Sourcing in personnel management refers to proactively identifying potential candidates through recruiting techniques. Historically, sourcing was the sole responsibility of recruiters, but it has grown into a specialized role. Sourcing involves identifying names, titles, and contact information of potential candidates through primary techniques like cold calling or secondary techniques like internet searches. Proactive sourcing seeks out passive candidates not actively job searching, while reactive sourcing reviews applicants from job boards or referrals. Sourcing is distinguished from candidate research and profiling. Specialized sourcers focus on internet research skills or sourcing diverse candidates.

1. Sourcing (personnel)
Sourcing in personnel management work refers to the
identification and uncovering of candidates (also known
as talent) through proactive recruiting techniques.
Historical context
The evolution of recruiting has changed significantly over the
last few decades. What started out as the responsibility
of office managers to place job advertisements in
newspapers or help wanted signs to attract potential
employees has now grown into a multibillion-dollar industry,
where the identification of talent requires internal corporate
recruitment departments or employment agencies solely
focused on this transaction through both proactive and New
reactive recruiting techniques.
Today the actual act of identifying candidates has even been
split into dedicated roles and job functions, whereas
historically sourcing was the sole and inclusive responsibility
of the recruiter along with other job responsibilities
(examples):
Screen and interview candidates against the position
requirements
Work closely with the hiring manager on hiring activities
Help with the "offer letter" and interview
A third-party recruitment agency or corporate recruiting
department may be made up of individuals dedicated to just
the sourcing of candidates while recruiters can either focus
on more account management responsibilities or leverage
sourcing experts to supplement an additional volume of
potential candidates. An increasing number of agencies and

2. corporate recruiting departments outsource this work to
a Recruitment Process Outsourcing vendor.
Detailed definition
The actual act of sourcing for candidates is performed by
either a recruiter (be it an internal corporate recruiter or
agency recruiter) or a dedicated recruiter just focused on the
sourcing function. The definition of sourcing needs to be
clearly defined by what it is, as much as what it is not.
Candidate sourcing activity typically ends once the name,
job title, job function and contact information for the potential
candidate is determined by the candidate sourcer. To further
develop a list of names that were sourced some companies
have a second person then reach out to the names on the
list to initiate a dialogue with them with the intention of pre-
screening the candidate against the job requirements and
gauging the interest level in hearing about new job
opportunities. This activity is called "candidate profiling" or
"candidate pre-screening". The term candidate sourcing
should not be confused with candidate research.
In some situations a person that "sources" candidates can
and will perform both 'primary' and 'secondary' sourcing
techniques to identify candidates as well as the candidate
profiling to further pre-screen candidates but there is a
growing market for experts solely focused on "telephone
sourcing", "internet sourcing/researching" and candidate
profiling. The actual act to source candidates can usually be
split out into two clearly defined techniques: primary sourcing
and secondary sourcing.
Primary sourcing/phone sourcing
In recruiting and sourcing, this means the leveraging of
techniques (primarily the phone) to identify candidates with
limited to no presence of these individuals in any easily

3. accessible public forum (the Internet, published list, etc.). It
requires the uncovering of candidate information via a
primary means of calling directly into organizations to
uncover data on people, their role, title and responsibilities.
The term "phone sourcers" or "phone name generator" or
"telephone names sourcer" generally applies to the
utilization of primary sourcing techniques.
Secondary sourcing/Internet sourcing
In recruiting and sourcing, this means the using of
techniques (primarily the Internet and utilizing
advanced Boolean operators) to identify candidates.
Individuals in the recruiting industry that have deep expertise
in uncovering talent in the harder to reach places on the
internet (forums, blogs, alumni groups, conference attendee
lists, personal home pages, etc.).
The term "internet sourcer", "Internet name generator" or
"internet researcher" generally applies to the use of
secondary sourcing techniques.
Examples of sourcing techniques
Sourcing for candidates refers to proactively identifying
people who are either a) not actively looking for job
opportunities (passive candidates) or b) candidates who are
actively searching for job opportunities (active candidates),
though the industry also recognizes the existence of 'active
candidate sourcing' using candidate databases, job boards
and the like.
Though there has been much debate within the staffing
community as to how to accurately define an "active
candidate" versus a "passive candidate," typically either term
is irrelevant to a candidate sourcer as the status of any

