A spectre is haunting our industry – the spectre of sourcing. Too long have we spent time under the shadow of recruiters, under the guise of recruitment. Fellow sourcers, I am tired of having to explain our value-add to people who just don’t get it, to justify our worth to businesses who simply aren’t interested in moving beyond the status quo, and I am tired of having to validate our very existence.
Right now, as we’re starting to gain some real visibility, it is time for us to properly define ourselves and consolidate ourselves as a unified industry. The community has its eyes on us and it’s up to us to show them who we are, beyond recruitment, marketing, or a PR piece, and to carve out our own future.
- How do we want to define what sourcing is?
- How do we standardise the quality of sourcers within the industry?
- How do we differentiate ourselves from recruiters?
- What’s the difference between a sourcer and a researcher?
- How do we stop would be sourcers from being
trickedlured into resourcing roles?
What do you want to see your sourcing association/council do to legitimise your industry? Now the time has come for us to emerge as an industry unto itself. The question is, do you want to be a part of building it?
Appropriately, later today as the SourceCon conference gets started, there is a group of sourcing leaders gathering for the first ever Corporate Sourcing Leadership Workshop to tackle some of these issues together. And here, we’re rallying the troops and plotting our path to the top of the mountain as well. Let me know in the comments section below if you’re keen on contributing to building a sourcing association/council in the hopes of legitimising our profession in the ANZ region.