how to build a proactive candidate sourcing strategy

How to Build a Proactive Candidate Sourcing Strategy

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Thursday, August 11, 2016

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Kiran DhillonContent Marketing ManagerLever@kirandhillon4

Thanks for joining us!

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Our Featured Speaker

James BriggsTechnical Sourcer at Lever@sourcingmind@Lever

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Why talk about this?

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● Sourcing tends to be an abstract and misunderstood craft.

● It’s very easy to get disorganized or overwhelmed by information in sourcing, especially in the early stages.

● There isn’t much great training available for sourcing.

● The recruiting profession is constantly evolving.

● The why in sourcing is rarely considered as important as the what.

What is talent sourcing?

The process of searching for and engaging individuals identified as relevant or “likely to be qualified” for a role in an effort to introduce them to your hiring process and build a pipeline of

highly qualified candidates.

There are many potential manifestations of this. Fact: there’s no one way to do it.

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The Proactive Sourcing Workflow: 3 Stages

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Outreach

Kickoff Search Outreach Measurement+

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STAGE 1: KICKOFF

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Stage 1: Kickoff

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5 Buckets of Information:

1. Role: What & Why?

2. Criteria: What Makes a Candidate?

3. Informing the Search

4. Informing the Sell

5. Questions For Team Members (If Applicable)

1. Role: What & Why?

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❏ The role itself: title, team within which it falls, reasoning behind creation of role to begin with

❏ Function & responsibilities of role within scope of team

❏ Function/responsibilities of role within scope of company at large

❏ Technology, tools, and specific skills employed by role/team

❏ Growth potential for someone in this role over time

2. Criteria: What Makes a Candidate?

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Base SkillsetProject/Leadership

ExperienceOther

Must-Haves (Requirements)

Nice-to-Haves(Bonuses)

❏ Seniority level(s) desired? (How do you define seniority?):

3. Informing the Search

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❏ Likely companies/titles focused on similar technology, products, or services?

❏ Most successful candidates for this role so far (if applicable)? Least successful? Why?

❏ How much does education (degree level, major, school) matter?

❏ From the perspective of someone who’s been deep in this domain for a while, where might you start a search for this? Where might this community congregate/connect with one another?

4. Informing the Sell

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❏ How would you sell this role to someone who’s content where they are, particularly as it relates to the mission/scope of the company?

❏ What might set this role apart from similar roles in other companies (if applicable)?

5. Questions for Team Members

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❏ [PREFACE to HM] Who are the rock-stars/team members that I should really talk to?

❏ How would you describe your responsibilities here? What outcomes are you trying to achieve?

❏ Why did you come here? What keeps you here?

❏ What are the best/most rewarding parts of your role and being on the team? What are the most challenging?

❏ How are you looking to grow here?

❏ How would you sell your role to someone who’s content in theirs? What sets it apart?

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STAGE 2: (RE)SEARCH

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Stage 2: (Re)Search

We’ll cover:

❏ Preparatory Research & Market Mapping❏ Sources: The Where

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1. Preparatory Research & Market Mapping

Do Your Research: Unfamiliar territory? Get to know the domain.

Market Mapping: Getting to know the structure and content of the talent market and domain within which you are going to be searching (for a given role).

Get searching. Build relevant lists of data, such as:

❏ Companies with related technology, products, or services❏ Similar titles/roles within the domain and the companies they’re a part of

Resources: Initial kickoff. Google, Bing. Social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.). Your network/colleagues.

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2. Sources: The Where

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2. Sources: The Where

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Your ATS

2. Sources: The Where

Your ATS

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2. Sources: The Where

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❏ Boolean searches: resumes, blogs, personal sites, etc.* - Google alerts!

❏ App stores❏ Company websites❏ Online forums/mailing lists❏ Conference attendee/speaker lists❏ Patents & white papers❏ Additional social media/networks: TheLadders,

Instagram❏ Sourcing applications (aggregators/databases):

Entelo, Gild, TalentBin, Connectifier, etc.❏ Referral generation: Simppler, Teamable

★ In-person sourcing (events, conferences, etc.)

