Creating a smart strategy for candidate sourcing is more important than ever, when the average time to hire is increasing across all industries, and is currently at 44 days per role. Hiring is a growing challenge for organizations, whether they are looking to onboard traditional employees, or freelancers and consultants.
If you want a smart way to find and onboard freelance talent in just 48 hours, check out Fiverr Enterprise, a Freelancer Management Solution that takes sourcing, vetting, and onboarding off your hands entirely.
In the meantime, keep reading to learn everything you need to know about candidate sourcing!
This is part of a series of articles about Staff Augmentation.
What Is Candidate Sourcing?
Candidate sourcing is the way that a business finds relevant candidates to fill skills gaps and open jobs within their business. Once you’ve sourced the right pool of candidates, it’s then a matter of narrowing down the list through vetting and interviewing, before onboarding the new hire compliantly to work with your business.
Different Types of Candidate Sourcing
There are three main kinds of candidate sourcing that you might use in your organization:
Active Sourcing
Active candidates for a role are highly-motivated and looking for work. They may be unemployed, or low on their freelance workload, and they are making it known that they are interested in working with you. You find active candidates by putting out job postings, social media shout outs, and more.
Passive Sourcing
Passive candidates need a more subtle approach to recruitment. They may already have a full workload, or not be actively looking for a job, but if they fit the bill – it can be worth going after them anyway, with the right offer in place. As passive candidates aren’t actively looking – you’ll need to approach them.
Referrals
Referrals can be a great way to get strong candidates in your pipeline. You’ll want other people in your network or industry to refer these candidates to you, and provide their insight on their skills and capabilities. You can also rely on reviews from Freelancer Marketplaces such as Fiverr to help vet these candidates.
Candidate Sourcing Tools and Technologies
There are many different technologies that can make the process of candidate sourcing simpler to manage. Here are a few of the most popular, and what they are used for in the journey.
- Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS): These platforms streamline the hiring process by storing candidate information such as references and resumes, tracks applicants and their status as they move through the application journey, and automates tasks like screening candidates and scheduling interviews.
- Sourcing Platforms: Sourcing platforms allow you to search for the right talent in a wide pool. Some sourcing platforms are niche, and allow you to search for specific talent, such as legal support or technical skills. Others are much broader, and offer a wide range of talent, or focus on a subset of the workforce, such as freelancers.
- Professional Networking Platforms: LinkedIn is the most popular (and well-known) professional networking website, but there are plenty more, such as MeetUp and Xing. Although these websites don’t have a formal structure, they can help you build your network and can be great for referrals.
- Social Media Recruiting Tools: These are fairly new solutions that allow you to drive active and passive candidates to a branded employment website via a wide range of social media platforms. These are usually integrated with other steps in the hiring process, such as scheduling interviews or sending follow up emails.
- Candidate Relationship Management (CRM): These platforms automate the ongoing relationship with active candidates, passive candidates, and even former workers. It can help you identify diversity gaps, stay in touch with old colleagues, and access analytics that identify why you may be experiencing turnover or lost relationships.
Methods and Steps to Source Candidates
If you’re ready to source new candidates for a particular skills gap, start by learning the qualifications you need for a specific role. This will help you to create the right job listing and attract the perfect candidate. For example if you need a freelance writer, think about the experience you want, from writing case studies, to drafting video scripts.
Make sure to use a variety of sourcing channels, to maximize your chance of finding qualified candidates. Take your time! It’s important to personalize your messaging with the desired qualities you’re looking for, and for the channel you’re using. If you’re hoping to attract passive candidates, you’ll need a different approach than you would with active sourcing.
Once you’ve identified a potential candidate, follow a cadence with your outreach. This could be an initial social media message, followed by an email, and then a discovery call if they show interest. If they are not interested, don’t lose touch. Instead, nurture candidates for future positions by asking them if they would like to be kept posted on new opportunities, and including their details in a talent pool.
Always audit your processes to see if you’re spending too much for the rate of conversion. If you’re not getting a good return on your candidate sourcing processes and technologies, it might be time to try something else.
Below are some additional methods and steps to source candidates.
Define Job Requirements
Clearly outline the job description, including required skills, qualifications, and experience.
Create Compelling Job Postings
Craft engaging and detailed job postings highlighting the company culture, benefits, and opportunities.
Social Media Platforms
Utilize platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to share job postings and engage with potential candidates.
Screening and Filtering
Review resumes and applications to shortlist candidates based on the job requirements.
Evaluate Candidate Fit
Assess candidates for cultural fit, skills, and experience through interviews, assessments, and reference checks.
Follow-Up & Feedback
Provide timely feedback to candidates and maintain a positive candidate experience, regardless of the hiring outcome.
What Can Fiverr Enterprise Offer in Candidate Sourcing?
As part of our robust Freelancer Management System, Fiverr Enterprise removes the stress of candidate sourcing, and finds expert, pre-vetted and business-ready freelancers, perfect for your job listing, and for your organizational context. With the help of our AI tool, or totally from scratch, create your job listing and post it on the platform, and within 48-72 hours, our hiring experts will present you with between 2-6 viable candidates, ready for you to narrow down the search.
If you need to move faster, we’ve pre-selected a list of talents from various, high-demand industries and fields, because we know you want and need the best in class. Our pre-selected talents are instantly available. Onboarding can be automated with a customized workflow that suits your organizational needs, and is totally compliant with the relevant regulatory requirements so you, and your new freelancer can hit the ground running.
Moving forward, we help you to build a talent pool of available freelancers that you’ve worked with or been referred to in the past, giving your teams the ability to hire, collaborate and deliver faster.
Schedule 30-minutes with one of our workforce experts, and we’ll show you how it works.
Related content: Read our guide to outsourcing employees.
Related content: Read our guide to direct sourcing.