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In this article, we are highlighting actionable candidate sourcing best practices for recruitment along with funnel optimization tips.
Seeking qualified candidates fast and filling jobs is essential to your bottom line. The more positions you can fill effectively, the more you can take on, allowing for growth.
But how do you find the best candidates in less time? We recommend using an integrated recruitment software, like Tracker, to optimize the candidate sourcing process through a series of integrated sourcing techniques and tools.
As a reminder, this latest blog series is all about optimizing the recruitment process; from posting jobs all the way through onboarding and beyond. If you haven’t already, you can check out our first post in the series all about optimizing your job postings.
With that, let’s continue! You’ve now optimized, posted, and distributed your job. It’s time to begin searching for the most qualified and best-fitting candidates. Follow the below best practices to optimize your candidate sourcing process!
How to Optimize Candidate Sourcing
Step 1: Database Candidate Search
You’ve likely already got some great candidates in your ATS or database; Tracker’s Candidate Search integration allows you to quickly search and match the right candidate with boolean search logic as well as over 80 customizable filters.
Coupled with our intelligent ranking that compares both resume history alongside Tracker’s own CRM history, our Candidate Search is one of the most complete and sophisticated on the market.
Tracker’s Skill Profiling tool allows you to also build Semantic Search dictionaries, allowing for highly targeted, relevant and productive searches.
Even better, skills can also be implied from phrases, specific words, and acronyms used in candidate resumes. Did we mention this is all done automatically as resumes come into the Tracker system?
You can take candidate search to the next level with Tracker’s Auto Match. This automation is designed to ensure that all Candidates placed in Tracker are checked against your open jobs constantly.
Key Features & Time-Savers:
- Robust Candidate Search
- Intelligent Ranking
- Resume Search
- Radius Search and Map View
- Skills Profiling
- Auto Match
“We reviewed a ton of ATS/CRM systems, and Tracker is the most comprehensive system that caters to our needs. It enables us to very specifically categorize our candidates by not only their job category, but their specific area of expertise and supplementary skills. This allows us to hone in on the right candidate for a given position quickly.” – Ryan R.
Step 2: One-Click Job Board Search
You could log into all of your job boards separately, search with each boards unique criteria, attempt to import the good candidates, or add them manually into your database. This does not sound fun to us. Luckily, there is a better way!
Tracker’s fully integrated Job Board Search feature is a great place to begin. This tool allows recruiters to search all subscription and free job boards all at one time. Results are automatically de-duplicated and ranked so you can quickly see the best candidates from everywhere in one single list.
If you want to take your job board game to the next level. Watchdogs is going to really optimize your candidate sourcing.
Watchdogs allow your consultants to configure a sophisticated search in their Job, watching each of your Job Boards for new candidates that match, on a daily basis. If a candidate updates their profile and now becomes a great fit, Watchdogs will send an on-screen alert for follow-up. How would your recruiters like to wake up to new opportunities with only a few simple clicks to set it up?
Watchdogs can be started Job by Job, or generic Watchdogs can be setup to scan the job boards for any new Candidates within a specific geography and/or with specific skills. Coupled with our Auto Match feature you can ensure that relevant candidates are found and matched to your open jobs with zero touch, filling your recruitment pipeline with the best and most recent Candidates constantly.
Put simply, your Tracker Watchdogs crawl the job boards every night to find new Candidates, process them and automatically send them a personalized email from the recruiter. Complete and automated candidate sourcing.
Key Features & Time-Savers:
- ATS-Integrated Job Board Search
- Ability to Search 100s of Job Boards at Once
- Auto Ranked Results
- Watchdogs 24/7 Job Board Sourcing
- Automated Resume Parsing and Import
- Auto Engage
“I don’t search job boards individually anymore as I do this alongside the candidates in the database. It is quick to search and use the system so it’s a real time saver.” – Tracker User
Step 3: Integrate Social Media for Candidate Search
We all know how vital social media has become for recruiters seeking to find candidates and build relationships.
It’s important to find your sweet spot when it comes to the various platforms available, and your particular audience. From Facebook to LinkedIn to Doximity to Snapchat, depending on your market, you will want to have a unique approach to sourcing on social channels.
At Tracker, we are lucky to partner with one of the premier social enabling platforms on the market, Paiger. With Tracker + Paiger, your jobs and other relevant content get pushed out to all of your channels at once, as well as to your employees profiles as desired. It doesn’t only save your entire team time, but it amplifies your reach incredibly.
Additionally, Tracker has built two key LinkedIn integrations to support your candidate sourcing.
The first is our built-in X-Ray Search, which gives recruiters unlimited access to the entire LinkedIn database, regardless of network. When using this feature, recruiters can quickly and easily find and create candidate contacts instantly into Tracker from LinkedIn.
The LinkedIn Chrome Extension is our second key integration, which allows Tracker to connect directly to your LinkedIn and import contact information and even photos instantly into Tracker without ever needing to login to Tracker.
Want to learn more about recruiting on social media? Check out these 13 Strategies for Attracting Qualified Candidates.
Key Features & Time-Savers:
- Search Relevant Social Channels for Candidates
- Use Tracker’s LinkedIn X-Ray Search
- Easy Add Candidates to Your ATS with LinkedIn Chrome Extension
- Share (and Boost) Jobs on Relevant Social Channels
- Share and Engage with Non-Job Content, Too
- Join and Engage in Industry Groups
“Not only is it easy to navigate and use, but there are many features that improve the general quality of life. From the Google Chrome extension that I use every day to the LinkedIn and email integrations that keep up with my tasks. ” – Sam J.
Step 4: Engage Your Sourced Candidates
You’ve optimized your search and now have a ranked list of candidates to reach out to. Now it’s time to engage.
Using your ATS’s built-in CRM (or Tracker), you should be able to build out a drip campaign or sequence of touch-points to engage with these sourced candidates.
What would this look like? A customized introduction email with the specific job highlights, how your firm works, an automated reminder to followup with a phone call, etc. Maybe even an automated follow-up text to assure they received the email.
In Tracker, you can create a custom sequence of branded and designed email templates and workflow automations. All of these emails and text messages templates in Tracker include dynamic and custom fields, so your communications always feel personal and deliberate.
These sequences are a great tool to engage and build relationships without having to send one-off emails to each candidate, and create reminders for yourself.
Key Features & Time-Savers:
- Automated Sequences for Engaging and Nurturing
- Customize (and Personalize) with Dynamic Fields
- Automated Followup Reminders for Recruiters
“…[T]he features around sequences have changed my business. We do so much passive recruitment so this feature helps us enormously.” – Tracker User
Quick tip
Don’t forget about passive candidates! Sure, they are currently in a position, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t willing to consider other opportunities if it’s a good fit. Using our applicant tracking system, you can also find passive candidates as most often their resumes are still available on job boards and in databases, which can easily be imported and ranked in Tracker.
Building Better Candidate Sourcing Practices for Recruitment
Tracker offers intuitive and time-saving features to support your recruitment team in sourcing the most qualified candidates efficiently. Our multitude of candidate sourcing features allow you and your team to work smarter, not harder for all around success.
Want to see how much time our Candidate Sourcing functions can save your recruitment team? Contact us to book a demo.
About Tracker
Tracker helps recruiting and staffing firms build better processes, workflows, and revenue every day. Over the last 15+ years, we have developed Tracker into a leading cloud-based Recruitment, Applicant Tracking and CRM Software provider serving staffing and recruiting firms across the globe.
