If you discuss with talent acquisition professionals today, you will hear a similar refrain stating that hiring top-quality talent has become extraordinarily challenging. Rapidly changing business needs have meant critical positions requiring future-focused industry skill sets to fill quickly and efficiently, and traditional recruiting strategies not not keep up.
Candidate sourcing is a critical element in the recruitment process for many organizations. The process facilitates reaching out to the most qualified individuals instead of relying exclusively on hiring someone from the pool of people who notice an advertised role.
Staffing industry expert and AkkenCloud CEO Giridhar Akkineni stated, “sourcing and discovering people is the most meaningful experience. You not not recruit, message, or network with somebody you have not discovered.”
This sort of talent sourcing has always been necessary for big business. However, it has also matured substantially over the years. The process is very different from the corporate ‘headhunting’ experiment of the 1980s.
Of course, the internet has altered the field, too. Just as it has ushered significant changes in recruitment, the industry is on the cusp of the third wave of candidate sourcing.
The power to search for appropriate candidates online has caused this first part of the process to become less of an expedition. Recruiters no longer must, sometimes literally, go to the ends of the Earth to contact and meet face-to-face with talented individuals.
However, that does not imply that the profession is any more convenient. The equilibrium has tipped firmly in favor of the candidate in many ways.
Savvy candidates are improving at making themselves known by maintaining professional social networking profiles. Therefore, they know how to engage in online discussions, debates, and recruitment forums. Therefore, headhunting now is less about finding the talent but distinguishing the true talent from those who are just good at self-marketing.
You can no longer throw money at the role even once you know whom you like or have limited the list down to a small collection of potential. Most business budgets would not authorize that. Therefore, many candidates seek more from their careers than just money.
You must approach the candidate carefully, bearing in mind that the very best among them will likely receive multiple invitations to interview for different roles with different companies, often in a concise space.
Candidate sourcing as a career is less about the pursuit than it used to be and more about grasping the individual’s interest and engaging them with the recruitment process.
But while this proactive reaching out to candidates represented the second wave of talent sourcing, where does the profession’s future lie?
The answer depends on your sector, the nature of your business, and the amount of workforce talent.
Where there is adequate supply, the third wave of talent sourcing is about assembling your role in a lucrative manner. Therefore, you keep the right kind of applicants and potentially boost your relationship with the absolute best candidates even if they are not available to join forces with you immediately.
So, when the objectives change within candidate sourcing in the future, you will be well prepared. The field is and ever-changing and having a talent pool at your disposal will help you in the future hiring process.