Additional Tools & Resources

2. Sources: The Where

Think critically & prioritize!

Guiding questions:

❏ Given what I’m looking for, as well as how far into my search I am, is this resource worth my time? What’s the potential ROI?

❏ How much, and what kind, of information is available to me here? How do I access it?

❏ How long would it potentially take me to find something useful here?

★ Just because you can source in certain place or leverage a certain resource doesn’t mean you should.

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A Note on Boolean Search

Core knowledge for any sourcer!

★ X-Ray: “site:”

Example X-Ray search:

site:linkedin.com inurl:in -inurl:title "sales manager" "san francisco bay area"

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STAGE 3: OUTREACH

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Stage 3: Outreach

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1. Motivations-Based Outreach

2. Personalization

3. Rounding Out Your Message

4. Tools & Resources

1. Motivations-Based Outreach

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❏ Product/Service and Impact: What product(s) or service(s) your company provides (and to whom), as well as the overall impact (and the scale of that impact) that is made

❏ Technology and/or Problem Set: The set of technologies (if applicable) leveraged by a role/team/company, as well as the problems being solved/challenges available.

❏ Culture & Company Specifics: Your company’s culture (values, philosophies, work environment, etc.) and general details (i.e. profitability, investors, size, growth rate, funding, leadership, etc.)

❏ Role Scope and Responsibility: The overall scope of responsibilities an individual in a given role would have the opportunity to take on (contributions, projects, leadership, etc.)

❏ Individual Development and Role Potential: The combination of professional growth (responsibility and/or “upward mobility”) and personal development possible over time

❏ Compensation: Total package (salary, benefits, equity [if applicable], etc.).

1. Motivations-Based Outreach

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Focus AreaProduct/Service &

Impact

Technology and/or

Problem Set

Culture & Company Specifics

Role Scope & Responsibility

Individual Development

& Role Potential

Compensation

Application CompanyCompany,

Team, RoleCompany,

TeamRole Role Role

Strengths / Positives

Weaknesses / Negatives

2. Personalization

Are you more likely to open an email that says speaks to you personally, or one that blindly tries to sell you on a company you’ve never heard of before?

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Source: Aline Lerner, What I learned from reading 8,000 recruiting messages

Personalization inspiration:

❏ LinkedIn summaries & recommendations❏ Twitter bios & tweets ❏ Stack Overflow answers (tech talent)❏ Quora answers ❏ Github projects (tech talent)❏ Facebook pages ❏ Dribbble profiles (design talent)❏ Personal websites/blogs❏ Conference/webinar presentation topics

3. Rounding Out Your Message

❏ Understand your audience.❏ Use your own voice.❏ Lead with an engaging subject line.❏ Introduce yourself.❏ Be concise.❏ Be clear.❏ Leave an action item.❏ Follow up.

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4. Tools & Resources

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Contact Information Content E-mail Verification

verify-email.org

email-checker.net

mailtester.com

verifyemailaddress.orgDomain Search

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MEASUREMENT & TRACKING

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Measurement & Tracking

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Keep an eye on your funnel conversion rates.

❏ How many candidates have I needed to source to reach one hire?❏ Is my process too lenient anywhere? Too strict?❏ What steps or approaches can I optimize/improve?❏ Am I calibrating? Is my hiring manager calibrating?

Pro tip: Look for extreme drop-offs and changes in conversion rates.

“If 90% of candidates get through a phone screen, but only 10% receive an offer, that tells me the screen stage wasn’t done right.”

- Chris Shaw, Director of Talent at Meteor

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Want to learn more?

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Lever Chrome Extension

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● Add candidates directly into Lever from any social profile

● Make it easy for your whole team to get involved

● Send emails, view/add notes, or even change stages right from your browser

● Track the effectiveness of each source

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