Top 10 Candidate Sourcing Best Practices from the Boolean BLackBelt

[Jackie Teal]

Top 10 Candidate Sourcing Best Practices
http://www.booleanblackbelt.com/2009/08/top-10-candidate-sourcing-best-practices/

I firmly believe that candidate identification is the most critical
step in the talent acquisition/recruiting life cycle – you can’t build
a relationship with, receive a referral from, network with, or hire
someone you haven’t found in the first place.

From the very beginning of my recruiting career, I’ve leveraged
technology for talent identification, and I’ve learned that searching
databases, the Internet, and social media offers intrinsic advantages
over other methods of candidate sourcing, and I’ve compiled a list of
what I believe are the top 10 best practices for searching for
candidates.

So whether you’re searching LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Monster, your
ATS/CRM, or you’re Googling for candidate leads on the Internet –
following and integrating these search best practices into your
candidate sourcing routine can dramatically increase your ability to
more quickly find more of the right people.

In no particular order:
#1 Think Before You Search
“Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first 4
hours sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln

That’s become one of my favorite quotes to use when stressing the
importance of thinking before throwing some keywords together and
hitting “search.”

Too many sourcers and recruiters are unknowingly picking up dull axes
and begin taking swings. I’m not sure if you’ve ever tried chopping
down a tree with a dull axe, but it’s neither efficient nor effective,
and requires considerably more effort than necessary. If you just take
the time to think, develop some semblance of a search strategy, and
experiment with various searches (sharpen your axe!) – you can get to
more relevant results more quickly.

For many hiring profiles, you should spend at least 10 -20 minutes
thinking about and researching your search strategy, as well as
experimenting with search strings and reviewing the results for
relevance before you start using the results to begin making calls.

Here is how you can sharpen your axe before you take your first cut:
1.Analyze, interpret, and fully understand the job opening/position
requirements
2.Adhering to the Cardinal Rule of Candidate Sourcing, take your
understanding of the position and intelligently select titles, skills,
technologies, companies, responsibilities, terms, etc. to include (or
purposefully exclude!) in a query employing appropriate Boolean /
Extended Boolean operators, query modifiers, and semantic search
techniques
3.While reviewing the results of your initial searches to assess
relevance, scan the results for additional and alternate relevant
titles, search terms, phrases, and companies that you can incorporate
into your next search
4.Based upon the observed relevance of and intel gained from each
successive search, modify the search strings appropriately and run
them again
5.Repeat steps 3 and 4 until an acceptably large volume of highly
relevant results is achieved
You should always take time to analyze your search criteria to assess
the possibility that your search terms may not find all qualified
candidates, and in fact might actually be eliminating viable
candidates. I have found that the more time I spend on the front-end
of a search, the more relevant my results become, which in turn
increases my productivity by enabling me to find more and better
candidates more quickly. Imagine that!

Here are a couple of examples of applying the Cardinal Rule of
Candidate Sourcing: #1 Searching for Java Developers with JMS, and #2
Searching for LMS Plateau professionals.

#2 Do Not Overanalyze Resumes
Chances are that the people you are trying to find and recruit are not
professional resume writers. Whether they are software engineers,
lawyers, physical therapists, project managers, or database
administrators – they are NOT professional resume writers, nor do I
think we should expect them to be.

Writing a great and 100% complete resume isn’t easy. What IS easy is
to forget is some of your responsibilities and every little detail of
your professional experience (applications, environments, etc.).
Candidates may not think to express every last bit of their experience
in their resume – and if you’re looking specifically for one of those
little bits and it’s not there – it’s all too easy to assume that the
person who wrote the resume doesn’t have the requisite experience
you’re looking for. Don’t make assumptions about candidates from their
resumes – give them the benefit of the doubt. Ever hear the phrase,
“Don’t judge a book by its cover?”

Resumes are by nature imperfect and are poor representations of a
person’s experience and capabilities, so I suggest you apply what I
call the “10 second rule:” Don’t read resumes – scan them. If you
can’t absolutely disqualify/rule out a candidate based on reviewing
their resume in 10 seconds, pick up the phone and call them.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised. You’ll call people you would not
likely have called before, and you’ll find out that some of those
candidates actually DO have the skills and experience you need – it
just wasn’t obviously or explicitly expressed in their resume.

Always remember – you (and/or your clients) hire PEOPLE, not PAPER.

