Digging Into RecruitingBlogs.com v2.08: The Death of Sourcing

Rating: 3.4 after 15 votes

(Feb 27, 2009) Sourcing, as currently practiced, is a short term phenomenon. There is money to be made in the field today because the techniques required to find people are arcane and confusing. Additionally, with the strong exception of Avature and Broadlook's products, there are no useful tools for the automation of the process.

Meanwhile people are getting easier and easier to find.

The next waves of innovation in social networks will be all about making the membership accessible to each other. Right now, finding additional network nodes, new friends or interesting potential connections is a black art. You've got to be a Boolean Black Belt. You need a guru. There's an entire consulting industry built on specialized knowledge.

You may rest assured that this situation will not last.

The web is best when it tears down the friction that separates information from the people who need it. The folks who work hard mining data manually today will be flipping burgers in the near future. The skills required to move forward are unlike the ones being taught. Contemporary sourcing is a dead-end occupation with little in the way of transferrable skills.

Next generation recruiting is about relating intimately, not about mutual discovery. It's about fidelity and long term value exchange, not one night stands. It's about data that updates itself because the relationship is constantly working. Finding each other? Easy. Building an enduring relationship? Hard.

For a while, sourcing will be a high dollar, easy pickings income source. But, in the relatively short term, the need for the expertise will evaporate. Former sourcing luminaries will be familiarizing themselves with the alarm on the French fry machine and the relative difference between Rare, Medium and Well done.

Evaporate, as in "What air freshener scent would you like with your car wash?"

So, what do you do if you're a sourcer (or any kind of Recruiter, for that matter)?

Get really good at being a productive member of an online community. Join stuff, volunteer, get experience.
Develop repeatable methods for discovering new communities and joining them.
Develop community management skills (Jason Davis is a good role model).
Stop acting like an email address is a relationship or a list is a community.

I'm on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Friendfeed. Catch up with me.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Maureen Sharib on February 27, 2009 at 2:15pm: Absolutely, John, you hit on something here:
"The other thing that is becoming apparent to me is that the term sourcer is no more useful than the term recruiter. We don't have good specific shared meanings for these roles. Generalizations break down in a hurry when we use the same words to mean different things."
What can we do about it?

And here, you identify a real arising need:
"...technology that makes finding people a lot easier will increase the demand for relationship builders. That's a great place to invest good people skills."
More and more of my work these days is entailing the second product that we offer: profiling.
If you can "reach out" to the people that the machine can source for you (though this, still, to me, is problematic in that if the machine (easily and at MOST Internet sourcer skill levels) found them for YOU it also found them for HIM and HER and HER too...and oh! don't forget THEM... and when you contact these people they've already been contacted so many times their livers have turned black and the reception is almost hostile) and turn the few who you've been lucky enough to be one of the first to "find" into a viable possible candidate your stock is surely going to rise (along with the networks) in the coming years.
FAR BETTER YET:
If you are one of the few (yes, I'm using analogies freely here - it's my country and I have long since borne the name "Maureen") who can first TELEPHONE SOURCE persons who are not likely to have EVER been contacted before because - guess why? - they're not on the Internet - and approach THEM with your opportunity you'll be far ahead of the game because:
1. You won't have to kiss so many frogs because these people (most likely) have never before been contacted by a recruiter.
2. Your reception will be much kinder and the whole interaction much gentler and your acceptance rates much higher.
If you can do this second highly skilled and far better function YOUR STOCK is going to skyrocket.

Thank you John for bringing this issue to the forefront.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dave Graziano on February 27, 2009 at 3:02pm: Outstanding John! Relationships are the Holy Grail.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Scott Beardsley on February 27, 2009 at 3:04pm: I can see the point you are making, and fundementally agree. Just as when Computers first came out, if you knew how to operate one you were called a systems programmer and made lots of money. Now, most of us can load an operating system on a computer.

