Finding the right candidate is the end goal of all recruitment activities. It’s no secret that placing the right talent is a difficult challenge, especially when it comes to identifying and separating the highest-potential candidates from the others.
We’ve put together a guide to explain the vital role of sourcing tools in your recruitment process and provide you with a list of top choices on the market.
Table of Contents
1. Sourcing tools for recruitment
Candidate sourcing tools are used to find and nurture the right talent. They can be a huge help for agencies that want to save time in the candidate search process. By actively reaching out to candidates and updating their records, recruiters can feel confident that qualified applicants are always within reach.
It can sometimes be hard to stay focused on the long term when recruiting, but the benefits can pay off. Every job opening should be filled with the best candidate for the position, which requires a strong database of skilled applicants. It does take extra time and effort to keep a database updated. But it can save time and money later on.
2. Why are sourcing tools important?
Recruitment can feel like a perpetual fight for top talent. A robust plan is needed to get ahead in this battle. And one of the most important “weapons” in your arsenal should be a sourcing tool.
Effective recruiting starts with knowing where and how to find the people perfect for the job. Sourcing can give you a ready-to-refer stream of prospects for when a role opens up.
Here’s how using the right sourcing tools boosts your rec operations.
2.1 Get a strategic process
Sourcing helps make your approach to recruitment deliberate. Recruiting managers can be precise about job requirements, making finding just the right fit a challenge. The challenge for recruiters is finding exceptional candidates from unexpected sources. With the right sourcing tools, recruiters can develop a roster of hard-to-find candidates.
2.2 Find the highest-quality candidates
Job boards don’t guarantee that eligible candidates will apply. But sourcing lets you design search queries to find candidates with the exact right abilities and experience. And unlike active candidates, who might apply because they’re pressed for time, passive candidates have time to choose roles for the right reasons, minimizing turnover.
2.3 Shorten the recruitment process and reduce costs
Since sourcing creates connections with talent far before they apply, you’ll have a pipeline of vetted candidates to contact when a role opens, which lowers time-to-hire. Because of that, sourced candidates are more than twice as efficient to recruit versus inbound applicants. Some clients have even seen positions being filled up to four times faster.
3. Top sourcing tools for recruitment agencies in 2023
3.1 Recruit’em
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Recruit'em is a free sourcing tool that creates Boolean search terms to find LinkedIn profiles. You can also use it on sites like Twitter, Xing, GitHub, and Stack Overflow. This could be helpful if you don't have the time or inclination to create extensive Boolean instructions.
But its downside is that it only generates a string to search on Google, not a list of candidates. Recruit’em does help you to create the right query to find candidates, but it isn’t as effective as a tool that collects and organizes more extensive info.
3.2 OctoHR
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OctoHR searches GitHub’s user profiles to find developers' hidden email addresses, summarizes their skills, and conducts fresh candidate searches using a variety of search parameters, such as language and region.
Their Chrome extension is handy, but it’s not for everyone. This sourcing tool is only relevant for finding developers.
3.3 Shapr
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Shapr raises the bar for networking. This app links you with motivated professionals based on shared interests and professional aspirations. Recruiters can use it to widen their networks, strike up talks with prospective candidates, and gain fresh perspectives.
The downside is that Shapr’s free service limits users to 15 profile views for day, so it’s best used in addition to other sourcing tools.
3.4 Vincere
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Vincere's recruitment software offers a wide range of solutions for applicant sourcing and recruiting.
With more than 20 years of expertise in the staffing industry, we pride ourselves on being able to understand and help with all challenges that recruiters face in their daily operations.
Vincere’s solutions are perfect for direct recruiting, contract, and executive search firms. Our end-to-end recruitment technology stack has sourcing tools like the ability to pull LinkedIn profiles to your ATS, plus an advanced faceted search that can find the right candidates who are already waiting in your database.
3.5 Gem
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Recruiters can use Gem to gather candidate information, connect with them through multistage campaigns, and analyze the results to determine what’s working and what’s not. Besides that, all activity is synced to your ATS.
On the other hand, Gem’s pricing can be highly variable and depends on the size of your team, bespoke work, and many other factors.
3.6 Arya
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The Arya AI recruitment platform from Leoforce creates shortlists of qualified individuals based on job descriptions. These shortlists are drawn from online as well as the client’s ATS or CRM.
Additionally, the platform has a multichannel candidate interaction suite that enables you to easily contact candidates, ask them screening questions, and book meetings with consultants fast.
The downside of this platform is its high associated costs to add to your tech stack. If budget is a concern for an agency, this may not be the way to go.
4. Final words
Our overview of sourcing tools should give some inspiration about identifying passive applicants and uncovering hidden talent that you might not otherwise have access to.
By adopting the right tech stack, you can boost the effectiveness of your daily operations, refine your recruitment strategy, and outperform the competition.
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