How's your recruitment pipeline looking?
Is it packed with a wide variety of qualified, engaged candidates just waiting to be matched to their dream job?
Or is it looking a little lacklustre?
Robust and innovative candidate sourcing strategies are critical for developing a healthy recruitment pipeline and overall recruitment agency success.
If your pipeline needs replenishing, take a look at our 22 recruiting sourcing strategies for agencies in 2024 and motivate your recruiters to take a proactive approach to hiring.
Read more: 9 SMART Goals for Recruitment and How to Track Them
What is Candidate Sourcing?
Candidate sourcing is the proactive search for potential candidates to fill current and future job openings.
In 2024, creative talent sourcing strategies encompass a wide range of elements, from traditional techniques such as posting on jobs boards and networking at industry events, to modern strategies like agency/employer branding and social media engagement.
To stay competitive, agencies must invest in advanced digital tools that enhance their recruitment sourcing strategy, from automation and data analytics capabilities to platforms that host incredible candidate journeys.
5 Most Common Challenges with Candidate Sourcing in 2024
Of course, as recruitment becomes more complex, so does sourcing top talent.
Here are five of the most common sourcing challenges in 2024:
- Increased competition for top talent is perhaps the number one sourcing challenge you will encounter. With so many recruitment agencies and companies competing for the same top candidates, attractive employer and recruitment agency branding has never been more critical.
- The rapid evolution of sourcing technologies such as AI, automation, and ATS/CRM tech can boost agencies that get their tech stack right — but it can also be incredibly confusing. Agency leaders must invest in the right tech for their specific needs.
- The growing need for diversity in the workforce means that creative ideas for recruitment are vital for sourcing, as is the diversification of sourcing channels. In 2024, recruiters must think outside the box to make the very best hires.
- Engaging qualified candidates is vital in a recruitment landscape experiencing talent shortages. The top professionals are likely swamped with emails and messages from recruiters, whether they are actively job-seeking or not. Stand out with personalised outreach, relevant, engaging content, and automated email sequences.
- Delivering a seamless candidate experience is vital to avoid candidate drop-off. Candidates expect a frictionless candidate experience that looks great and is optimised for mobile. Anything less will dent their trust in your agency and their potential future employer and potentially cause them to drop out of the process.
22 Sourcing Strategies for Recruiters to Use in 2024
So, how do you source candidates? And how do you develop an effective talent sourcing strategy?
If you're looking for sourcing strategies examples, you've come to the right place. Here are 23 innovative talent sourcing strategies for recruiters in 2024 and beyond.
1. Develop a Dynamic Employer Branding Strategy
If you want to attract the best, you need to be the best.
This means striving to position your recruitment agency as a top employer and cultivating a solid reputation within the sector or area in which you operate.
There are a variety of tactics you can employ to enhance your reputation, including:
- Develop a strong mission statement and agency values
- Create a bank of informative and authoritative content targeted at your ideal candidate profile
- Post regularly on social media and engage in online discussions around relevant topics
- Build a series of client and candidate testimonials to use on your website and social media
- Attend networking events and speak at conferences
- Partner with local universities, colleges, and charities
- Enter and win industry awards
- Use a PR strategy to place good news surrounding your agency and candidates in the media
- Ensure your branding and tone of voice are consistent across your website and all internal and external communications
However, the most effective way to cultivate a strong reputation is simply to deliver an excellent service to candidates and clients — and then shout about it.
2. Implement a Continuous Candidate Engagement Plan
Don't let great candidates drop out of your talent pool.
Instead, keep potential candidates engaged through regular communication and updates, such as email roundups of new jobs added or LinkedIn messages to determine whether candidates are actively seeking roles.
For passive candidates, this keeps your agency at the forefront of their minds when they decide to move roles. For active candidates, it prompts them to apply for vacant roles. And for you, it gives you a wider pool of candidates to draw from when jobs are added.
This can be achieved with minimal manual work through automated email and text sequences, and a private messaging strategy on Linkedin.
3. Use AI-Powered Sourcing Tools
Over the past few years, AI has revolutionised sourcing talent strategies — and it will only continue to do so.
Sourcing is one of the areas that AI has impacted the most.
Cutting-edge recruitment tools now empower users to automate the identification and initial screening of candidates, vastly increasing the speed and accuracy of the sourcing process.
AI sourcing tools scour the jobs boards for potential candidates, using keywords, job titles, skills and locations to return the best matches for vacancies.
AI tools can also help with the initial screening of candidates by evaluating the results of assessments. Using historical data, they can identify which competencies, skills, personalities, and experiences the candidates most likely to succeed in a role would have.
With AI tools, recruiters no longer have to shoulder the burden of tedious, repetitive tasks involved in sourcing — freeing them up for higher-value, human-led activities.
4. Host Virtual Career Fairs
In the digital era, recruiters can easily connect with a much wider pool of candidates than they once could.
Recruitment agencies should harness the power of virtual events to connect with top talent worldwide, reducing geographical hiring barriers.
