Quick answer is that companies do obviously recognise that sourcers play an important part of their overall recruitment strategy, but they are not always sure how they should be deployed and at what stage of the process. Recently I have spoken with a number of big name tech organisations who see sourcers as purely an extension of the recruiter who are working their magic on CVDB's or ATS filtering CV's doing a basic screening and then passing the CV along to the next stage.
We also offer a lot more to the process from being part of the intake discussion, setting out the sourcing strategy, understanding the talent landscape & executing on outbound campaigns and all the work and reporting that goes around that.
How many times are sourcers really at the heart of the discussion when corportate decisions are being made say when a company plans to open a sales office in the middle of nowhere only to find that the talent is not there? Hardly ever !! Sourcing can provide talent heatmaps before those decisions are made, which could save a who lot of headaches further down the line.
The business also needs to play it's part in supporting sourcing too. The so called "War for Talent" is definitely on and whilst sourcers are conveying the company's message like it's selling the next Apple or Google, candidates need a bit more convincing. I have been bleeting on for the last 2-3 years that companies need to deploy more "Brand ambassadors" who are talking about their industry or technologies in the public domain which will drive interest to their corporate or social landing pages. Candidates don't expect me to talk low level technical code, but they do expect me to be able to articulate the value proposition of the organisation which will hopefully bring them to the front door. Organisations need to define their CVP so that there's consistant messaging when selling to candidates. I bet if you ask 10 senior leaders of an organisation what is our CVP? you could possibly end up with 10 different responses = inconsistant messaging.
Also sourcers by nature should be testing new tools understanding how technology and the internet can build the company's brand, how we stay connected to engaged candidates and continiously build pipelines of talent that the business crave.
Overall companies are wising up to Sourcing, but we need to start making sure that the sourcers voice is heard at he highest levels of the business and it understands the value we can bring outside of just finding candidates, otherwise we will never be recognised as a key component of recruitment/HR function.
Thankfully @expedia the senior HR leaders understand sourcing and I'm working with a team who have built successful sourcing models at Coke, Starbucks, Google, Microsoft & RIM. As I'm the 1st Sourcer here on the ground globally, I feel extremely privileged to being part of that team.
