniques, and strategies and these candidates demand proactive hiring efforts.
Which company doesn't want to attract top talent and onboard it to their organization, the reason is that only potential hires serve the success of the company, by helping it grow and maintaining a positive reputation.
To select and hire top candidates, the first step is to source them through various effective methods, tools, techniques, and procedures, depending upon the need of the company and the nature of the job role. If the start of the process is right and efficient, it will ultimately make the end of the process successful and efficient.
Following are a few of, but most important tips for creative sourcing, that HRs or hiring managers can adopt, in order to achieve a successful candidate sourcing process:
Planning creative sourcing involves defining techniques that might help you achieve unique ideas and improve the overall sourcing process. But before planning you have to make sure your objectives are clear, you can use the following sample questions in the planning phase:
Q1. What needs to be achieved at the end of the process?
Q2. What are the success criteria of creative sourcing?
Q3. Identify what tools or methods need to be adopted.
Recruiters contact candidates who have just started their new job role, as they can be helpful for creative sourcing in different ways:
1. Candidates who are fresh in the industry are highly motivated and open to new challenges. They keep on exploring ideas and look up to industry professionals, outside their current job role. By contacting them early, recruiters get a better chance of attracting them and generating interest in your sourcing plans.
2. New candidates have a lot of potential to grow and learn new tools and technologies, they already possess diverse skill sets that can offer greatly to your creative sourcing efforts.
3. Even if they can't assist you in your current sourcing needs, you can still establish relationships with them early on and keep them engaged for future collaborations or increases your chances of finding suitable candidates, because they might have potential candidates in their circle who can benefit your company in the future.
The most common yet popular tool with billions of users all around the world, widely used for sourcing candidates. Facebook ads help to reach a wider audience other than your existing followers, and these ads can be a great strategy to grab the attention of passive job seekers. Another feature of Facebook is a Facebook group that can be utilized specifically for sourcing purposes, as you can post different content such as job opportunities, company culture, its aims and values, guidance, information or tips related to creative sourcing, and much more to capture the attention of quality candidates.
Twitter's advanced search and other features greatly help hiring managers and recruiters to find and follow individuals, organizations, and professionals that are actively engaged in creative sourcing techniques and can help you discover new tips or ideas. You can also use Twitter polls to gather opinions about certain sourcing techniques and make informed decisions that are preferred by a large audience.
Post engaging shorts, videos, and reels on your Youtube company channel and help your company get recognized by several individuals. Showcase your company culture, by positing group activities, sourcing events, how your team collaborates, plans, or works during the sourcing phase, and much more. You can also share information about your company's sourcing goals, tips, ideas, and strategies to assist individuals, and also ask for their feedback in the comments, on how recruiters can optimize the overall sourcing process or what needs to be improved.
Employee referral programs are the most effective programs not only for finding and hiring creative potential from the recommendations of your current employees but also create a spark of ownership, motivation, and engagement within the team members. As employees refer candidates within their network that they think is the best fit for the role and the company, this creates a team of individuals, who work together, are aware of the job and company requirements, and work to bring fresh perspectives and ideas that help the company grow.
Employee referral programs provide an opportunity to explore the knowledge and creativity of your existing employees to find out candidates who may possess unique skills, qualities, and experience. As employees are already familiar with the company culture, aims, and values, they usually refer individuals who can work in a creative environment and help the company grow, saving the company time, effort, and cost required for sourcing.
Building a strong employer brand, include highlighting your company as an exciting, motivating, and supportive environment for creative individuals. Powerful employer branding can assist recruiters in creative sourcing, in the following ways:
1. A well-established employer brand, means a positive reputation of a company, that values creativity, innovation, and support, grabbing the attention of a large number of top talent.
2. A strong employer brand consisting of unique ideas, opportunities, growth prospects, and work environment, sets apart your organization from competitors. The uniqueness that your company offers, makes it more appealing to potential candidates, increasing the chances of attracting them.
3. Building a strong employer brand, means working on improvement in candidate experience, which is the most important aspect, not only while sourcing ideal candidates, but throughout the overall hiring process.
4. When your company has an excellent and positive reputation for being unique, creative, and progressive, it ultimately attracts passive talent and they might consider joining your company.
Writing descriptive and easy-to-understand job descriptions is the most important aspect while sourcing top talent, as it affects the number of people engaging with the company. Sometimes recruiters find it difficult to convey the exact qualities or specifications required for the job role. Writing job descriptions require creativity and outside-the-box thinking to stand out from the rest, which usually becomes time-consuming for the hiring team.
Passive candidates are already employed, are not actively applying for new positions, and are not ready to switch, but can consider a good offer if presented with one. Because of their unique skill set, recruiters often spend a lot of time searching for passive candidates, and after identifying one, they usually find it difficult to convince them for a new job within their company. HR or hiring managers can attract passive candidates, if they understand their concerns or needs, build strong relations with them, keep them engaged, and finally present them with an offer that matches best with their skills, interests, and education.
Sourcing is the first phase of the recruitment process and the next steps of the hiring process generally involve screening, selection, and hiring of the selected candidates. As sourcing is the initial phase of the hiring process, it greatly affects the overall process. Here are generally a few things to keep in mind after creative sourcing:
The sourced candidates need to be evaluated first in order to get hired for the specific role. There are several evaluation methods to asses candidate skills, experience, and education of passive candidates. One of the major evaluation criteria is the skill tests, which consists of question specific to the skills required for the job role. Skill tests can contain questions of various types, depending upon the nature and requirements of the job and the organization. A few categories of questions can be followed:
1. Problem-solving
2. Scenario or situational
3. Technical
4. Creativity
5. Communication
6. Behavioral
Sometimes written assessments or tests are just not enough, to assess candidates. Recruiters can also evaluate candidates by conducting their online or in-person interviews, in order to get more insights into the candidate's knowledge and skill sets. Additionally, they also help candidates assess the organization and determine if it aligns with their own goals and aspirations. There are several types of interviews such as, behavioral, task-based, technical, stress, informational, and much more.
Make sure to keep the interview concise and relevant, your tone should not be rude, provide a positive candidate experience, and don't forget to inform them about the next steps of the process.
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Hirecinch is one of the best applicant tracking system I have used ever, literally my my job easier
Hirecinch is one of the best applicant tracking system I have used ever, literally my my job easier
Hirecinch is one of the best applicant tracking system I have used ever, literally my my job easier
Hirecinch is one of the best applicant tracking system I have used ever, literally my my job easier
Hirecinch is one of the best applicant tracking system I have used ever, literally my my job easier
Hirecinch is one of the best applicant tracking system I have used ever, literally my my job easier
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