Virtual career fairs are an effective way to sell your brand to candidates from across the globe while gathering their contact data to begin their engagement sequence.
Furthermore, virtual career fairs require little effort from candidates, making it easier to draw in the crowds.
Read more: How to Measure Recruitment Effectiveness — 7 Recommendations from OneUp
5. Establish Strong University Partnerships
Tap into fresh talent with your sourcing talent strategy by establishing strong partnerships with universities, positioning your agency prominently on campuses and attending jobs fairs.
There are many long-term benefits to becoming students' number one recruitment agency before they've even graduated.
After all, this is a highly educated talent pool full of students who will be looking for graduate jobs within the next 1-3 years.
Engage this audience by targeting them with content about how to find and secure your first graduate job and bolster your CV while at university.
6. Diversify Social Media Sourcing Channels
LinkedIn is the obvious social media channel for recruiters to use, but don't be afraid to diversify your social media channels, especially when targeting specific industries or skills.
For example, on X (formerly known as Twitter), you can use industry-specific or event-specific hashtags to find top talent in various sectors. Instagram is a great place to find marketers and professionals in the creative industries.
Meanwhile, TikTok could be more effective if you're specifically seeking graduates.
7. Leverage Advanced Boolean Search Techniques
Boolean search is a technique that allows you to target specific skill sets more precisely on platforms like LinkedIn.
The three basic Boolean operators are:
- "AND"
- "OR"
- "NOT"
So, for example, you could search for:
"Digital Marketing AND video editing"
For an even more precise search, you can combine different operators like this:
"Digital Marketing AND video editing NOT (graphic design)".
Using more advanced Boolean operators will refine your search further.
These include:
- The * is often a wildcard that acts as a placeholder for any letter. For example, if you were searching for a colourist, you could write colo*rist to find colourists in both the US and the UK.
- Quoted searches, which are performed by enclosing exact phrases in double speech marks. For example, "product manager" would ensure you only see product managers rather than product owners.
8. Enhance Referral Programmes
Referral programs are often a bit of an afterthought for recruitment agencies.
However, focusing on developing a straightforward referral programme with solid incentives can become a highly effective sourcing channel.
Referral programme software can help you structure your referral programme, develop a smooth and engaging user journey, and ensure it generates interest.
9. Focus on Passive Candidate Sourcing
Passive candidate sourcing is a long-term strategy for filling up your candidate pipeline — and that's precisely why it often falls to the bottom of the priority list of recruiters looking for quick wins.
Yet sourcing passive candidates can help you develop a higher-quality talent pool.
After all, you're targeting candidates who are already successful in their field.
This is why it's important to develop strategies for engaging passive candidates who are not actively seeking new roles but may be open to opportunities.
Passive candidate sourcing recruitment strategies may include:
- Engaging passive candidates on social media through content and direct messages
- Personalised email, text, and phone call outreach
- Hosting events and networking at conferences
- Engaging previously rejected candidates
- Using AI-powered tools to sift through CVs on the web
10. Optimise Job Descriptions
With so much recruitment sourcing now happening online, it's essential to ensure that job postings are clear, engaging, and search-optimised to attract the right candidates.
Regarding SEO, ensure primary keywords are in the title, meta description and body copy of your job posting.
Your copywriter or marketing team should be able to help ensure your job description reads well and is in line with the brand tone of voice.
11. Create Online Talent Communities
Instead of hunting candidates down, attract them to you by creating online talent communities that can help them.
Develop online forums or social media groups where potential candidates can engage with your agency — and each other.
These communities could be grouped around specific niches you frequently recruit into — such as accounting — or networks of professionals in similar circumstances, such as new graduates or women in business.
This will build a proactive talent pool while also fostering a sense of community and belonging.
It should attract passive candidates who are interested in what's going on in their sector and then convert them into active candidates.
12. Cultivate an Inclusive Talent Acquisition Sourcing Strategy
If you don't take a proactive approach to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in your sourcing strategy, you're missing out on a huge amount of top talent.
This means ensuring job descriptions are inclusive, widening your sourcing channels, and ensuring your agency branding clearly communicates D,E&I values.
Putting D,E&I at the forefront of your sourcing practices vastly broadens your candidate pool, enables you to tap fresh new talent, and helps your clients meet their goals.
But first and foremost, it helps you to deliver a better service to your customers.
13. Expand Your Search with Niche Job Boards and Professional Associations
If you're frequently sourcing into specific industries, it makes sense to niche down your sourcing channels.
Think niche job boards and professional associations that allow you to tap into existing talent networks within the relevant sectors.
This way, you're accessing a concentrated pool of talent that may not be active on mainstream job boards — cutting down the time it takes to source highly relevant candidates who are great matches for job descriptions.
14. Foster Strong Relationships with Hiring Managers On the Client's Side
As recruiters, we're often keen to get started on new jobs added to maximise commission.
But thoroughly investigating the hiring manager's brief before you kick off your search will almost always save you a lot of time in the long run.
Spend time building relationships with the client's hiring managers to ensure alignment on required qualifications and expectations.
