Sourcing Passive Candidates is More than Lead Generation
Are You Wasting Major Time on Minor Stuff?
By Lou Adler, July 24, 2007

Here's my minimalist definition of sourcing: presenting qualified and interested candidates within a reasonable period of time to a hiring manager, and have 100% of them be interviewed.

How do you rank on an A-B-C scale using this definition? If your clients consider at least two-thirds of your candidates hirable and you've found them quickly, you deserve an "A." To get a "C" on this scale you'd need to have one hirable candidate out of every three or four you present as long as you were reasonably timely.

Cold name generation to me is only one aspect of sourcing, and not a very significant one. With the proliferation of business networks, company name lists like those found on ZoomInfo, and the ease of using Google to find resumes, name generation is now no more challenging than posting an ad. Calling these cold leads and screening, qualifying, and creating interest, however, is a different story. This is hard work. To me this is where the rubber meets the road as far as sourcing is concerned.

Following is a quick overview of the steps involved in sourcing, from taking the assignment to presenting a short list of qualified and interested candidates to your clients. You might want to rank yourself on each step on a 1-5 scale (a 5 is consistently outstanding and a 3 is consistently good).

Understanding real job needs: if you understand what a person will be doing on the job and can create an employee value proposition, you'll be able to influence strong candidates who are on the fence why they should consider your job, even if they're also considering other opportunities. (You might want to read a few articles on how to prepare performance profiles if you want to get at least a 3 on this factor.)

Developing a candidate profile: this is a list of potential sources and keywords to search online. Add recognition terms to improve the quality of the resumes you're finding.

Using ZoomInfo, LinkedIn, and Googling for names to develop cold leads. Too many people think this is the heart of sourcing. While knowing Boolean strings and Google secrets is important, few people fail this part. If you consistently develop hidden pools of top names that no else can find, you deserve a 4-5 on this factor.

Emailing leads to gain interest. This step will work if you have a compelling message and the right candidate database. Rank yourself on your results.

Cold calling and getting voice mails returned. If you're not getting at least 35% of your calls returned you need work on your pitch. Here are some tips if you need some help on this.

Screen, recruit, and network with people who return your calls. This is the heart of sourcing: quickly screening out unqualified candidates, convincing qualified people to consider your situation, and getting warm leads of more qualified people. We offer a whole course on how to do this, if you're interested.

Calling, screening, and networking with the warm referral list. If you developed the leads properly in step 6, you'll get 75% or more voice mails returned. Since they're all good people, all you need to do is to determine if there's a fit and then get them interested in your situation. If not, you'll need to get more warm and qualified leads. If you're really good at sourcing, you should be spending most of your time in this step. Surprisingly, you won't need to spend much time here on any individual assignment since doing this type of work is highly productive. (Note: this is part of the same course mentioned above.)

Present qualified and interested candidates to your clients. As long as you've pre-qualified all of your warm leads, all you need to do is convince your candidates they should at least consider being interviewed by your client. It's a lot easier to influence your candidates to consider your opportunities if you've created the employee value proposition mentioned in Step 1. Rank yourself a 4 or 5 if you consistently convince two-thirds of your passive candidates to consider your opportunities.

100% of the candidates you present to be interviewed are interviewed. If you present a candidate to your client the person should be interviewed. This is level 5 performance. If you're not getting at least two out of three candidates being interviewed, everything else you're doing is a waste of time. This is level 3 performance and the minimum allowed.

How did you do on this simple evaluation? If you didn't get at least 30 points you're not really sourcing, and if you made excuses as to why you didn't get at least 30 points, automatically deduct 10 points from your score and go directly to jail. Good recruiters don't make excuses; they find good candidates regardless of the challenges.

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