Sourcing done with all the skills necessary and in a way that is most effective will rule out the redundancy of the task. As recruiters we have targets and deadlines to meet along with all the tasks we are involved in. With the limited time that we have, getting leads becomes difficult and time is of the essence. So let’s pause and evaluate the way in which we Source candidates.

Be Informed

Most often recruiters have incomplete information about the vacancy thus resulting in inadequate or incomplete job ads. Having a thorough knowledge about the job profile for which one wishes to hire can make the process of recruiting simpler. With a clear idea of the job requirements, the job posts created will portray accurate information regarding the job profile and the necessary skills required for that job opportunity. This improves the quality of the post and also attracts suitable candidates, thus filtering candidates is easy. This reduces the work considerably, saving both time and effort spent in this particular task.

Avoid Impetuous Work

Work done in haste and without careful thought can lead to wastage of time and effort invested in sourcing. It results in irrelevant and inaccurate sourcing results, thus hindering and delaying the completion of the task at hand. Moreover the interesting task now becomes monotonous due to inefficient practices. Hence it is essential to invest considerable amount of time, to deriving effective and efficient searches; for instance use Boolean Search Strings or Operations.

Social Media

 Since we are in a technology driven age, another effective way of Sourcing is via Social Media like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. These sites apart from being a good way to add to your networks can also be used for recruiting due to networking and the features available.  For instance through Twitter you can send tweets for job postings and schedule the tweets to be published at a predetermined date and time due to the useful Add-ons available. For instance Twitter products like Followerwonk, Tweetdeck, Buffer and Twitter Analytics are handy tools to boost sourcing. Here too the Boolean Search Strings or Operations can be used along with these products. Similarly, Sourcing can be done via LinkedIn and Facebook as well. 

Browser Extensions

Along similar lines even browser extensions can boost Sourcing. The popular browsers used are Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Even though Internet Explorer is widely used it isn’t as effective as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox when it comes to sourcing efficiently. Simply because it doesn’t support the plugins feature present in both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.  Some examples of browser extensions that can be used with Google  Chrome are Eftwo, Buffer, whoworks.at,  PageMonitor, and Mozilla Firefox are HighlightAll, AutoPager, PageMonitor etc. these tools can go a long way in boosting ones Sourcing results.

Keyword Check

As a recruiter if you know which keywords are commonly searched it gives you an upper hand as it yields good results once a search is conducted. This even enables you to add the correct keywords when creating a job posting. In addition you can also conduct a Boolean Search String with these keywords to enhance your results.

If all of these aspects are covered and implemented effectively, chances are that the results yielded would be accurate; rendering you with an exceptional pool of individuals of caliber nonetheless. And the work is reduced considerably, leaving you with the assurance that your efforts have been fruitful. And fact that you have a list of exceptional candidates with a variety of skills, with which you can move forwarded with. To end on a positive note, “Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.” - Earl Nightingale