Kimberly Horan, Executive Search Recruiter at OneWire

After seeing a number of teams still relying on the “post and pray” model, I wanted to share some tips this week on how hiring managers and recruiters can source candidates faster. One of the common misconceptions when it comes to sourcing is that it’s time consuming. And I’ll be honest – if you don’t have a set strategy in place, it can be.

As a recruiter, I spend most of my day sourcing candidates for our clients. After using tactic after tactic, here are the five tricks I use to source candidates faster.

1. Only use “must-have” requirements when searching. Before you start sourcing, drill down to the non-negotiable requirements candidates must have to succeed in the position. You may prefer someone to have an MBA, but would you hire someone with equivalent years of experience? Searching for the “must-haves” over the preferred will keep your sourcing fast and efficient, while returning candidates with a variety of backgrounds you may not have considered before.

2. Use Boolean. If you use any search engine, you’re probably familiar with Boolean operators. They narrow down your search by including multiple requirements, which is perfect when searching for the “must-haves” you established above. If you know how to use Boolean correctly, it can significantly cut down your sourcing time. Check out our Boolean Operator Tip Sheet that goes beyond “AND” and “OR” to help you construct strong searches.

3. Be specific with your sources. We’ve set up the “must-haves”, constructed our search strings and are now ready to source candidates. Where should you start? To source candidates faster, start with an industry-specific community. If you’re hiring finance talent for example, concentrate your sourcing efforts on a finance talent pool like OneWire’s. It will ensure any candidates you find are already relevant. I also recommend sourcing from a resume-based community over profile-based sites like LinkedIn. The resume is what you need, why waste time with an unnecessary step in between?

4. Automate your searches. Technology is a game changer these days. Set your searches to run on autopilot and you’ll be saving some serious time searching for candidates. I’ve set up my OneWire talent alerts to notify me when candidates matching my search criteria log in or update their resume. Based on their activity, I know these candidates are looking for a new opportunity and I now have warm leads to follow up on without lifting a finger.

5. Record who you reach out to. There are two reasons why keeping track of your activity will help you source candidates faster. One, it will prevent you from sourcing the same candidate twice. Two, you’ll end up building a talent pipeline for future hires, reducing the need sourcing over time. If you’re worried about the time it takes to record and organize your sourcing activity, implement a CRM platform that will do it for you. Otherwise, the time it takes to record will be nothing compared to starting from scratch for every search going forward.

Sourcing candidates doesn’t have to be daunting. Leverage these five tricks and you’ll be sourcing candidates like a pro in no time. If you need help, check out our managed services & executive search solutions – we’ll source the candidates for you.

I’ll be sharing more insights soon – stay tuned for another article!

-Kimberly

Kimberly Horan works as an executive search recruiter at OneWire and has reviewed thousands of resumes over the course of her career.