These tips for strengthening candidate sourcing strategies were first published in July 2015. Copy and statistics were updated in November 2020 and August 2024.
Finding candidate sourcing strategies that work is an art — and like all art forms, it’s both challenging and rewarding. How do you know which channels are working and which aren't? When should you stick with proven sources, and when is it time to explore new ones? How do you choose the most effective sourcing tools as technology rapidly evolves?
Adding to the complexity, we’re recruiting from a workforce that’s more diverse than ever. For the first time, it’s made up of five — and sometimes six — generations of workers. Post-pandemic, industries like construction and healthcare are looking at years-long talent shortages. Across the board, candidates’ expectations of jobs and employers have shifted significantly, even compared to a few years ago.
Strengthening your candidate sourcing strategies is crucial to meeting these challenges. Take a second look at your current methods, experiment with new approaches, and invest in technology to stay competitive.
You can tap into new talent pools, offer an excellent candidate experience, and save time on recruitment tasks with these seven tips for refreshing your sourcing strategies.
1. Quality Over Quantity
When it comes to job applicants, prioritizing quality over quantity is key. Instead of focusing on how many candidates a source can provide, concentrate on the number of qualified candidates it can deliver. Depending on your industry, you could be flooded with applicants but find that few, if any, meet the necessary qualifications.
For instance, if you were hiring an equipment operator, would you rather evaluate 20 candidates with the right license and level of experience or 100 that meet half — or none — of those criteria?
Posting your equipment operator role on a large job board will likely bring in a high volume of applicants. However, targeting smaller, specialized job boards tailored to operators or skilled construction workers in your area will connect you with more of the candidates you really want.
Bonus Tip: If you want to attract higher-quality candidates, focus on developing a strong employer brand. Candidates who identify with your company culture, mission, and values are more likely to become engaged, loyal employees if hired.
2. Invest in Technology
Investing in candidate sourcing technology, like an applicant tracking system (ATS) with artificial intelligence (AI) built-in, is one of the smartest moves recruiters and HR teams can make. It gives you access to a platform that can streamline the entire sourcing process. Your ATS can automate tasks like candidate matching, resume screening, and communication.
AI-powered ATS solutions can scan massive talent pools and identify qualified candidates based on relevant skills, experience, geographic location, and more. In addition to starting the outreach process much more quickly, that helps you build a stronger talent pipeline overall. ATS systems with AI can also resurface past applicants and scan internal databases to recommend potential hires, saving recruiters time and effort.
Choosing an ATS with AI doesn’t just speed up sourcing — it improves accuracy and enables you to make data-driven decisions and fine-tune your strategies over time. The result? Higher-quality candidates and a more efficient recruitment process.
Bonus Tip: Get an ATS equipped with tools to nurture your leads. Look for a solution that can help you sort applicants into talent pools, write messages in seconds with AI assistance, and automate email outreach. An ATS helps you create personalized candidate experiences that attract high-quality applicants.
3. Track Your Stats
The only way to know for sure which candidate sourcing channels work best for your company is by tracking your stats. If you take our advice and invest in an ATS, identifying your top channels will be a breeze. When you implement a source-tracking solution, you’ll get data on which sources lead to hires the most frequently and which you’re better off putting on the back burner.
Tracking where you find your best candidates — as well as other important HR metrics — helps you better invest your time and money. For example, 48% of businesses say their best candidate source is their employee referral program. They can confidently invest time and resources into improving and enhancing that program, knowing that it’s proven to produce great results.
A strong ATS will help highlight where you find the best candidates so that you can stop investing in unproductive sources.
4. Ask Your Employees
We mentioned that employee referrals are a top candidate source for lots of businesses. Not only do companies frequently hire referred candidates, but those candidates also have a greater chance of becoming longtime employees. It’s an excellent way to reach passive candidates — people who aren’t actively looking for a new job — who may have never come across your job post on LinkedIn.
Implementing an employee referral program is a great way to attract more of these candidates, but it’s not the only way. Employees who are leaving the company on good terms or moving to a new role internally could also help out. Take the opportunity to ask them if anyone in their network might be interested in filling their position.
Get employees involved in sourcing and recruiting to help increase their sense of belonging at your organization. That’s a driving force behind employee engagement and retention — not to mention the benefits that come from employees having friends at work.
5. Set Guidelines, Not Standards
The ideal candidate — someone who ticks all the boxes — is so rare that in recruiting, we call them “purple squirrels.” If you get caught up trying to source perfect candidates, you’ll miss out on great ones. While it’s important to remember this advice as you source candidates, everyone from recruiting teams to hiring managers should keep it in mind.
Focus on finding great candidates by setting guidelines for what makes an ideal candidate rather than a strict standard. First, understand the purple squirrel — what does the perfect candidate look like? Then, consider what’s truly required and where you can be flexible to create a larger talent pool. Don’t be afraid of compromising in some areas if it means gaining new expertise that benefits your business.
Imagine you’re hiring RNs for an urgent care provider. The ideal candidate has an active nursing license and three years of experience working in an urgent care setting. While licensure is a non-negotiable requirement, the experience level and work environment are guidelines, and you end up hiring an RN with a year of experience in an emergency room.
Thanks to her ER experience, your RN hire is a star at handling urgent care patients who really need to go to the ER. She can quickly identify high-risk patients and ensure they get the appropriate care.
6. Create a Candidate Experience
An excellent candidate experience is a deciding factor in the success of your sourcing efforts. We know that because 75% of employees said that it impacted their decision to accept their jobs. It’s also a sure way to stand out from your competition — in recent years, more candidates than ever have reported negative experiences.
To source like a pro, you first need to think like a candidate to design an engaging candidate experience. How quickly do recruiters reach out after receiving job applications? Are they guilty of ghosting applicants or even candidates who are in the interview process? Do you tell them about other opportunities with your company if they aren’t hired for a role?
Good communication and transparency with candidates can turn them into brand ambassadors. That means even if they aren’t hired at your company, a good candidate experience makes it more likely that they’ll share positive feedback with their networks.
Bonus Tip: Leverage an HR chatbot on your career site to enhance your candidate experience. Job seekers can use the chatbot to find jobs that match their skills and experience, answer screening questions, and even schedule interviews. What’s often a weeks-long process can be condensed to minutes with the help of a chatbot.
7. Know Your (Talent) Audience
Thinking like a candidate also helps you understand your talent audience — the types of employees you want to reach. When you’re sourcing candidates, your ideal audience might be new college graduates or experienced people managers. You might be looking for professionals with experience in a closely related industry or with a specific software tool.
The better you know your audience, the better you can reach them with your sourcing efforts. Connect with professional groups they belong to, attend industry conferences, or launch targeted job ads. Whatever your approach, you can hone in on the strategies that speak to the employees you want to hire most.
A Modern Solution for Better Candidate Sourcing: ClearCompany
The ClearCompany Applicant Tracking System makes it easy to take your sourcing efforts to the next level. Our award-winning platform has all the tools you’d expect to find in a leading ATS, combined with groundbreaking AI capabilities to give you an edge over your competitors.
How could you transform your sourcing strategies with ClearCompany’s leading Applicant Tracking System? Find more candidates and get in touch with the most qualified people fast with AI-assisted Candidate Sourcing and Talent Match.
Ask about AI sourcing tools from ClearCompany when you sign up for a demo today.
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