“You get the ice, I’ll get the Iceman!”. That is what Batman said to Robin – his sidekick and companion – when fighting Mr. Freeze in the 1996 classic – Batman and Robin. You see, even Batman needs a little help!
But, when it comes to hiring, most Internal Recruiters try to do all the work themselves.
Founders believe their Batman (Internal Recruiter) doesn’t need Robin (a Sourcer). However, in reality, this isn’t the case – an internal recruiter can not do all the work themselves and requires the help of a Sourcer when hiring at scale.
Or perhaps more accurately, they can do everything themselves, but being responsible for the sourcing and the hiring is reducing the number and quality of the candidates you’re able to find, ultimately cutting your company off from some of the best talent in the market.
Not to mention the subsequent use of recruitment agencies (and their 20% fees!), as well as the decreased candidate experience purely because the Internal Recruiter is spread too thin, focusing on too many areas of the business.
Recruiting and sourcing are two different components of the talent function, and as such, require two different skill sets.
Sourcing is the process of building a talent pipeline with a high number (often 100+) quality candidates. It is the primary ‘top of talent funnel’ activity bringing your candidates into your pipeline. Anyone with an understanding of sales and marketing will understand the importance of both volume and quality coming into your funnel. Sourcing has a direct impact on talent throughput.
Teamwork is an essential ingredient to startup success. No one can do everything on their own – we all need a helping hand.
Below we will explore the seven reasons why your Batman (internal recruiter) needs a Robin (Sourcer).
6 Reasons Why Your Internal Recruiter (Batman) needs a Sourcer (Robin)
Different skill sets
Recruiting and sourcing are two completely different skill sets. Recruiters are concerned about Time to Hire and Quality of Hire, whereas the Sourcers are concerned about Candidates to Interview or Applications to Interview.
The job of the Sourcer is to build a talent pipeline for your recruiters, and it requires a completely different skills than those of a recruiter.
Sourcers don’t just use LinkedIn Recruiter to shortlist your candidates. They use social media, alternative job boards, communities; you name it, they use it. This gives you access to otherwise unreachable talent.
And with an ever changing talent landscape Sourcers need continual reskilling to ensure they’re up to date with the most effective sourcing methods, as well as the new sourcing platforms available to the market.
Recruiters simply aren’t as effective at sourcing as a dedicated Sourcer. But together, combining the sourcing skills of the Sourcer with the talents of your Internal Recruiter, can lead to an extremely effective talent function.
Sourcing is time-consuming
Shortlisting and reaching out to potential candidates is a tedious task. Research shows that 90% of global professionals are open to new opportunities even if they are not actively looking for a job. Yes, you can reach some candidates with a job posting and surface level sourcing, but you need to go beyond the normal platforms if you want to get access to the best talent.
Recruiters have other problems to solve and cannot, or should not, devote such a large portion of their time to souring.
Yes, if your hiring is low, and your Recruiter has excess capacity, then they should do their sourcing. But if you’ve got 10+ live jobs per Internal Recruiter, this is a big sign you stand to benefit from working with a Sourcer.
Leaving your Internal Recruiter to hit ambitious hiring targets whilst performing two functions is setting them up to fail.
Sourcing is likely your bottleneck to talent throughput
If you are a rapidly growing startup or a scaleup, the biggest bottleneck to talent throughput for you will be poor sourcing. According to research, 42% of resumes HR receives are from non-qualified candidates.
The job of a Sourcer is to ensure that only qualified candidates are coming into your talent pipeline. And by hitting both quality AND quantity, you can remove the bottleneck of qualified talent coming into your hiring process and increase your number of placements whilst decreasing time to hire.
Deep-dive into all available talent pools
Without a Sourcer, when a recruiter does the sourcing, they are often limited to a few platforms. Most recruiters use LinkedIn only – there is a reason why LinkedIn is called the Recruiter’s Platform!
Although, they do it for a good reason. LinkedIn works, but relying solely on LinkedIn is a ‘single point of failure’ in your talent function that leaves you and your hiring team vulnerable to the limitations of that platform.
Sourcers, on the other hand, can deep-dive into all the available talent pools to ensure maximum reach and quality of candidates. Building a solid talent pipeline is not possible by only relying on one talent pool – you need to cast a wider net to catch the bigger fish.
Reduce Time to Hire
Research reveals that lengthy procedures during the hiring procedures lead to more than 50% of candidates losing interest in the job. One reason for this is that most companies have their internal recruiters to do the sourcing for them, spreading them too thin, and unable to spend time improving the candidate experienc.
Having a Sourcer in your team with the internal recruiter(s) helps reduce the time to hire. When the recruiter does not have to worry about the talent pipeline, they can work harder on improving the hiring process, moving candidates through the interview stages quickly, with enough capacity to give each candidate the focus they deserve to maintain their interest.
Can improve diversity
With someone dedicated solely to sourcing you begin to rely less on inbound applicants as well as referrals from your existing team members.
This new supercharged outbound approach can allow you to target prospective employees globally, helping drive diversity in the workplace, expanding your geographic reach, and bringing in candidates from a diverse range of cultures.
Diversity in the workplace is essential for any modern business and incorporating a Sourcer into your DE&I plans is a must.
Would you like a Robin for your Batman?
If you’d like to support your Internal Recruiter and supercharge your talent function, CLICK HERE to complete a short form and a member of the Kandidate team will be in touch.