#3 Do Not Run Overly Generic/Basic Searches
If you run generic searches with perhaps 1 title and a couple of basic
keywords – you’ll be sure to get correspondingly generic and basic
results. I’ve heard many a recruiter complain about getting “too many
results.” People making this mistake unknowingly increase the size of
the Hidden Talent Pool of candidates they don’t find.

Don’t rely solely or heavily on title-based searches. Not all
companies use the same titles for the same roles and responsibilities
– so making this mistake contributes to you populating Hidden Talent
Pools with every candidate that matches your hiring profile or job
order but has a title that you didn’t think of and include in your
search. See best practice #1 above.

Don’t rely solely on using skill/tech terms (e.g., Java, Oracle,
Accounts Payable, SOX, etc.) when creating your Boolean search
strings. Technical terms such as programming languages, operating
systems, and databases will only give you results of people who
mention those terms in their resumes. Mentioning buzz words does not
imply any degree of responsibility or capability.

The most effective searches reach beyond skill/technology term
matching and into the realm of semantic search by include
responsibility terms (administer, configure, create, manage,
reconcile, coordinate, design, etc.) and environmental terms
(enterprise, host*, etc.) where applicable. This is the first step in
moving beyond simple buzz-word bingo.

#4 See Each Resume as More than a Potential Match for the Position
You’re Working on
Any source of candidates you have access to can be leveraged in much
the same way as LinkedIn can – every person is actually a conduit to a
larger network of people. So even if a particular resume or social
media profile you’re reviewing doesn’t appear to be an ideal match –
they actually might be (see #3 above), and they may know someone who
is.

If you find yourself scanning a search result that appears to be
under- or over-qualified – remember to not make assumptions about
candidates based on their resume/profile, and also be aware that
people who are in fact too junior or too senior for your current needs
might fit future needs. Additionally, people who are either too junior
or too senior for a particular position might work with or know
someone who is an exact match.

#5 Run Multiple Searches Across Multiple Sources
Now matter how strong your sourcing skills are or how many times
you’ve recruited for the same position, you should always run multiple
searches. It’s impossible for one Boolean search to find all qualified
candidates.

It is also critical to leverage every resource you have available to
you. You may be in love with LinkedIn, but the best candidates for
that special position you’re working on may be tucked away in your
database/ATS, or on Twitter!

If you think you’ve exhausted a particular source of candidates –
believing that you’ve found all of the available matches and cannot
find any more – you’re wrong. Invariably you’ve left behind Hidden
Talent Pools of people who do match your positions, but you could not
find them because your Boolean search strings and perhaps even your
entire search strategy made it impossible to do so.

Being aware of this is a major step on the path towards sourcing
enlightenment. See best practices #1 and #3.

#6 Search ALL Resumes
I’m aware that there are MANY users of resume databases (online or
internal) who focus specifically on resumes posted/entered in the last
30 days, assuming these are the candidates to target because they are
“on the market.”

You do NOT know anything about a candidate until you establish contact
with them. Just because their resume was posted yesterday, it does not
mean they are “actively” seeking a new position. I’ve spoken to many
people who happened to recently post their resume into my own database
on on a job board, and once I made contact, they explained they were
just “checking to see what’s out there.” Doesn’t dound too “active”
to me!

Also, just because a resume is 3-6+ months old – you have NO idea what
their job search status is. You cannot safely assume they are not
looking and are “off the market.”

They could be #1 Still passively looking, having not found the right
match yet, #2 Available because they are finishing up a contract
position they took 3-6 months ago, #3 In a new position, but extremely
unhappy because it’s nothing like they were led to believe it would
be, #4 In a new position, but their a) boss is leaving, b) position is
in jeoparduy due to layoffs, c) division is being acquired, etc. – you
get the drift.

Ultimately, you should want to find the BEST candidates possible,
regardless of silly job search status labels (active, passive,
blech!). Everyone is a candidate!

Never limit yourself to only searching resumes posted in the last 30
days – some of the best passive and active candidates have resumes 31
to 365 + days “old.”

And most people don’t call them.

#7 Don’t be a Sourcing Snob
Despite popular opinion to the contrary, job board resume databases
are not filled with desperate, low quality candidates. In fact, it’s
statistically impossible. There are plenty of “A” candidates available
in each and every job board resume database – major or niche.

