Slow death of Recruitment Sourcers – Part 2
Sri (Srikrishnan Ananthanarayanan)
Passionate about Sustainability, DEI Champion, LGBTQ+ Ally
**** My previous post with the same topic earned me a lot of hate mails/calls and an equal number of encouraging words. I’ve been/am a sourcer-recruiter myself and need no advice on what a sourcer does. For those who need a simpler explanation, https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/20141111064301-17945225-sourcer-vs-recruiter helps. Truth always hurts at first. At least, my opinion does. (This part is fundamentally focusing on sourcers in Indian Recruitment Industry ****
I need an honest answer to the question below.
*As a sourcer, do you use google/LinkedIn/portals/chrome plugins/git scrapers to source OR do you go check yellow pages/ the age old telephone directories to find people?*
When everything we do as sourcers is online, don’t you really think they can be automated? Someone asked me, who will suggest the keywords? Really? You got to be sending “morse code” signals for SOS. Do you know what machine learning is? It will learn from you, with you. It will understand the semantic usage, use cognitive computing algorithms and a whole lot of ML techniques to mimic the best of sourcers.
It will also study past data of people that were sourced, joined and are doing well and chart a pattern. It will also understand business trends and be ready with skills that might be necessary down the line.
Coming to what a sourcer does… I do not want to kick the hornet's nest. By now every honest sourcer would have made sense of what I'm trying to point. If you are a sourcer and still taking/engaging the profile to closure.. sorry mate, you have a wrong title, but you are doing great!
Furthermore, how many candidates do you meet in person during the recruitment process? If your answer is less than 10% - you have an explanation as to why you need to move up the value chain.
The future is full of possibilities. One can either turn a blind eye to what's coming our way and crash out or ride on it for a smooth journey! The choice, I say is always yours.
Head of Engineering at GlobalLogic India with expertise in Digital Engineering, Business Process Automation & Delivery Management
5 年I have seen and observed how profiles are sourced. There is really no theory behind it. Copy keywords from JD and search online. Open the first 3-4 and see if you can setup a discussion. This process can definitely be automated. However this process cant really ensure brings right fits always because this is a trial and error process. According to me the best hires I have done are when I tapped into my list of contacts and known people who can fit the role and persuaded them to join. I don't think this process can be automated. This will still remain an art!?
Googler by Passion and Profession
7 年I totally agree with you. Most of the resumes are copied from each other / not perfect representations of an individuals work . BOT”s can not engage passive candidates. I agree Tech would influence our profession but at the end it might end up as helping hand to sourcers. Sourcing is the key and it would never move away from human hands. Machine would do what it is trained on and sourcing is beyond this.
Talent Acquisition | Executive Sourcer | Full Cycle Recruiter |
7 年I think both of your articles bring interesting view points. I am strictly a Sourcer (to help put my comment in context). While I think a computer can put together search strings and produce profiles, resumes, names etc. I think it lacks the ability to engage passive candidates and qualify them to make sure they are a good cultural fit. I think a Sourcers role can shift with a system that is able to identify candidates but someone needs to screen them. Having a great background on paper does not make the candidate a right fit.