As sourcing is always evolving, the training and development of a sourcer are essential for achieving and maintaining a high-performance level. It is crucial for sourcing managers, talent acquisition leaders, and HR executives to provide on-going sourcing training to ensure that their internal sourcing team attains this high level of performance. The right kind of training will ensure that the sourcing team remains current to any new industry trends in terms of both technique and tools. Below you will find some training suggestions that will assist the sourcer in acquiring more skills.
Develop an Internal Training Program
Although outside training is important to the development of an individual sourcer, internal training is fundamental to the success and development of a sourcing department. Internal training starts with the onboarding of new sourcers. Even if a sourcer comes with considerable experience, a base line of the sourcer’s skills should be assessed to determine areas for further development. It is recommended that an internal sourcing training program cover some of the main areas of sourcing; such as Boolean Operators, SEO, creation of engaging emails & postings, cold calling, and relationship management. The training should always be evolving to keep pace with new trends within sourcing.
Recommended Conferences
A sourcer can only grow so much with internal training, so it is recommended to continually look for training opportunities outside of the organization. One recommendation is to attend sourcing conventions such as SourceCon. At SourceCon, sourcers have the chance to learn from world-class practitioners and to interact with some of the brightest minds in sourcing. During breakout sessions, a heavy stream of new and innovative sourcing ideas is exchanged between sourcers from around the world.
Vendor Provided Training
Never take for granted that most sourcing vendors will provide great training and support for their products. Vendors are smart enough to know that if you use their products more effectively and get positive results; you will be more likely to retain their service. Vendors will usually give new insight into the use of their products. Best of all, the price on vendor-provided training is usually the best price of all–free!
External Training Programs – Onsite, Self-Directed Learning & Webinars
Over the past ten years, more and more sourcing training programs have sprung up that can teach sourcers some new tricks. Below you will find a list of some reputable companies with a brief description for each.
AIRS – One old standby in the training game is AIRS. AIRS training is a great way for sourcers to learn and develop their Boolean techniques. AIRS training has both virtual and onsite options.
ERE – A great option for sourcers, who do not have the time for scheduled classes, is self-directed learning. ERE’s On-Demand Learning for sourcers and recruiters provides courses for self-directed learning. A sourcing training program they offer can increase a sourcer’s capabilities to find and engage top candidates online, such as the latest Boolean tools and skills to quickly improve talent searches. Additionally, how to position recruiters to work more productively with sourcers. ERE offers another program which focuses on how to become an effective Talent Advisors. This great program can move a sourcer from a transactional recruiter to a consultative recruiter.
Recruiter Academy – Another great training program is the Recruiter Academy run by Lean Human Capital. The online program is a great way for sourcers or recruiters to develop their whole recruitment game as well to improve their time management skills.
Recruiting Toolbox helps corporate recruiters, hiring managers and interviewers improve their recruitment capabilities through real-world, practical, custom-built training. Recruiting Toolbox Talent Advisor training helps recruiting teams elevate and lead the recruitment process and play a more consultative role with unrealistic, unresponsive or untrained hiring managers. They also offer sourcing, closing, and leadership training.
Social Talent is another great place for sourcing training. They have an online Sourcing Ninja training where sourcers are taught everything from being a Boolean Ninja, how to write better job ads, to personal branding to building a sustainable network and engaging with talent across multiple platforms.
Tenfold offers a variety of courses covering the key phases of talent acquisition: sourcing, engagement and employer branding.
The Sourcing Certification Program covers “everything” sourcing; individual participants and teams can pick and choose what works best for them. The program offers training webinars (such as Recruitment Research, Find Anyone’s Contact Information, and Sourcing without LinkedIn), and a deep training library of over twenty in-depth recorded sessions. Those who wish to study on their own schedule subscribe to the self-paced sourcing guidebook. For teams of recruiters, the program offers customized training sessions and support.
The Searchologist – Since 2009, Katrina Collier has been showing SMEs to global Corporates around the world how to source their staff on social media; transforming HR & recruiters into certified Searchologists. London UK based, Katrina is a social recruiting specialist; a global trainer and keynote speaker, sharing proven techniques gained from over a decade of full cycle recruitment and social recruiting experience.
Transform Talent Acquisition is a company that focuses on sourcer and recruiter training. The type of training that they offer are active & passive sourcing, candidate engagement techniques, and technology education. The sourcer training covers every single known and unknown sourcing method including profile searches, social media sourcing, traditional resume searches, the logic behind search strings, blog searches, attendee lists, user groups, professional associations, finding candidate emails, diversity searches, and constructing Google Custom Search Engines. The training is geared for sourcers and recruiters of all levels. They can be entry-level or they can have 20+ years of experience in the industry. The length of the training varies and can be a one-day crash course, a few days of selected modules and exercises, or a full-blown course that lasts 2-3 weeks. This training has been applied to entire sourcing and recruiting groups at many different corporations with a high level of success and positive feedback.
This is part three in the series on how to build a high-performance sourcing department. Please see links see part one and part two.