Sourcing is the activity you do to proactively identify and attract top talent so that when a position becomes available, you have developed a pipeline of qualified candidates. It is in majority of the time working with identifying passive candidates and turning them into potentially open for further discussion.

For recruiters the focus is on recruitment project management from identifying the expectations for the role and candidate to managing involved stakeholders, designing the recruitment experience, candidate screening, interviewing, presenting opportunities, reference-checks, negotiating offers and so much more.

In contemporary workplaces when a recruiter starts their project, the sourcing team has already done the majority of their job to create the candidate pool. A candidate pool that has qualified, interested and available candidates.

To each their own focus

As for sourcers, the primary goal is to identify talent through data analysis and research. For recruiters, the primary goal is to build trust with the candidate and to guide them through the recruitment process to the offer stage.

The interactions that sourcers have with candidates are with the aim to encourage them to apply. While for the recruiters, the interaction is to develop a working relationship to uncover their priorities and to be a liaison between the candidate and the hiring manager.

While sources identify potential candidates' experience, talents and skill levels, then recruiters help both the candidate and the hiring manager to evaluate actual suitability.

Hold off from jumping head-first into Boolean

The most common tool for sourcers is to use talent networks (LinkedIn, AngelList, Xing, Slack communities, Reddit etc) or a search engine with a Boolean search string.

What is Boolean? Boolean is a search tool that allows you to limit or require specific results with 3 key operators of AND, OR, NOT.

A common way for sourcers to work is to take the profile or opening of the position, pick out main keywords and use them in the search string to gather an initial potential list of people to reach out to. This, in my opinion, is a limiting way to approach it.

Boolean search success is tightly connected to the quality of data. If we think about how specific the position is on their skill set or experience, then there is a high chance of stumbling on the same results as every other sourcer is. Secondly boolean offers us matches that are an exact match to the query but does not have the capability of finding synonyms or related skills. Therefore I would suggest creating 2 to 3 keyword different sourcing approaches for a more wider selection.

And if really really want to advance in your sourcing, turn your attention to AI-driven sourcing which offers you less unconscious bias plus easier and faster usability.

Can a sourcer and recruiter be the same person?

Yes but no.

I believe in transferable skills and adaptability, therefore strong sourcing skillset can be utilised in a recruitment role, and vice versa.

BUT, as sourcing and recruiting are based on opposing strengths, therefore it is a conflicting approach to expect your recruiter to be as good as a sourcer (or the opposite).

For a successful sourcer, you should enjoy research, and be detail-oriented and thorough. The best sourcers are like data miners who look beyond keywords and see potential and experience. For the best recruiters, it is highly beneficial to have an outgoing personality that makes it easy to create interpersonal connections and you should enjoy driving dialogue, and be skilled in active listening.

Therefore I understand the common practice of having a recruiter's job include sourcing. I just do not agree that it is a scalable approach that fits growing companies. If you have in your org 2-4 ongoing recruitments at once, it is good enough to have this 2 in 1 position. In any other consistent higher volume reality, I would encourage you to be more forward-thinking and hire a sourcer.

BONUS! 3 underutilised methods for sourcing

I hope your sourcing techniques are more advanced than typing "Position name" in the LinkedIn Recruiter search bar with your wished location city. If this is what you think sourcing is, I highly recommend starting off with an actual workshop or course for contemporary sourcing techniques.

For anyone else who already has a fuller understanding of what sourcing is, here are 3 ideas to utilise.

1. Create a talent pool with the network of your own existing top talent. If every employee in your company recommends 3 top professionals from their own network (from university, previous workplaces etc) you already have a 3 times larger potential talent pool than your current existing company.

2. Map the source of your current top performers. What university did they come from? What previous workplaces have they had? What associations or professional networks are they part of? What information does your target talent consume and via what medium (is it LinkedIn-specific topics; Twitter hashtags; Reddit; meetups, etc)?

3. Stand out with specific performance objectives. Every other open position description we open, we see a long list of required experience and skills "We want X years of Y and Z skills for W." Yadayadayaa. As a sourcer, that does not help you actually engage the real top talent that you need for the candidate pool. Therefore next time ask the hiring manager/recruitment lead 5 performance objectives which would show you have the candidate would be evaluated. This creates an opportunity for you to source candidates that have transferable skills over specific keywords.