4. particular candidate can change from moment to moment or
with a simple phone call from a recruiter that happens to
present a job opportunity. The status of being an "active" or
"passive" candidate is fluid and changes depending on the
circumstances, including the position being offered.
Activities related to sourcing in recruiting can also be
categorized into "push activities" and "pull activities." Push
activities are activities undertaken to reach out to the target
audience. This generally includes headhunting, HTML
mailers, referral follow-ups, etc.
Pull activities are activities that result in applicants coming
to know of an opportunity on their own. Pull activities may
include the following: advertising on a microsite with a
registration process (this makes search engines index the
ad), advertising (in newspapers, on cable TV, through
flyers/leaflets, etc.), posting a job in job portals, etc.
In summary, a push activity is akin to a direct marketing
activity, whereas pull activities are more indirect marketing of
the same concept. Both ideally result in applicants becoming
interested and the interest triggering a response (applying,
referring, calling, sending an SMS, etc.). These action
triggers are also sometimes referred to as Call To Action
(CTA) steps.
Proactive techniques
1. Using Boolean operators on major search engine sites
(Google, Live.com, Yahoo!, etc.) to identify potential
candidates who might meet the criteria of the position
to be filled based on targeted keywords. Example string
in Google: "SAP consultant" (resume | CV | "curriculum
vitae").

5. 2. Searching for candidates in job board resume
databases (e.g. Monster.com) using keywords related
to the position requirements.
3. Looking in own recruitment database.
4. Networking with individuals to uncover candidates. This
includes the use of social networking tools and sites
such as LinkedIn.
5. "Phone sourcing" or cold calling into companies that
might contain individuals that match the key
requirements of the position that needs to be filled.
Examples of what sourcing is not
Reactive techniques
1. Reviewing candidates who have applied to positions
through the corporate/agency web site
2. Processing an employee referral
3. Corporate recruiter receiving candidates
from employment agencies
4. Screening candidates at a career fair
Natural habitat
By nature of the position, recruiters do not have the time to
conduct primary research and initial candidate development.
A typical recruiter is bombarded with calls all day from
vendors, busy processing candidates, meeting with hiring
managers, and talking with employees. Those distractions
can throw off an otherwise excellent Internet search or
telephone sourcer. Sourcers must remain focused on the
search and development of leads just as recruiters must
remain focused on maintaining communication with
candidates in process, enforcing HR policies, attending

6. meetings, negotiating, and handling the hiring from initial
offer to onboarding.
Specialization: internet researcher
Internet research is a highly specialized field that takes years
to master. Many of the best sourcers started out as
recruiters who found they enjoy the “thrill of the hunt” more
than the rest of the process and became successful because
of their heightened research skills and abilities. Another
common origin for strong sourcers is from professions where
research or investigative skills are an imperative (journalists,
librarians, fact-checkers, academic researchers, etc.), which
is a common skillset within the field of competitive
intelligence.
Several recruiters can rely on the same sourcer to generate
leads and fill their pipelines with pre-screened or pre-
qualified candidates. Sourcers are often the initial point of
contact with a candidate, qualifying whether they are a real
job seeker or just a job shopper. As a result, sourcers are
uniquely positioned to sell or “pre-close” candidates before
the candidates enter the rest of the recruitment process.[5]
Specialization: diversity sourcing
Corporate recruiters specializing in the sourcing of
candidates for inclusion in a diverse candidate pool.
Methods include searching for specific keywords [6] found on
resumes, sourcing from affinity groups and researching other
communities.