We enjoyed great success (after a LOT of trial and error and painful experiences) as we launched the team in February of 2000 with six sourcers and grew that team to 55 sourcers supporting approximately 200 recruiters by March, 2006. I then left the bank to launch Reveal.
What is Sourcing?One of the Service Offerings of Reveal is consulting to corporations that wish to build or optimize their internal talent sourcing team. We recently partnered with our good friends at www.recruitingtoolbox.com on an engagement in which we needed to hammer out the definition of Sourcing. Wow…great debates and lively conversation were central to nailing down the terms that made sense for this corporation and, yet, we also worked to use terms that aligned to the industry. My good friend, Carmen Hudson, one of our Reveal practice leaders, Brandy Herschbach and I worked diligently to offer the following direction to our still-emerging slice of the recruiting industry.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Qualify | Determining the viability of candidates; assessing the candidate against criteria, which may include skills, salary, interest and/or availability |
| Name Generation | Identify the names, title, company and contact info of potential candidates via electronic methods or phone sourcing; names might be validated (identification) or not validated (name gen) |
| Intake Meetings | AKA Strategy Meeting or Briefing; A half-hour to 1-hour consultation with the recruiter and/or the hiring manager to gather all pertinent information for a successful search, set expectations and timelines |
| Competitive Intelligence | Information used to evaluate and compare a direct competitor or talent competitor; used to improve sourcing and recruiting effectiveness |
| Telephone Sourcing | A methodical approach to surfacing passive talent through a phone screen |
| Talent Mapping | Creating org charts via telephone and/or electronic methods |
| Sourcing Strategy | Documented roadmap of how a sourcer will identify, develop and deliver candidates for a hiring need(s) |
| Mine | AKA secondary research focused exclusively on producing resume. Typically involves searching a database (ATS, LinkedIn, Job Board Resume Bank) |
| Phone Sourcing | Intentional conversations with potential candidates (leads) to convert the person to a candidate, and/or to generate referrals or relevant information |
| Networking | General conversations – on the phone or in person – to develop relationships, remain visible and surface active or passive candidates |
| Research | Electronic or human contact to generate names, target companies, associations, intelligence or other information that will inform the search |
| Candidate Development | Efficiently determine qualifications, interest, and career drivers to convert leads or applicants to submittals |
| Submittal | Documented presentation of a candidate that is accepted by a recruiter or hiring manager to proceed with hiring process |
| Pipeline | Knowledge or awareness of most or all potential candidates for specific roles; a pipeline can be as simple as a spreadsheet of appropriate names or a ready-now list of qualified and available candidates |
So, let the debate roll on! What are your definitions of Sourcing and the terms provided above?