If your experience suggests otherwise, perhaps it’s your searches or
your search strategy. If you go fishing in the ocean and don’t catch
the particular species of fish you were hoping to, would you be able
to assume that there were no fish of that type in the ocean that day?
Of course not. Just because YOU didn’t catch the fish you were looking
for, it doesn’t mean they weren’t there to be caught.

And if you’re the type who believes that the job board resume
databases are filled with “active” candidates, you might be surprised
to know that approximately 75% of all resumes in the major job boards
resume databases are dated over 30 days old. Some are 2-4+ years old.
Are they still “active” candidates? Do you think anyone’s calling
them?

Don’t be a sourcing snob. As I pointed out in best practice #6 – your
goal should be to find the BEST possible candidates, regardless of
what “side of the tracks” they live on.

#8 Don’t Submit the First 2 -3 Candidates You Find/Speak With
Sound crazy? I can hear someone asking, “Why shouldn’t I submit the
first candidates I find that fit the requirements?”

Well, ask yourself this – what’s the statistical probability that the
first 2 people you find and speak to magically happen to be the BEST
candidates you can possibly find? Or the most closeable and
controllable?

Recruiting candidates should not be conducted on a FIFO basis, but on
a BIFO (Best In, First Out) basis. Find and speak to 10-15 candidates
and then submit your BEST.

Talent selection based on FIFO methods is like a single person walking
into a bar and leaving with the first person that speaks to them.
There is no “selection.”

You saw it here first. Think about it.

#9 Seek to Continually Improve Your Candidate Sourcing Skills
As a sourcing/recruiting professional, one of your goals should be to
get better at what you do on a daily basis. Not just meeting your
objectives and KPI’s – but actually improving your sourcing and
recruiting skills and ability.

Geoff Colvin cuts to the root of the matter, pointing out that “Most
fundamentally, what we generally do at work is directly opposed to the
first principle (of deliberate practice): It isn’t designed by anyone
to make us better at anything. Usually it isn’t designed at all: We
are just given an objective that’s necessary to meeting the employer’s
goals and then expected to get on with it.” Ouch – that hurts Geoff…
but you’re right on the money!

As a sourcer/recruiter, you can perform deliberate practice, which is
specifically designed to improve performance by getting you out of
your comfort zone and continually stretching you just beyond your
current ability. Ever hear the cliche of “if you’re not getting
better, you’re getting worse?”

Unfortunately, when most people “practice” on the job, they are just
doing what they’ve always done, going through the same old motions –
which does nothing to improve performance. Unlike many professional
athletes, most business professionals (including sourcers and
recruiters) do not go to work every day specifically trying to get
better at what they do. It’s something many people may talk about, but
very few people actually do.

Be one of those few.

#10 Spend 80% of Your Sourcing Time Using High-Yield Sources
Why spend a lot of time trying to squeeze blood from a stone? I feel
there are many sourcers and recruiters spending too much time focusing
on instrinsically low-yield candidate sources.

For example – some people spend countless hours searching the Internet
for candidate leads at the expense of not heavily/effectively
leveraging their internal resume database/ATS. While you can certainly
find great people on the Internet, the Internet is not indexed
specifically to enable sourcing and requires many tricks and tweaks to
yield relevant results.

If you have access to an ATS or internal resume database – it’s
specifically designed to store and retrieve resumes, and probably has
more local and more qualified candidates than the Internet, and might
actually have a better seach interface enabling more precise searching
to find more of the right people more quickly.

To top it off, your ATS/CRM is filled with people that have already
expressed interest in your company (at some point in time) and with
candidates that you or other sourcers/recruiters found elsewhere and
entered in! And when it comes to finding candidates on the Internet
vs. the job board resume databases, see these 2 articles for an eye-
opening apples-to-apples comparison of Monster vs. Google search
results, see Monster vs. Google Round 1 and Round 2. Facts are facts,
folks.

High yield sources of candidates are #1 Highly Searchable, and #2 Deep
on candidate data. Of the social networking sites out there, LinkedIn
is the most searchable and has the deepest candidate data, and you
don’t need more than a free account to leverage it like a rock star.
Also – if you have access to any of the major job boards – they have
highly effective search capability, actually have a larger percentage
of “passive” job seekers than “active” and they have some fantastic
candidates – see best practices #6 and #7.

Final Thoughts
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I feel it represents some
of the highest impact candidate sourcing best practices. If you have a
candidate sourcing best practice to add to the list - please let me
know.

This work by Glen Cathey is based on a work at www.booleanblackbelt.com.