If Sourcing goes beyond name generation and begins to generate relationships that can be maintained for long shelf life periods it will not die, rather it will evolve into a builder of Private Talent Warehouses - valued partner to Recruiting. If a team of front line recruiters are able to tap into a fat, accurate, well maintained PTW for their reqs, I bet they stop goin to the job boards and using agenies for talent.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Eric Gilson on February 27, 2009 at 3:10pm: But in the end:

Tony Montana kills Manny for marrying his sister. After Tony goes home and snorts a mountain of cocaine, his sister goes crazy and tries to kill Tony. She shoots him in the leg but a Columbian assassin shoots Tony's sister and Tony kills the assassin. Tony watches as all of his men are killed and Sosa's men invade his mansion. Tony blasts through his doors with a grenade launcher attachment and guns down many Columbians while being shot in the meanwhile. He takes the bullets without pain (because of all the cocaine he snorted), but he finally succumbs when an assassin shoots him in the back with a shotgun.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Pierre Coupet on February 27, 2009 at 3:13pm: John, it's already DEAD. Other than that, EVERYTHING ELSE said is right on the money. I've been wondering for a long time when somebody was going to figure that out.

Pierre; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on February 27, 2009 at 3:20pm: @ Pierre Coupet Thanks for offering NO PROOF AT ALL for your bold statement. I think you're a great guy Pierre, really swell, but that's a lousy excuse for an argument.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gregory Pankow on February 27, 2009 at 3:21pm: While I agree with you that relationship building is key to successful full-cycle recruiting, I think you are forgetting (like most people do) about telephone sourcing.

While only 3% of the workforce may be on linkedin, EVERYONE has a phone at work.

If your hiring manager has a Req. that you cannot fill through your relationship network, phone sourcing is the ONLY way you are going to find people with specific skills from the companies that your hiring manager is interested in (in a timely fashion).; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Chris Notarfrancesco on February 27, 2009 at 3:24pm: This has been a highly entertaining discussion to read through! Thanks, John for starting it and everyone who has replied so far. No one ever wants to hear or read that the career path they have chosen and are passionate about is going to die. But, what I think John has done here is challenge everyone to always be thinking of how to stay ahead and never, ever be stagnant. He has thrown down the gauntlet and I say bravo!!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gregory Pankow on February 27, 2009 at 3:34pm: John,

I totally disagree on your projection of the growth of social networks (at least in the sense that you mean it).

Let's take linkedin for example.

30 million people at the moment and it's growing like crazy, but...

Many people in linkedin will either be 1) not in your network 2) have not bothered to update their info and could have changed jobs twice since they made their profile 3) AND MOST IMPORTANTLY Most people don't get serious about their social networking until they are on a job search. It's simple human nature. Why go to all that work to make yourself visible, if you do not consider yourself to be in a job market.

Simply put, PASSIVE candidates (those who are not currently in a job search mode) are best reached by phone, unless your relationship network is so good that you can satisfy your hiring managers Req. for specific hard to fill positions with people from specific companies timely fashion.

I don't think anyone will ever have personal relationships and networks so large that they can be used to satisfy every hiring need.

John Sumser said:
You know, Maureen, a little more time in the fryer makes them crispy. You just have to get them out before they get really brown. :-)

Finding people is about to get extremely easy.

Telephone sourcing has the long term viability of say, a newspaper. That said, I am certain that you have a clearer picture of the long term viability of the telephone approach. 40 Million LinkedIn profiles leaves another 100 million workers to find today.

But they are all online already and social networks will be as ubiquitous as email three years from now.

Nothings going to replace talking to people as a way of building relationships. Telephone sourcers with a modicum of personality ought to be able to transition into the next wave. Online researchers have a bigger challenge.

(If you didn't see this, the venerable San Francisco Chronicle is in real danger of a shut down).; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Susan Burns on February 27, 2009 at 3:51pm: Talent may be getting easier to find and we also know that cycles dictating the urgency in finding talent will eventually shift. There are bigger risks to sourcing.

Within corporate sourcing roles the challenge was that too many companies and sourcing leaders saw themselves as a standalone function and didn't see or pursue the greater value of an integrated relationship with recruiting. As the economy softened sourcing was hit first and hardest because companies saw more value from full-cycle recruiters. I still believe there is value in sourcing as a strategic component of a recruiting function.

