There have been countless days where I eagerly go into the office with a cleared calendar and I have every intention of spending the entire day sourcing. However, by the time I answer my emails, have ten different hiring managers stop by, field angry calls from candidates who didn’t get the position, and deal with agencies wanting to steal my job security, I realize my day is at an end and I have no more candidates then what I started with in the morning.
Let’s face it — it’s hard to juggle the demands of internal and external clients as a corporate recruiter and still have enough time to effectively source the right talent that your managers are so insistent on receiving. But there is hope!
For a non-sourcer like me the key is time management. As such, I’ve come up with a check-list of sorts that from start to finish takes me approximately 10 minutes to set things in motion to start sourcing for candidates on any given position.
Below is an outline of the tools and processes needed to successfully get the ball rolling to source on any opening in 10 minutes. The tools mentioned will involve some initial start-up and sign-up time – but once you have them in place you’ll find that they provide much needed automation to your sourcing strategy.
- Search your current ATS – This is so often overlooked but there are valuable candidates in there, many who have been already prescreened and are ready for an instant submittal to an opening. This honestly should be the very first place to search – and if your database is not searchable, well that’s a topic for another article…
- Search the job boards – There’s no shame in your game if you use job boards. They are still a valuable method of sourcing, however if you’re spending more than a few minutes a day on them, that’s too much time. The secret is saved searches: when you get a requisition, post the position and set up saved searches so that on a daily basis you are getting new resumes sent directly to your inbox without the need to manually re-enter your search criteria.
- Write and run Boolean searches – Use an automated Boolean generator like the Boolean Toolbar. This application allows you to use dropdown bars that create search strings for you reducing the time it takes you to build several different searches based on skill set and company focus. You can also use your same string to search different Internet browsers. Also, if you’re not a savvy social media recruiter, this tool is perfect for you as it has Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin profile search functions as well.
- Save your Boolean searches – You can do this either using a spreadsheet, or you can do it online using Google History so that you don’t need to replicate work. You can use Google Alerts and subscribe to your customized keyword searches by RSS feed so that you receive the results of your search automatically on a scheduled basis.
- Keep yourself organized — I use iGoogle as my morning dashboard to keep me organized – you can post positions via your social media sites by adding the Twitter and Facebook gadgets to your iGoogle desktop, build a to-do list by adding MyListy, ToDo, or Sticky Note gadgets, and also see the RRS feeds from your searches (step #4) via Google Reader.
- Consolidate your social media interactions — Using an email bundler like Nutshell Mail will keep you from having to check multiple social media sites for interaction. Nutshell is a free product that allows your messages from multiple sources (ex. Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin) to all be sent together via one communication to your work email. You can see all your responses to any social sourcing you did the day before without having to sign into your many different sites.
- Monitor your social presence (in the background) — Using a tool such as CoTweet, TweetDeck, or HootSuite, you can schedule social media campaigns and also post to multiple social media sites via one avenue. With CoTweet and HootSuite you can even share your account with co-workers so that as a team you can collaborate on your social media presence.
- Manage your contacts in a centralized location — Plaxo has been my favorite tool for managing my contacts. It allows you to easily search by location or job title and send out a customized email to up to 50 of your contacts each time.
- Schedule appointments automatically — Using a calendar manager like TimeBridge or Tungle, you can add a link to your account to your email signature or email campaigns, which will allow candidates to schedule time with you automatically no matter what email system they use. Employed candidates are just as busy if not more so than you are — make it easy for them to schedule conversations with you.
I’ll be honest, I still struggle to find time to source but the above plan does make sourcing for 25+ openings much more scalable. My hiring managers want it all! They want to be able visit my office a dozen times a day (sometimes just to chat about anything non-recruiting related) and send me millions of emails daily asking how my sourcing efforts are coming along. By using the tools listed above I have time to do it all! (Well, most of it anyways)
What are some tools and resources that you use to automate your sourcing and recruiting? Share them in the comments below.