This will streamline the sourcing process, ensure the client feels listened to and valued and deliver more relevant candidates.
This makes it more likely your client will return to your agency next time they have hiring needs.
15. Regularly Update your Talent Pipeline
Out-of-date candidate information is useless to you and adds significant friction into the sourcing process.
Ensure candidate information and work status are continuously updated in your systems so recruiters work with a fresh, relevant database.
While this sounds time-consuming—especially if you're working across several tools and platforms—much of this work can now be automated.
Recruitment analytics software OneUp, for example, pulls information in from across your tech stack, meaning that if you update candidate details in one place, this information will be automatically transferred.
16. Adopt Mobile-Friendly Application Processes
In 2024, you can't afford not to have a mobile app.
Indeed, research from Statcounter found that over half of world wide web traffic now comes from mobile devices. And this trend is only going to grow: smartphones are the preferred device for 75% of Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012), according to IBM research.
With many online application platforms now offering an app, you need to make sure your agency is keeping up with the competition.
At the very least, ensure your application process is accessible by and optimised for mobile devices to accommodate on-the-go applicants. Meanwhile, investing in an app will help create a smoother user journey.
17. Personalise Candidate Outreach
Tailor communications to reflect the candidate's background and potential fit within the agency.
This personalised approach should elevate response rates, especially if potential candidates think you've done your research and genuinely believe they would be a great fit for the role.
After all, nothing will put a candidate off responding like bulk emails containing jobs irrelevant to their skills, experience, or salary expectations.
Craft personalised and compelling outreach messages designed to resonate with your ideal candidate profiles and segment your audience into small groups to allow for deeper personalisation.
Remember — effective communication is vital when converting passive viewers into active applicants.
18. Utilise Predictive Analytics
In 2024, you risk falling behind the competition if you're not using predictive analytics.
Predictive analytics tools in recruitment use historical data to project future trends and hiring needs.
These data analytics tools can forecast more accurately than humans, leading to significantly better results.
So employ predictive analytics to get a more accurate picture of future hiring needs based on client company growth and turnover rates.
Read more: The State of Recruitment 2024 — Trends and Benchmarks Report
19. Embrace Global Sourcing Opportunities
In the post-pandemic era, most employers are no longer confined by geographical boundaries.
By looking beyond local or national borders, recruiters can vastly expand their reach, significantly broadening their talent pools.
This is especially useful if you hire into niche industries where the required skills and experience for roles are not frequently available in your immediate area.
Ensure that when you're uploading job adverts to jobs boards or social media sites, you don't set a geographical limit, instead flagging the role as remote — if your client is happy for you to do so.
Indeed, through a global talent sourcing strategy, you can find a much better fit for any role—they might just be thousands of miles away!
20. Revisit Former Candidates
Just because a candidate didn't make the cut for a previous role doesn't mean you should count them out.
After all, previous candidates have already been vetted and screened — significantly reducing the amount of time you need to spend sourcing them.
Regularly engage professionals who previously applied or were sourced through your agency but who were not hired.
They could be a better fit for different roles, have upskilled, or gain more experience since you last spoke.
This is a simple way to replenish your talent pipeline.
21. Host Talent Hackathons
The problem with traditional job assessments and interviews is that often, you simply end up with candidates who are great at traditional job assessments or interviews.
Simply put, often these tests are not a realistic replica of the job.
Screen professionals more thoroughly by organising events that allow potential candidates to showcase their skills in real-world challenges.
This will not only give you vital insight into their capabilities but also more meaningfully engage potential candidates.
Furthermore, holding innovative candidate events boosts awareness of and conversation around your agency, attracting top talent.
22. Use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) Efficiently
Your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is much more than just a database.
It's a powerful tool to facilitate and improve candidate relationship management.
But often, recruiters treat it as little more than a directory of contact details.
Truly harnessing the power of your ATS means you can easily keep track of interactions and candidate status changes.
Why is this important?
It makes it much easier to engage top candidates with the right opportunity at the right time.
Closing Thoughts: Enhancing Candidate Sourcing with OneUp
With fierce competition over top talent and agencies increasingly investing in cutting-edge tech tools to beat the competition, adopting innovative sourcing strategies in recruitment has never been more critical.
From enhancing your agency's reputation through employer branding and marketing output, to actively sourcing in creative places and performance-based recruitment, there are so many exciting, modern strategies waiting to be actioned.
And when looking to boost sourcing, upgrading your tech stack is imperative.
Tools like recruitment performance management software OneUp empower recruiters to deliver better results for clients while saving time.
This advanced software makes performance tracking easy, with custom dashboards with beautiful, intuitive visualisations and automation capabilities.
OneUp's vast range of integrations also means it should seamlessly plug into your CRM, providing a single source of truth for your data.
Meanwhile, its recruitment gamification tools enable agency leaders to motivate their teams to consistently improve their candidate sourcing strategies.
These include leaderboards, leagues, and missions, as well as celebration anthems that automatically ring out when recruiters reach their goals.
Ready to step up your sourcing game? Book your OneUp demo here today.