For both third-party and corporate sourcers/recruiters the biggest risk is something that John touches on -

"community management skills and stop acting like an email address is a relationship or a list is a community"

The element I would add to this, or highlight, is the absence of caring. If your only there for yourself when you need something your missing the true value and foundation of community. Recruiters too often operate on a "stalk and abandon" methodology. When they're working on an assignment the job seeker is THE most important person in the world and the sourcer or recruiter is relentless about reaching them. As soon as the person is no longer a fit for that role or reaches out when their personal situation changes the likelihood of getting a call back is slim to none. Before you get crazy I realize this is a broad sweeping generalization. But we all know it happens, that it happens too often and is happening even more today. Personally, I'd like to see something written in to SLAs that every candidate receives a response. The access to technology makes this possible - and I don't mean an automated response, get personal. So even if you are outstanding at getting back to people the reputation of the industry your in is being diluted. What can you do to make a difference and challenge others to be more caring. Ask yourself - would @jobangels be taking off with the momentum it has beneath its wings if people had a more positive experience with sourcers and recruiters? btw - I think what @jobangels is doing is fantastic and support it but wonder about the reason why.

In the end, the greatest risk today may be the long-term memory of all the people (job seekers) who have been affected by the downturn. Being laid off is one thing but the sting from not hearing back or having people take your calls is another. Stories are shared over glasses of wine and one by one the value to the service is diluted. Do you think as these people go back to work they will be proponents of using a sourcing or recruiting service. Or, as is more likely the case, they will be bigger proponents of referrals and networking.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by KarenM on February 27, 2009 at 3:52pm: There are many of us who are in a small box and think that so many are like us.. but they are not, and I totally do disagree with this article, for which of course, having a dissenting opinion, will create enough flack, thus I will limit my personal comments, and allow this article to speak for itself

the following article is from 2007 but based upon individuals I know personally - including individuals from Generation Y - I say that this article is RIGHT On, people Do have lives.. and I see this to be a growing trend.. not diminishing..

In fact HLN (Headline News) has a great article today about individuals cutting of MySpace and Facebook not only for lent, but because it eats up too much of their personal time.. I also think that Privacy continues to be a growing concern, that we will also continue to see even the Gen Y create more and more private profiles, so that if you don't know the individual you won't find them..

America Offline: Many Don't Surf, Many Don't Care http://www.technewsworld.com/story/56595.html?welcome=1211213269&am... Almost half of households without Web access don't care that they can't surf. In fact, 44 percent of the nation's 31 million offline households say the Internet has nothing for them, according to a recent study. Other major reasons for not having Web access include inability to afford equipment and lack of knowledge about how to use the Internet.

Also have some other really great research documents that demonstrate more accurate numbers from 2008 which exemplifies this information So Maureen, I don't think you have to lose sleep anytime soon.. Hey, I remember how the Job Board was going to replace recruiting as well.. and if you go back long enough, so were the Trade Magazine job postings.. Sure, you can find Names on the internet.. but Dang, I can in the Yellow Pages as well, don't mean I know what they do, when they do it, and how well they do the job.. far less how long.. Reminds me of a corporate directory, with a load of names, but not a title to be found.. blah.. Personally I think Internet sourcing is as bunk as it comes.. now getting down to Networking.. that is always going to win the awards

Karen Mattonen; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on February 27, 2009 at 3:58pm: Susie, sweetheart. I was in your tutorial at the Recruifest when you talked about the coming importance of the Community Manager. It sounded great and Dennis Smith, who was there as well, was really taken with the term.

Since then, however, he's made no effort to hide the fact that being the manager of a large community on ning has not helped him to find a job. I can't tell you how surprised I was to hear this. It was a lesson for me.

The niche recruiter who walks a regular beat has the benefit of getting to know the people in his neighbourhood. And that is of real value when you go looking for people. But the idea of a community can sound better than it really is.

Regards from me.; ▶ Reply to This