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Supposedly, Albert Einstein once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Whether or not it was his quote, it is certainly a very wise statement.
Sometimes, you have to do something different, and that means getting creative.
Now is not the time to double down on traditional sourcing methods. Sticking rigidly to standard and trusted sourcing strategies might get you a steady stream of so-so applicants, but it won’t land you stand-out candidates.
Remember, the most successful recruiters don’t do ordinary. Simply posting job ads and waiting for applicants isn’t enough. To stay competitive, the best recruiters are pushing boundaries.
This blog explores ways to freshen up candidate sourcing so you can create a continual flow of high-quality hires.
What is Creative Sourcing?
The creative sourcing of candidates involves doing things differently and searching beyond the usual platforms. In the broadest sense, it means thinking outside the box and approaching things from a different perspective. It’s all about bringing out and connecting with unseen talent, including those who may not be actively looking for job opportunities.
So, in practical terms, what does creative sourcing involve? Strategies to source more creatively could include:
- Broadening job board reach
- Utilizing social media platforms more extensively and effectively
- Refining your content strategy
- Leveraging professional networks
- Attending, hosting or sponsoring job fairs and industry events
- Setting up an employee referral program
- Engaging with potential hires and passive candidates on online communities and forums
- Implementing software tools and AI
What Are the Benefits of Sourcing Creatively?
Creative sourcing does require time, effort and a bit of leftfield thinking, but there are so many benefits, and with the right recruiting tools, time-savings can be made elsewhere.
Some of the most significant benefits of creative sourcing include:
- Expanding your talent pool
- Increased diversity of applicants
- Reaching more passive candidates
- Differentiating your business from competitors
- Finding hidden talent gems
Candidate Sourcing Challenges
Let’s face it, recruiting is never without its challenges, but the types of obstacles recruiters come up against do change over time. The difficulties recruiters are facing today include:
- Talent scarcity: a shortage of highly skilled workers
- Finding the right candidates
- Reaching passive candidates
- Maintaining engagement with suitably qualified candidates
- Reducing time-to-hire
- Eliminating bias in the hiring process
- Collaborating with colleagues
- Keeping on top of admin
- Implementing new tech
10 Creative Ways to Source Candidates
Attracting new candidates for open positions has always required various methods to tease out the best applicants. Finding people with the right skills is getting more challenging, and recruiters must find new ways to replenish the talent pipeline.
Check out these hacks for creative candidate sourcing:
1. Supercharge Your Content Strategy
Your content marketing offers real potential to boost your recruitment efforts. Content can get important details about your business, your values, and the roles available to your target audience.
Your content should target the calibre of candidates you are trying to attract. Industry news, employee testimonials, company events, how-to guides, and general tips are popular with active and passive job seekers. Create a content calendar and publish regularly.
2. Get Savvy With Social Media
LinkedIn is the most popular platform for recruiting. Notably, according to stats by The Social Shepherd, 2.49 million users look for jobs through LinkedIn weekly. Moreover, 67% of recruiters say that professionals hired through LinkedIn are of higher quality.
LinkedIn is not to be scoffed at and is a fine resource for recruiters. However, you’ll need to look further to get the most out of social media. LinkedIn is a popular business platform with a vast user base (over 1 billion), but not everyone chooses to hang out there.
Social recruiting should extend to other platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Do your research. Find out where different generations and different kinds of professionals hang out online. For example, software developers and creative types are less likely to be on LinkedIn. Creatives are much more likely to network in less formal settings, either in person or online. Finding a niche group could land you your best hire yet.
3. Set Up an Employee Referral Program
Harnessing your team’s professional network is a surefire way to tap into talent and find better-qualified and more diverse candidates. It can reduce your time-to-hire metrics considerably by cutting out timewasters. Your employees and placed candidates will only refer people they feel confident can do the job and are interested. You can still skills test to ensure referrals are suitable for the role.
4. Optimize Careers Web Pages
There are many reasons to keep your careers site updated, mobile-friendly and well-designed. It is a window into your business – a poorly designed site doesn’t make a good impression and won’t help your Google ranking. Delight users with a relevant, simply designed and easy-to-navigate careers page. Update regularly, link to social media pages and provide an easy application process.
5. Attend Recruitment Events
Industry events and recruitment fairs provide an ideal opportunity to engage with talent. They also allow recruiters to showcase their brand, gather market intelligence from industry leaders, and share best practice advice with other recruitment professionals.
6. Widen Your Job Posting Platforms
It’s so easy to get stuck on repeat with job boards. And there are so many (thousands) that a recruiter’s budget can quickly get eaten up. Playing it safe isn’t always the best strategy. Niche job boards can be goldmines for candidate sourcing, especially when it comes to hard-to-fill roles. ATS software that helps automate job posting is a must.
7. Make Use of ATS & CRM Data and Reporting
The candidate data in your database is a huge asset and an all-too-often under-utilized resource. Candidates who didn’t make the grade in the past might be just what you are looking for now.
Your data and reporting tools can provide valuable information, from source effectiveness, time-to-fill, and retention rates to cost per hire and critical skill sets. A data-driven approach enhances efficiency and success in finding top talent. Be sure to choose an ATS that helps you utilize every inch of data, like Tracker’s!
8. Make Use of AI
More and more recruiters are using text-generating AI tools like ChatGPT for a myriad of purposes, from creating job board posts to writing interview questions. AI is also proving highly successful at reducing recruitment bias and organizing unstructured recruitment data.
9. Consider Transferable Skills
When a candidate doesn’t quite fit the mold, don’t rule them out completely. Dig a little deeper, and you might find they have transferrable skills. Keep your options open with close-fit candidates.
10. Look Beyond the Resume
There’s much more to a candidate than their resume. To find the perfect hires, you’ll need to get to know candidates and assess their problem-solving capacities, communication skills, and critical thinking abilities.
A resume doesn’t always convey professionalism, energy, intellectual curiosity, and any technical expertise not deemed essential for the role. Automate mundane tasks so you can spend more time getting to know people.
Recruitment Software: How Tracker Helps Recruiters Get the Edge
Creative sourcing has never been more critical to competitiveness and is a force for growth. But you must have the best recruitment tools to truly get creative and optimize success.
Tracker’s ATS & CRM Recruitment software offers:
- Automation tools so you can work smarter and faster
- Generative AI and data management tools to ensure you manage and analyze data effectively to make better strategic decisions
- Highly effective collaboration tools
- The ability to customize the recruitment funnel
- A plethora of integrations so you can post to over 1000+ Job Boards and social media
- An AI assistant and integrated ChatGPT
- Slicker personalized comms so that you can be more proactive with candidates
Why wait? See how Tracker can land you better hires faster and save you valuable time. Book a Demo now. Or speak to our talented team to learn more about how Tracker’s ATS can supercharge your recruiting game.
