Who is a Sourcer?
How to tell the difference between a Sourcer and a Recruiter?
Currently, we can observe in the market a rapidly growing need for even more targeted acquisition of candidates for specific positions than before. This very need is answered by the specialization of the Sourcer, whose position is still very undervalued and even in many places still unknown. Who exactly is a Sourcer? Why are the role of a Sourcer and the role of a Recruiter complementary positions whose cooperation leads to the best results in recruitment processes?
It is clear that for a long time the goal of every company is to hire the right person for the right place, but over time this has simply become difficult. In an era of powerful competition (especially in the IT sector) and under a flood of candidates, it has become increasingly hard to find the right people. Sourcer’s goal, therefore, is to conduct a search for such people who will fit perfectly into the candidate’s profile, and at the same time will be found thanks to unusual and previously unused in recruitment tools, whose functionalities shed a whole new light on the concept of recruitment and are developing more and more rapidly.
In order to demonstrate the differences between a Recruiter and a Sourcer in a good way, it is necessary first of all to indicate what competencies each side is equipped with. A Recruiter is a person whose skills are based on selecting candidates, monitoring interactions with them, and then guiding applicants through the entire recruitment process until they are hired. A Recruiter must have the soft skills of perfect communication so as to tailor it to a particular candidate and properly coordinate job interviews, so he or she definitely must be someone who is no stranger to the psychological aspects of the job. Such a person must also be familiar with conducting the administration of the recruitment process and preparing special offers for candidates. As for the Sourcer, on the other hand, it can be said that this is basically the profession of a kind of detective, who has an ever-changing and growing pool of work tools to improve the search. It is a person who searches for people through unconventional recruitment channels, but also takes care of building a base of specialists familiar with the brand, who in the future can become active candidates in the process. The Sourcer is responsible for finding the so-called passive candidates, who have not applied to a given company, and creating such a job offer that it receives the properly assumed interest. Sourcer’s competence goes far beyond a simple search, as a lot of skills come into play here, such as working with artificial intelligence, special plug-ins, programs or even programming elements.
In order to effectively conduct sourcing searches, it is important to constantly diversify one’s activities and expand one’s knowledge of tools, because similar to the ever-changing algorithms in social media, there are constantly changing opportunities for better searching through appropriately and newly selected techniques.
Thus, it should be noted in final that the roles of Recruiter and Sourcer are completely separate fields, but interfaced and synergistic to each other — both equally important. The cooperation of specialists from both areas leads to the most effective results and allows to achieve the intended goals of hiring the right people, whose competencies will not only fit the job profile, but also self-concepts can be fulfilled in a given company. The role of a Sourcer can, of course, be an excellent basis towards development into a Recruiter position, but it is primarily a distinct career path full of challenges.
Words by Kinga Kuśnierz, Content Writer at Altimetrik Poland
Big thanks to Nina Kozłowska — TA Leader at Altimetrik Poland and Weronika Grzeszcz — TA Analyst at Altimetrik Poland, who shared with me a lot of knowledge in this field.
