How to Build a Proactive Candidate Sourcing Strategy
- 1. How to Build a Proactive Candidate
Sourcing Strategy
#SourceFTW
@Lever
Thursday, August 11, 2016
- 2. ● Phone lines are muted - please use
the chat box for questions
● Tweet us using #sourceftw and
@lever
● $100 Amazon Gift Card for the
most useful tweet
Kiran Dhillon
Content Marketing Manager
Lever
@kirandhillon4
Thanks for joining us!
- 4. Why talk about this?
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● Sourcing tends to be an abstract and misunderstood craft.
● It’s very easy to get disorganized or overwhelmed by information in sourcing, especially in the early
stages.
● There isn’t much great training available for sourcing.
● The recruiting profession is constantly evolving.
● The why in sourcing is rarely considered as important as the what.
- 5. What is talent sourcing?
The process of searching for and engaging individuals identified
as relevant or “likely to be qualified” for a role in an effort to
introduce them to your hiring process and build a pipeline of
highly qualified candidates.
There are many potential manifestations of this. Fact: there’s no one way to do it.
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- 8. Stage 1: Kickoff
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5 Buckets of Information:
1. Role: What & Why?
2. Criteria: What Makes a Candidate?
3. Informing the Search
4. Informing the Sell
5. Questions For Team Members (If Applicable)
- 9. 1. Role: What & Why?
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❏ The role itself: title, team within which it falls, reasoning behind creation of role to begin with
❏ Function & responsibilities of role within scope of team
❏ Function/responsibilities of role within scope of company at large
❏ Technology, tools, and specific skills employed by role/team
❏ Growth potential for someone in this role over time
- 10. 2. Criteria: What Makes a Candidate?
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Base Skillset
Project/Leadership
Experience
Other
Must-Haves
(Requirements)
Nice-to-Haves
(Bonuses)
❏ Seniority level(s) desired? (How do you define seniority?):
- 11. 3. Informing the Search
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❏ Likely companies/titles focused on similar technology, products, or services?
❏ Most successful candidates for this role so far (if applicable)? Least successful? Why?
❏ How much does education (degree level, major, school) matter?
❏ From the perspective of someone who’s been deep in this domain for a while, where might you start a
search for this? Where might this community congregate/connect with one another?
- 12. 4. Informing the Sell
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❏ How would you sell this role to someone who’s content where they are, particularly as it relates to the
mission/scope of the company?
❏ What might set this role apart from similar roles in other companies (if applicable)?
- 13. 5. Questions for Team Members
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❏ [PREFACE to HM] Who are the rock-stars/team members that I should really talk to?
❏ How would you describe your responsibilities here? What outcomes are you trying to achieve?
❏ Why did you come here? What keeps you here?
❏ What are the best/most rewarding parts of your role and being on the team? What are the most
challenging?
❏ How are you looking to grow here?
❏ How would you sell your role to someone who’s content in theirs? What sets it apart?
- 16. 1. Preparatory Research & Market Mapping
Do Your Research: Unfamiliar territory? Get to know the domain.
Market Mapping: Getting to know the structure and content of the talent market and domain within which you
are going to be searching (for a given role).
Get searching. Build relevant lists of data, such as:
❏ Companies with related technology, products, or services
❏ Similar titles/roles within the domain and the companies they’re a part of
Resources: Initial kickoff. Google, Bing. Social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.). Your network/colleagues.
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- 20. 2. Sources: The Where
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❏ Boolean searches: resumes, blogs, personal sites,
etc.* - Google alerts!
❏ App stores
❏ Company websites
❏ Online forums/mailing lists
❏ Conference attendee/speaker lists
❏ Patents & white papers
❏ Additional social media/networks: TheLadders,
Instagram
❏ Sourcing applications (aggregators/databases):
Entelo, Gild, TalentBin, Connectifier, etc.
❏ Referral generation: Simppler, Teamable
★ In-person sourcing (events, conferences, etc.)
Additional Tools & Resources
- 21. 2. Sources: The Where
Think critically & prioritize!
Guiding questions:
❏ Given what I’m looking for, as well as how far into my search I am, is this resource worth my time? What’s
the potential ROI?
❏ How much, and what kind, of information is available to me here? How do I access it?
❏ How long would it potentially take me to find something useful here?
★ Just because you can source in certain place or leverage a certain resource doesn’t mean you should.
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- 22. A Note on Boolean Search
Core knowledge for any sourcer!
★ X-Ray: “site:”
Example X-Ray search:
site:linkedin.com inurl:in -inurl:title "sales manager" "san francisco bay area"
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- 25. 1. Motivations-Based Outreach
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❏ Product/Service and Impact: What product(s) or service(s) your company provides (and to whom), as well as the overall impact
(and the scale of that impact) that is made
❏ Technology and/or Problem Set: The set of technologies (if applicable) leveraged by a role/team/company, as well as the
problems being solved/challenges available.
❏ Culture & Company Specifics: Your company’s culture (values, philosophies, work environment, etc.) and general details (i.e.
profitability, investors, size, growth rate, funding, leadership, etc.)
❏ Role Scope and Responsibility: The overall scope of responsibilities an individual in a given role would have the opportunity to
take on (contributions, projects, leadership, etc.)
❏ Individual Development and Role Potential: The combination of professional growth (responsibility and/or “upward mobility”)
and personal development possible over time
❏ Compensation: Total package (salary, benefits, equity [if applicable], etc.).
- 26. 1. Motivations-Based Outreach
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Focus Area
Product/
Service &
Impact
Technology
and/or
Problem Set
Culture &
Company
Specifics
Role Scope &
Responsibility
Individual
Development
& Role
Potential
Compensation
Application Company
Company,
Team, Role
Company,
Team
Role Role Role
Strengths /
Positives
Weaknesses /
Negatives
- 27. 2. Personalization
Are you more likely to open an email that says speaks to you personally, or one that
blindly tries to sell you on a company you’ve never heard of before?
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Source: Aline Lerner, What I learned from reading 8,000 recruiting messages
Personalization inspiration:
❏ LinkedIn summaries & recommendations
❏ Twitter bios & tweets
❏ Stack Overflow answers (tech talent)
❏ Quora answers
❏ Github projects (tech talent)
❏ Facebook pages
❏ Dribbble profiles (design talent)
❏ Personal websites/blogs
❏ Conference/webinar presentation topics
- 28. 3. Rounding Out Your Message
❏ Understand your audience.
❏ Use your own voice.
❏ Lead with an engaging subject line.
❏ Introduce yourself.
❏ Be concise.
❏ Be clear.
❏ Leave an action item.
❏ Follow up.
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- 29. 4. Tools & Resources
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Contact Information Content E-mail Verification
verify-email.org
email-checker.net
mailtester.com
verifyemailaddress.org
Domain Search
- 31. Measurement & Tracking
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Keep an eye on your funnel conversion rates.
❏ How many candidates have I needed to source to reach one hire?
❏ Is my process too lenient anywhere? Too strict?
❏ What steps or approaches can I optimize/improve?
❏ Am I calibrating? Is my hiring manager calibrating?
Pro tip: Look for extreme drop-offs and changes in conversion rates.
“If 90% of candidates get through a phone screen, but only 10%
receive an offer, that tells me the screen stage wasn’t done right.”
- Chris Shaw, Director of Talent at Meteor
- 33. Lever Chrome Extension
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● Add candidates directly into Lever from any social profile
● Make it easy for your whole team to get involved
● Send emails, view/add notes, or even change stages right from your browser
● Track the effectiveness of each source
- 34. Sign up for a demo at: www.lever.co
and join these amazing companies on Lever!