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Most recruiters waste up to a third of their week sourcing without a structured process only to miss out on great candidates and potential fees. In this competitive candidate market, you need to have an effective approach to candidate sourcing.
How can you engage more with your recruitment tech, data, systems, so you can nail candidate sourcing and improve your pipeline?
3 Ways to Improve Candidate Sourcing for Recruiters
I spoke with Ayla Tapper from Broadbean. They specialise in helping recruiters turbo boost the way they source, attract, and engage candidates and clients. I asked Ayla 3 questions about how recruiters can dramatically improve their candidate sourcing strategy to drive results.
1. What are your thoughts on the stat, recruiters spend 13 hours a week sourcing candidates?
I’d probably ask what admin they are wasting the rest of their time on if just under two days is being spent on sourcing candidates. While there will be time focussing on client relationships, spending just 13 hours a week sourcing candidates does suggest that recruiters are still spending a lot of time on administrative tasks including CV sifting and job posting.
With recruitment technology and software available to automate most of the mundane, repetitive tasks, recruiters should be able to invest more of their valuable time building meaningful relationships with candidates. With the UK in a recession while competition for talent remains high, freeing up some of this time is going to become more important.
2. 50% of candidate applications are a poor fit. Why is this the case?
There are a number of elements to this statistic that need to be addressed. In the first instance, the fact that there’s a mismatch between the job applications that are coming through and the job spec suggests the recruitment technologyor software that’s being used to promote the roles isn’t working as it should. Jobs need to be written in a way that appeal to the right audience. If the wrong people are applying – particularly at a time when there is still a skills shortage despite the slowdown in hiring – then it’s likely that the job advertisements themselves need a rethink.
It also indicates that any lead generation activity isn’t being optimised for the right keywords or target audiences. Today, recruitment requires an individual, tailored and targeted approach. The ‘spray and pray’ tactic of plastering a job advert everywhere won’t have the desired impact. Success isn’t getting more job applications. Instead, it’s defined by getting fewer, more relevant candidates to apply. With the right recruitment tech these ads can be pushed out in a more targeted manner and if half of the applications recruiters are receiving are a poor fit, then there’s a mis-alignment somewhere in this process.
It is important to add, though, that with skills shortages still rife, there is an increasing need to identify candidates with soft or transferable skills. It’s increasingly becoming apparent that the perfect candidate doesn’t always exist for very specific job specs, meaning that recruiters are having to look for applicants that meet some of the requirements in order to fill job roles. This could be influencing some of the results of the stat of 50%.
3. How can Broadbean help improve this stat - 73% of recruiters are suffering a candidate shortage?
It’s really not a surprise to see that the majority of recruiters are suffering from a candidate shortage given the pressure we’ve seen on the labour market in the last year. There’s no easy fix to the dearth of talent, but there are ways for recruiters to improve recruitment processes and use recruitment technology to free up a recruitment consultant’s time so they can focus on developing those all-important human relationships.
Broadbean’s technology can save recruiters between one to two hours a day by automating a significant part of the hiring process. The intelligent software is also designed to ensure jobs are being posted in real-time or at optimised times to ensure you’re getting the best results based on user experience candidate data.
Broadbean also provides the analysis and data recruiters need to ensure they are making truly informed decisions around the channels that are delivering the best ROI. As it is agile, it also allows activity to be re-adjusted or shifted in line with the latest real-time data.
Talking of Recruiters Improving Sourcing...
Our recruitment training platform - Recruitment HIIT - helps recruiters source quicker. We have a wealth of speedy recruiting tips designed to help recruiters reduce their sourcing time, including CRM sourcing and LinkedIn sourcing so you can source less and place more!
Plus, our Broadbean HIIT has cute tips on candidate sourcing, advertising your jobs and speedily managing your candidate pools so you can increase your placements and fees!
TRY RECRUITMENT HIIT FREE
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Lisa Jones
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Recruiters! 10 Reasons Why Candidate Engagement is Critical
Recruiters and their leaders who want to spend less time and money sourcing, and more time placing, need to read this blog and think about why they need to create a virtuous circle of talent.On our recent Bullhorn Tips webinar, where we focused on candidate management tips, we asked the attendees about their current candidate management strategy.The results were unsurprising, but also disappointing.They told us that their candidate database was...And that their candidate management strategy was...In other words, not future proof or focussed on creating a robust, easy to deliver pipeline. It's mainly focussed on live, active candidates who are imminently placeable... and Linkedin / Job Boards continue to win at the expense of the recruiter and their profits.Recruitment Data Wealth💵💶💷If we've learned anything (at least since 2008) we need a clean, warm databases to see us through easy and tough times.We need engaged, loyal, happy candidates who are easy to find, happy to recommend, refer, and show up!Some recruiters call this "Data Health" - I call it "Data Wealth".I've seen a lot of tech and data hitting the recruitment market, but still do not see enough process improvements to capitalise on it. We just keep buying more, rather than exploring how we actually need less, but need to work it better.It's Time to Move from Vicious to Virtuous!Recruiters still waste crazy amounts of time sourcing and advertising, but not enough time engaging and managing.And ironically, by not engaging, and letting hot data cool off, the industry creates silos of "cold" data. Hence sourcing is key and reliance on external systems is high, costs increase, placements take longer... Vicious cycle!What if, though, we take a moment? Let the stats below sink in, and engage with our systems and data in a proactive way. Could recruiters create a virtuous circle of engaged candidates staying loyal and placeable, meaning less need for job adverts, Linkedin, sourcing, and insanity?Yes!