Candidate Sourcers

Candidate sourcers are the researchers who identify top talent for executive recruiting teams. The recruiting researchers look for executives that match the required knowledge, skills, abilities (KSAs) education, and experience for senior executive and leadership openings at a company. Research associats for executive recruiting focus on identifying and qualifying passive candidates.

They Focus on the Candidate Discovery

Tbe recruitment researchers conduct what is called “name generation” — developing a list of candidate names with resumes or biographies and contact information. They often utilize Internet souring techniques that include x-ray searches and Boolean searching. Often Internet Sourcers focus exclusively on online research and do not contaxt to candidates by phone.

Yet They May Conduct Candidate Development

Yet, sometimes talent sourcing does include candidate qualification — calling candidates to screen and qualify them. The candidate development ensures a senior executive or technology leader is qualified and gathers essential deal-making details such as compensation requirements, relocation preferences, and whether the executive is motivated to make a move to a new employer.

Speed Time to Hire

Candidate development produces interested, qualified candidates ready to move forward for interviews. Consequently, recruitment researchers enable companies to hire more quickly. Also, after recruiting researchers have created a database of candidate profiles at favorite target companies, recruiters can immediately conduct outreach to recruit them whenever there is an opening for just-in-time hiring.

Higher Quality Hires 

Because they focus on passive candidates, sourcers deliver higher quality hires. In fact, retained executive search targets ideal passive candidates almost exclusively. Some active candidates may have issues — they may have been fired, let go, or simply have other problems.

Essential for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Candidate researchers support the success of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) talent strategies. In fact, executive sourcers help ensure women and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) are well-represented in the long list of candidates developed for an executive search. That diverse long lost, in turn, yields, diverse shortlists, ad increase diversity representation of the C-Suite.