Can You See Your Candidates?

Through my normal pre-work reading of various blogs (mentioned in previous posts!). I came across the infographic below on +Jim Stroud's blog. That post was focussed more on the legal side of social media. However for the sourcing community there were a number of interesting points.

How visible are your candidates?

Of these points the ones I found particularly interesting were the 1st and 2nd ones. 

The first is about the number of adult internet users who are on social media - roughly 70%. That leaves a massive 30% of potential target candidates unavailable through internet search. 

The second point is the more important for me, it's about the percentage use of different age groups:

If the roles you are working on are towards the junior end of the market - 18-29 then luckily for you 83% of the candidates will have an online profile meaning that only 17% are a little more tricky to get hold of.

If however you're working the more senior end of the market in terms of experience then you'll probably be looking towards the 50-64 category. Here you'll only find 52% of the candidates with online profiles. Clearly this leaves a huge proportion of the potential population unavailable. 

Of course these above numbers are absolute and don't correlate with the amount of profiles that are actually findable (within the short periods of time that we are given to complete a sourcing project). Along with this caveat is that within different sectors these numbers fluctuate wildly with some having little to no online presence and others having a very strong presence.

What is a Sourcer to do?

Once you realise the number of candidates that are unavailable through internet searching of any kind there is for us one main option. That main option is to get on the phone to look to understand the size and structure of the target teams and begin to map out the potential candidates that we are missing. I won't go into the methods in this post but if you want further reading I'd recommend looking up +Maureen Sharib and her many posts on the subject!

How would you go about finding the other half?

What do you read? Part 1

Not really relevant but hilarious anyway!

I thought it would be good to share some of my favourite things to read and some of my favourite people to follow across social media (in no particular order). I've split this into two posts one based around sourcing specialists and the second part, to follow, based around the wider Recruitment & HR world.

Sourcing Specialists

This is who to follow if you want to stay ahead of the game when it comes to sourcing and searching.

+Glen Cathey (Twitter: @GlenCathey, Web: booleanblackbelt.com)

Glen is a recruitment legend, his knowledge of internet sourcing is probably second to none and his blog posts are always a fascinating educational experience.

+Irina Shamaeva (Twitter: @braingain‎ Web: booleanstrings.com)

Irina is in the same league as Glen when it comes to knowledge around sourcing, her website booleanstrings is one of the go to resources for all things search. She also runs a very interesting community who are always free to help out.

+Martin Lee (Twitter: @mrmartinlee Web: linkedin.com/in/martinjlee‎)

I had the pleasure of working with Martin during his time at Talent Works and he always had the time to help out with the many sourcing quests that we complete. If you ever have a question just drop him a line and he’s sure to be able to help or know of someone to help.

+Katharine Robinson (Twitter: @TheSourceress Web: uksourcers.co.uk)

Katharine is one of the UKs leading Sourcers (Sourceress’s?) and is always around to share great insights into sourcing techniques. She’s also a Sourcing Grand Master so is definitely worth following.

+Dan Russell (Twitter: @dmrussell Web: searchresearch1.blogspot.com)

Dan is a Google insider and his blog is an always fantastic place to hone your search skills. Some of his challenges have become legendary (the tower one in particular) and they’re a great place to really push your searching abilities.

+Maureen Sharib (Twitter: @MaureenSharib Web: http://magicmethod.ning.com/profiles/blog/list)

As much as the internet is fantastic. We sourcers cannot afford to forget telephone sourcing techniques. They can uncover a lot more information than the internet can offer. Maureen is, for me, the go to person for information around this.

+Jeremy Roberts (Twitter: @imJeremyR Web: http://jeremyrobertstx.com/)

Jeremy is the editor of SourceCon and has an extensive past in Talent Acquisition. Along with sharing all the great SourceCon knowledge Jeremy also hosts Google+ Hangouts where sourcers unite to right wrongs and help one another out.

+Jim Stroud (Twitter: @JimStroud Web: http://blog.jimstroud.com/)

Jim is the producer of some of my favourite videos related to sourcing they're always worth a watch and will always raise a smile along with provoking thought and relaying new ideas.

+Balazs Paroczay (Twitter: @TheBalazs Web: http://thebalazs.com)

Balazs leads one of the best sourcing functions around and his blog posts are always worth paying attention to - in particular see his deconstruction of Facebook searching, it really is fantastic work.

+SourceCon (Twitter: @Sourcecon Web: www.sourcecon.com)

SourceCon should be one of the go to sources for anyone with an interest in recruitment, there's always a wide variety of content based around sourcing. They are of course the hosts of the SourceCon events and the infamous Grand Master Challenge (which really does live up to it's name).

So that is my list of who to follow, there are so many great people within the sourcing world on social media that this post could've been the best part of 20 pages long. Who else should I be following or reading? 

Of course you shouldn't forget to follow me! (Twitter: @LiamTFitzG LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/liamfitzgerald)

Well Hello

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by, my name is Liam and a I'm new to blogging. I've decided to make the leap from a curator to a creator. I've spent a fair amount of time on various social networks (Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn) and I tend to share all the great posts that I come across and enjoy. I thought that now would be a good time to add to the ever growing list to try and give something back to the communities I circle.

Primarily my intended focus for these blogs will be around my day job. I'm an Account Manager - Direct Sourcing for Talent Works International. I work on a wide range of projects in a wide range of industries and across a wide range of locations. I also used the term wide range three times in a row, is this frowned upon? I've worked on projects ranging from R&D within in global FMCG companies through: sales teams across Europe and the USA for a multinational IT provider; Legal teams throughout continental Europe; VP Finance within the Global Oil and Gas market and pretty much everything in between.. Apart from software. So I'll try and share my methods, madness and insight in this blog. Whether that's worth reading is up to you!

I also plan to share what ever rambling nonsense runs through my head when I sit down to write. You know what they say about the best plans though...