🔢Candidate Management Stats Every Recruiter Should Know78% of placed candidates are already in your CRM. – Yet many recruiters go straight to LinkedIn or job boards before checking their own database.Only 30% of CRM records are typically up to date. – That means 70% of your candidate data might be incomplete, inaccurate, or out of date.60% of recruiters admit to rarely revisiting past candidates. – This leads to missed opportunities and duplicated effort.It costs 6x more to source a new candidate than to re-engage an existing one. – Save budget and time by starting with your CRM.43% of recruiters say poor data quality negatively impacts their ability to place quickly. – Dirty data slows down sourcing, shortlisting, and matching.48% of candidates who apply to a role never hear back. – Proper candidate management helps ensure consistent communication and better candidate experience.80% of candidates say they’d reapply to a company with a good hiring experience. – Engagement doesn’t stop at “not selected”—it builds your future pipeline.Recruiters spend up to 1/3 of their time on admin. – Automation and smart candidate management free up time for relationship-building and placements.Re-engaged candidates are 2x more likely to be placed than cold-sourced ones. – Prior placements and silver medalists are often your hottest leads.Companies that nurture candidates improve quality of hire by 20%. – Keeping in touch with passive talent builds a stronger, more prepared pipeline.The stats above are from a variety of sources, including IBM, TalentBoard, Bullhorn, and LinkedIn.Even just one of the stats above should be enough to make you stop and think "how can I create a virtuous circle of happy, engaged, and placed candidates?"💻Watch our Bullhorn Tips Webinar and use Bullhorn to manage and engage your candidates.Click to WatchRecruitment and Bullhorn TrainingWe deliver the best live Bullhorn ROI webinar training, and you'll find other tips and tricks in Recruitment HIIT, our online recruitment training platform.Plus, through our Bullhorn Vision service we help generate serious ROI from your Bullhorn, data, and people.TRY HIIT FREE HERECONTACT US ABOUT BULLHORN ROI
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Wayne Barclay
Blog
Advertise Jobs: The Recruitment Automation That Transforms Your Database
Recruiters should always be looking for ways to move beyond traditional sourcing methods like job boards and LinkedIn. But often, a "hand to mouth" strategy and little time to think outside of the box means that they need to stick to these platforms.Time and money is wasted.Tech doesn't actually give you the edge.Opportunities are missed, and even lost.Job boards and LinkedIn are saturated with supposedly active candidates. Plus clients, competitors, and increasingly, AI all use them, too.So, how can recruiters create a competitive edge and build a unique (and valuable) candidate database so that they can place easier and faster?Enter Advertise Jobs, an automation designed to engage, leverage, and weaponise your existing database of candidates.🔐Unlocking the Potential of Your Recruitment DatabaseOne of the most common frustrations we hear from recruiters is this: “I can’t find the candidates I need on our database.” Yet, many of these databases contain thousands (if not millions) of candidate records. The problem isn’t the lack of candidates—it’s the lack of engaged candidates.The Advertise Jobs automation changes the game by making your database the first stop for every job.Instead of relying on external platforms, it trains recruiters to source candidates directly from the database. This approach triggers an automated campaign to engage those candidates in the background while recruiters focus on other tasks. Over time, this process proves faster, more efficient, and far less frustrating than traditional sourcing methods.❓Why Start with Your Own Recruitment Data?Here are some compelling stats to consider:72% of Candidates Are Already on Your Database: Many recruiters waste time and money downloading CVs from job boards, only to discover they already have these candidates in their system. Advertise Jobs ensures your database stays up-to-date and prevents duplicate efforts. (Source: Daxtra)Database Sourcing Is Faster: On average, it takes 40 days to place a candidate sourced from your database, compared to 60 days when sourced externally through job boards, LinkedIn, or social media. (Source: Bullhorn)By focusing on your database first AKA "Bullhorn 1st", you save time, reduce costs, and maximise the value of your existing resources.🤖How the Advertise Jobs Automation WorksAdvertise Jobs is built to make sourcing smarter and more streamlined. Here’s how it works:Automated Campaigns: When a new job comes in, recruiters start by shortlisting candidates from the database. This triggers an automated campaign that engages those candidates through multiple touchpoints.Engagement at Scale: Over days, candidates receive a number of touchpoints—a mix of automated and human interactions. This ensures consistent communication and keeps candidates engaged without overwhelming recruiters.Enhanced Productivity: Recruiters can focus on speaking with the engaged candidates and other tasks while the automation runs in the background, delivering a faster, more seamless sourcing experience. Nice!Think about a model such as the “10 touchpoints” model: three human interactions and seven automated ones. This balanced strategy ensures meaningful engagement, delivered in a suitable timeframe, without overburdening your recruiters.💗Automate to Humanise!Candidates want to hear from you about relevant opportunities, but they’re often overlooked because your database isn’t being fully utilised and recruiters are too busy to do the right thing at the right time. Advertise Jobs changes that by:Automating engagement.Reducing time speaking to irrelevant and uninterested candidatesCreating a better experience for both recruiters and candidates,And enriching your candidate data.It’s time to stop wasting resources on external platforms and start maximising the potential of your own database. With Advertise Jobs, you’ll transform your sourcing process, boost productivity, and gain a competitive edge in the recruitment market.Arrange a chat with our team of expert automation builders to discuss this automation (and other awesome automations) which can help you monetise your Bullhorn data and pipeline.Arrange a callbackAutomation and Bullhorn1stWe are Automation Buddies and Bullhorn Experts set on helping ambitious recruitment businesses who want to increase speed and sales.Automation: We coach to inspire, and build your automations so you can recruit and sell!Bullhorn: We optimise, train, and improve RoI from your key recruitment system.READ ABOUT OUR AUTOMATION BUDDY SERVICERead about our Bullhorn 1st Service
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