Recruitment and Sourcing Strategy from Scratch: Checklist for Quick Start

Hiring and sourcing are essential for providing a business with the necessary talent to achieve its strategic goals. In the current market, where the struggle for highly qualified specialists is becoming increasingly fierce, an effective recruiting and sourcing strategy helps not only to attract the best specialists but also to optimize the hiring process. Let's look at the main stages of creating such a strategy.

Analyze Company Needs

Determine which vacancies need to be filled and formulate a detailed profile of ideal candidates, including key characteristics, experience, knowledge, and skills. At Brainy, we discuss these needs with the hiring company and, if necessary, offer recommendations in line with the company's stage of development. For example, we address initial and secondary issues that might affect the hiring process. Communication, problem identification, and solution options will help establish a better recruiting process.

Set the Goals

Establish clear and measurable recruitment KPIs. For example, define which positions need to be filled, the number of candidates, and the deadlines. These goals help focus on priority areas and better plan work. Define metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of the recruiting strategy, such as time to fill vacancies, hiring process duration, and the percentage of accepted offers.

Analyze the Labor Market

Research the market to understand where to find the necessary candidates and what conditions to offer them. Pay attention to the number of candidates in the market and the level of remuneration for a particular position, using resources such as DOU, Glassdoor, Indeed, or other local job search sites. Discover which social and professional networks candidates in a particular field prefer to use to easily contact them and ensure you use these channels to receive responses from candidates.

Develop the Ideal Candidate Profile

Create a detailed description of candidate requirements, including professional skills, work experience, education, and personal qualities that match the requirements of a specific position and the company's corporate culture. It is important to form an understanding of which candidate will best fit the company's culture and contribute to its growth and development. This profile will guide you when searching, evaluating, and selecting the best candidate.

Choose Recruiting and Sourcing Channels

Determine the optimal sources for finding candidates. Common online platforms like LinkedIn, GitHub, Stack Overflow, specialized forums, and professional groups on social networks are suitable for different candidates. Using specific channels will help you hire top talent efficiently.

Develop a Candidate Search and Engagement Strategy

Determine methods and tools for finding candidates, and how to find the right specialists. This includes search methods like:

• Boolean Search and X-Ray Search, integral parts of the sourcing process.
• Alumni Search, if the request is to find candidates who are students or graduates of specific universities, and searching among "donor companies."

To get contact information, use various sourcing tools—plugins for finding candidate emails, GitHub search plugins, and scraping tools (Phantombuster, Instant Data Scraper, Data Miner, Skrapp, etc.).

Implement the Recruitment Process

Establish clear stages of the hiring process, including resume screening, conducting interviews, evaluating candidates, and making decisions. To optimize communication time with candidates, use templates: initial letters, follow-up letters, feedback, rejections, and others. Each letter should be personalized and informative, with the format and presentation adapted to the vacancy and communication channel.

Document the Recruiting Strategy

Create a document where all gathered information is systematized, and a plan of action for finding the needed specialist is written. This can be a text document, table, or another convenient format that contains information about:

• Search location
• Salary range
• Possible position titles (keywords)
• Approximate number of available candidates on the market
• Platforms where candidates will be searched for
• "Donor companies" where you can search for candidates who are as close as possible to your company's niche
• Bottlenecks that will characterize possible challenges in working with the vacancy
• The start date of work on the vacancy and the end date for further analysis of recruiting metrics, such as Time to Hire and Time to Fill

Recruiting Analytics

Measure and document the results of your work. If the results are not satisfactory, make adjustments to the strategy.

Adhering to all stages of creating a recruiting and sourcing strategy is crucial for successfully attracting and retaining highly qualified specialists. Consistent execution of each stage—from analyzing company needs to making changes based on feedback—allows for the most efficient use of resources and time. This ensures high-quality candidates, reduces the time to fill vacancies, and allows for adaptation to changes in the labor market to remain competitive.