A good recruitment strategy is not just about waiting for candidates to apply through your job posts; it includes actively searching for and procuring potential candidates.  

There are chances that your ideal candidate is not actively looking for a job or is already in your competitor's pipeline. That's why you need to use more creative sourcing strategies on top of the traditional methodologies like:

1) Job boards, which are the go-to for finding a large pool of candidates with skill sets that match your job requirements.

2) Employee referrals, which give you a pool of pre-vetted candidates that naturally fit into the company culture.

3) Social media, where you can gather more information about the candidate and get in touch directly.

Thinking outside the box

Sourcing is all about getting ahead of the competition to find top talent in your domain and adding them into your pipeline. These are three things you can do to get ahead of the curve.

1) Expand your search terms

Keep in mind that the basic search terms have already been used and will turn up very basic results. Zoho Recruit's Source Boosters feature allows you to find candidates from job boards and directly add them to your database.

2) Source candidates from affinity networks

Identify where the community of people that you are looking for gather, and approach potential leads that you can add to your talent pool. This might include job fairs, events, conferences, or even specific websites and Facebook groups.

3) Use AI

Reducing your sourcing time can be extremely impactful. Powerful AI algorithms can help you search hundreds of databases in a short span of time, as well as analyze and compile several highly reliable candidate profiles in a matter of seconds.

Get smarter with data

By tracking and analyzing data, you'll better understand where to put your recruitment efforts. Data from your ATS shows what percentage of your candidates come from each recruiting channel to help you best allocate your resources.

It's important to decide what data to measure and measure it consistently. Create a formal process to inspect and interpret this data, and generate reports on the distribution of candidates from every source.

Keep in mind that the source your ATS tracks may not be the first place where your candidate found your job opening. This is why it can be helpful to send additional surveys to the candidates to improve the accuracy of your data.

Consider interpreting this data in different formats, like by tracking all good quality candidates and not just hires, and analyzing data beyond the big picture with respect to niche roles.

This can help you direct more HR resources and monetary investments to channels that give you the most high quality applicants. You can also identify the sources that yield minimal return and drop them.

Closing thoughts

Active candidate sourcing needs to happen year round and not just every time a requirement arises. This gives you more time to connect and stay in touch with potential hires. The goal of each sourcing effort should be to build and nurture a strong candidate pipeline that you can reach out to any time a fitting job opening arises.