Talent acquisition is a challenge. You know this. We know this. And, if you’ve been following our blogs, you also know that it’s only getting tougher by the day. Independent recruiters must fight to stay up to date with industry trends and changing client needs. As the talent market gets smaller and client demands get louder, treading water will no longer be an option. You’ll need to become a talent sourcing expert if you want to be successful.

The Importance of Getting to Know Your Candidates

Simply put, building a rapport with your candidates is the only way to become a talent sourcing expert. When it comes to placing high-powered (and high-paying) roles, a transactional methodology is outdated and ineffective. Candidates need to see you as trustworthy and knowledgeable in their field. Focus on building a relationship with candidates, and show them that you care about their career growth. This will help keep them warm, even if they turn down an initial job offer.

Having an understanding of your candidates isn’t just for your benefit; these days, it’s expected. A 2017 Dice Tech Candidate Sentiment Survey found that while 90% of tech candidates are interested in new opportunities, nearly 40% of them are getting spammed with job openings irrelevant to their interests or skill sets. This is a huge problem. It indicates that many recruiters are still taking the spray and pray approach, despite knowing that it's problematic. What’s worse, presenting an irrelevant opportunity to a candidate is, quite frankly, disrespectful, and could even turn them away from the recruitment process altogether.

Build Your Skills to Build Relationships

If you want to be a talent sourcing expert, you’ll need to learn how to genuinely connect with candidates. Luckily, the two are correlated: as you start honing your talent sourcing skills, your relationship-building skills will improve as well. Here are a few tips:

• Choose an industry you’re passionate about. I mean, you’re going to be spending a lot of time learning about it, so you should probably make sure it’s something that interests you, right? It doesn’t necessarily have to be an industry you’re thoroughly experienced in, either. What matters is that you have the desire to research client and candidate needs and the drive to keep learning new things.

• Pick a few high-level positions to examine in depth. Get a feel for what day-to-day life is like for each of these roles. Think about what duties the position entails and how they relate to your candidates. Would your candidate be psyched for the opportunity to lead a new project, or would they prefer to stay out of the spotlight? Do they have experience with a technology or responsibility in the job description, or are they willing to learn it? Identify how individual roles mesh with candidate personas, and you’ll be able to start putting together a communication strategy.

• Regularly research industry trends. Go ahead and sign yourself up for a few blog subscriptions, and connect with industry thought leaders on social media. It’s a lot easier to hit it off with someone when you share interest in a topic and can keep up with the conversation. You might even stumble upon an opportunity to share some knowledge with them, which will help position you as an expert in the field.

• Work with account managers to define job details and client needs. Your goal as a talent sourcing expert is to make meaningful connections between clients and candidates, and to do that, you’ll need extensive knowledge of both. Before you start working on a requisition, be sure to do some research about the client’s company culture. Since you’re an independent recruiter in the Crowdstaffing ecosystem, you can consult with account managers to get the inside scoop on a client or position – info that you wouldn’t be able to glean from a website or job description.

• Reach out to talent the right way. This means knowing what to say and where to say it (especially if you're going after passive candidates). When you do figure out your candidate’s preferred method of contact, you better be darn sure you make every word count. Keep your initial contact short and sweet; start off with an introduction and a brief description of the job, then ask if they’d like to have a chat about the opportunity. Remember, this is your elevator pitch! Think carefully about which aspects of the job would most appeal to your candidate and use it to create a punchy description that will hook their interest. You can go through the details together if and when the candidate decides to learn more.

The future of recruiting is specialization. Across all industries, recruiters are adjusting their services to meet the needs of a changing labor market. Making a quick placement is no longer the goal; seasoned recruiters know that they need to offer matchmaking expertise if they want to be successful. And it all starts with how you source candidates.