Sourcing: how to find candidates for hard-to-fill roles
Elena Kliueva, Head of Sourcing Center at NGRS, explains what sets sourcing apart from recruiting and how technical expertise, the right tools and structured processes help the NGRS team approach even the most difficult searches.
Tell us a bit more about sourcing. Do we necessarily need it to fill roles?
You need good sourcing if you want to have a choice of good candidates, but it is especially important for the roles that are hard to fill.
To better understand this, you need to look at who is a good sourcer. A good sourcer isn’t necessarily a good recruiter. They are often introverts and don’t necessarily like speaking on the phone or, in general, talking to people (I am talking not about all of them, but many).
But they are exactly the ones who can find you the best person for the role. How? They know how to work with big data, have a competitive mindset, curiosity and strong technical skills. These people also think outside the box. For instance, five years ago, when I as a sourcer needed to find data scientists, I had to reactivate my coding skills to get access to one of their closed communities and reach the candidates we needed.
What is NGRS’s USP when it comes to sourcing?
One of our clients called us a “high-performance production line” in hiring. I think it is a very accurate description of the quality and processes we deliver.
We work as a sourcing machine and have built systems with protocols and procedures.
First, every position we have goes through a special protocol that shows how difficult the position is. Normally, we have three categories: difficult, very difficult, and almost impossible.
Sometimes we invite well-known and highly experienced sourcers, but they are not able to fill the positions we have and are often much weaker in comparison with people who have grown as professionals inside NGRS.
There is also a protocol that shows what the priority is when searching for the right fit and which resources we need to find candidates.
Then there is another algorithm of how to find a candidate and reach them. Our sourcers work within the right framework from day one — knowing how to begin sourcing, which tools to use, and how to work with the new technologies and automation in the industry.
In general, you see on the market today that the community of recruiters and sourcers is very big. Many companies now have in-house sourcing teams, and agencies hire sourcers. But they are still often at the researcher’s level and don’t have enough seniority or technical expertise.
We work differently. Our team operates at a senior level, and people can work as recruiters or sourcers depending on the project’s needs.
Plus, we have an exceptionally high employee retention rate, which allows us to maintain a systematic approach and knowledge transfer.
Elena Kliueva is Head of Sourcing Center at NGRS — Next Generation Recruitment Services. Her other column: Challenge the Brief, Set the Pace, Own the Process. More columns from the NGRS team are in Insights; the people behind the work are on the People page.
If a role has stayed open for months and the search keeps stalling, send it to us — we’ll tell you honestly how difficult it is and what it will take to fill.