Talent sourcing in HR is proactively identifying and engaging qualified candidates for an organization’s future or planned positions rather than waiting for candidates to apply on their own. The goal of talent sourcing is to get qualified candidates in the hiring funnel. 

Many small and mid-sized businesses are growing and creating new jobs these days, but most aren’t hiring quickly enough to fill them effectively.

Inefficient hiring processes often put organizations at a disadvantage in the war for talent. With this in mind, improving the hiring process and prioritizing retention through streamlined recruiting operations is critical in maintaining a fully-staffed workforce and steady business growth.

By talent sourcing, small businesses can find more and better candidates in the competitive labor market before the candidate is even looking for a job.

While talent sourcing, HR or hiring managers can use a variety of strategies to locate passive candidates who meet the criteria for the job including: 

• Outreach on LinkedIn
• Social media such as Twitter or Facebook
• Employee referrals 
• Internal outreach
• Alumni networks
• Existing candidate database

It’s also important to use keywords and Boolean searches to cut down on your search time during the recruitment process. This can be the most time-consuming part of recruiting, and keywords can help to weed out unqualified candidates while helping you zero in on specific skills or requirements.

In order to keep pace with the hiring market and manage your talent sourcing, it’s important to invest in a hiring system that will streamline your hiring experience. At a minimum, this system should consolidate and organize all communication both internal and external. This will eliminate time spent checking email threads, keep your whole hiring team on the same page and allow you to better manage your leads.