Hiring in July 2021 was around 65 percent higher as per the latest market update by LinkedIn. Large sectors like IT, manufacturing, and hardware begin to ramp up recruitment after a year of low hiring. Post pandemic, there are some changes which happened and we need to look forward. When we discuss the war for talent, it is important to create a very well-defined recruitment strategy, and more than recruitment strategy, the most important part is related to Sourcing strategy and why it is important.
Sourcing strategy lets you know what source is all about and what type of source you need to focus upon to get the best possible candidate; as there are competitors who are looking for similar candidates to hire.
The question that comes to you is what different you are going to do for sourcing the best possible candidate in order to attract, identify, and engage.
I would like to mention a few sourcing strategies which can be very comfortable and easy for you to take your talent acquisition process to the next level. Often, while we start the sourcing process, we only focus on one or two aspects, but here I am going to share with you the concept of 7Cs that will help you to take care of all the major concerns you are facing in your day-to-day recruitment process.
And this is a deep dive, deep-seated, and deep-rooted process of learning in the two decades of my career. I am going to share with you this basic information which will lead you to have the candidate Sourcing strategy.
C1 – Current Scenario
First of all, you need to see whether the person incumbent is already present, or left, or going to leave in 15 days, or currently on the notice period for 30 days or 90 days. So, this actually gives you the idea to draft the process timeline, how you can design your Sourcing strategy as the first point. If it is as of yesterday, which is the majority of the cases.
In such scenarios, you always look forward to how you can develop the strategy so that you should not lose out the time but you should be able to share the profiles as soon as possible. Why? Because you are in the process of hiring and getting the candidate to offer stage in the shortest time is a major challenge, it’s a very tough thing to crack and track so that is a reason I suggest that you please focus on the current scenario and understand what type of current scenario your company is going through and devise the Talent acquisition strategy accordingly.
C2 – Challenge
You have to look forward to the challenges which a new hire will go through, what activities he/she is possibly going to do in 30, 60, and 90 days post joining, or what will be the challenge this person will face in the first 30 days of time. This will help you in terms of identifying the right assessment and interview questions. Because on the basis of this, you will be very comfortable in terms of identifying the right one from the pool of candidates.
The next 60 days also become very crucial because these are the days when you start doing trials and testing the ideas and initiatives. Next comes 90 days. But why are 90 days important?
You, as a candidate, who got an opportunity in a company, is aware of the processes and policies. And now, management is offering you support to perform. Thus, the existing repository of the company’s proposition gets well gelled with your experience and exposure, thereby, the trajectory of growth and success.
You also get the support from intrinsic as well as extrinsic stakeholders. But what does that mean? Intrinsic means the internal team supporting you and extrinsic team when you are getting the hand holding, getting acquainted with your client or customer and even your vendors as by now, they know you very well.
Thus, understanding this 30-60-90 is important for every candidate to know, but the question is why it is equally important for the recruiter? The answer to this is, it is only the recruiter who will be able to understand how a person can perform in 30, 60, and 90 days and what type of skills they need to look forward to while preparing the interview questions in various rounds.
C3 – Clarity
The third point is clarity. You should be knowing that “what you should not look for”. The most important thing is that you have to look for what skills metric is already existing in the department. Thus, this is very important for you and the clarity regarding the role, what type of skills you are looking forward to suiting a particular role and what type of qualifications are required for the same.
If you are able to see that clarity, then this will help you in terms of hiring the right person at the right time. It will also benefit you in terms of evaluation, taking care of the interview questions also in crafting and drafting strategy. This kind of sourcing strategy has always been better than the traditional one.
C4 – Connect the dots
Point number four is to connect the dots. You have to connect the dots, where your candidates are hanging right now. You have to look forward to the geographical area and intellectual geography. What I mean by intellectual geography is where this person can be putting their value addition with their expertise. For example, you can get the experts on LINKEDIN.
If you want to hire an HVAC engineer, then ISHARE is one of the communities. So, your Sourcing strategy should always have complete information that what type of institute, alumni, companies, competitor, location, communities should you look forward to. All this information helps in connecting the dots and devising your talent acquisition strategy better than the traditional one.
C5 – Comprehend the Future
The next one is Comprehend the Future. As Benjamin Franklin says, “when you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. This means that when you actually are not able to foresee the future role of the candidate you will not be able to demonstrate, describe and detail the same to that particular prospect. So, first of all, you need to foresee the future so that you can be able to demonstrate, describe and detail the future.
While you hire a professional, it is very important for you to understand what type of performance metric the candidate is going to give in the future. Currently, most companies are getting these things clear from the very beginning of the hiring process.
C6 – Competitor Analysis
Next, C is Competitor Analysis from the competitor side. You should be very clear about what a competitor is all about, how a competitor can help you in terms of devising and deciding your Sourcing strategy.
Sourcing and even related to advanced Sourcing techniques of Artificial Intelligence is a crucial decisive factor. The second is what is the compensation your competitor is offering at a similar role, designation, and location. You should be very clear on this and also on what type of progressive path your competitor is offering.
Again, this is very important for you to understand because only then, you will be able to communicate with your audience or with your prospective candidate. Thus, doing a competitor analysis is highly critical.
C7 – Conclusion
Last but not least is related to “Conclusion”.
What does it mean is that to conclude? You need to be very clear in terms of concluding what type of content (JD) you are going to share with the prospective candidate. You need to clarify which type of key skill metrics you are going to focus upon, is it something where you are looking for quality or is it something which you are looking for cost optimization.
You must ensure if it is something which you are looking for. You need to be very clear because if you try to get everything together, you will not get one. So the reason is that which skills must be put as a top priority.
Wrapping it up
In the post-pandemic period, it has become very important to get into advanced talent acquisition strategy as compared to Pre Covid level in 2019.
I would suggest you go through the seven steps guide to create a sourcing strategy and which can be a game-changer for you. You need to be very clear in terms of all the Seven Cs, whether it is related to the current scenario, understanding the short-term and long-term challenge, clarity in looking for the right candidate, connecting the dots to source the top talent from respective communities, comprehend the future expectations, and mixing with competitor analysis and concluding with content to share.
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About the author:
Vivek Trivedi is a Passionate recruitment evangelist with two decades of Talent Acquisition exposure in Fortune 500 Companies, Currently, he is the founder and CEO of Shikshakji.com (An ISO 9001, ISO27001 Certified Education recruitment firm). He is the author of three non-fiction books, Certified Global Coach, and trained more than 10K people from IIT, IIMs, and Fortune 500 Companies. He is the recipient of the award from the Government of India and the World HRD Congress.
