How to Source Candidates for Your Start-up?

With start-ups proliferating, the need to hire and retain the best talent seems a herculean task. Even before getting started with your recruiting process, you need to source candidates. It becomes imperative for businesses to source top-notch talent to stay competitive in the dynamic job market.

Read through to understand what candidate sourcing is and the steps to source candidates for your start-up.

What is candidate sourcing?

Sourcing candidates refers to the continuous search for potential hires either for filling current openings or in the future. It is an amazing way to reach out to active and passive candidates and serves as a gateway to recruiting. 

Statistics from LinkedIn indicate that nearly 62% of talent teams get high-quality candidates through sourcing rather than inbound applications. Once the candidates are sourced from various channels, next the recruiting begins with conducting screening tests, interviews, and more. 

Steps to source candidates for your start-up

Craft a Clear Job description 

Make sure you are clear on your hiring goals and have chalked out a crisp job description with an ideal candidate persona. Focus on building a candidate talent pool of passive candidates with their contact information, qualifications, experience, notice period, preferred locations, salary expectations, and more.

Use job boards/online sites/ professional networking channels

Most popular media where active and passive job seekers look for job openings include company career sites, online job boards, and professional or social media channels. Post your vacancies on these and display them as job advertisements. While job boards offer the best repository of candidate resumes, social media and professional networking channels expand the outreach to millions of candidates. 

Professional networking channels are used by different categories of jobseekers, including freshers, experienced, freelancers, part-timers, and more.  Ensure you provide your company website or substantial information on the work culture, employee benefits, learning opportunities, and more to offer a superb EVP!

Employee Referral Programs

Your employees are conversant with the company policies, culture, working environment, and more. That said, it makes sense to reach out to them to refer their friends or acquaintances for the open positions. Most companies offer employee referral rewards to encourage them to bring in the best talent. 

Networking with colleges, universities, and industry associations

Establishing contacts and networking with colleges, universities, and educational institutions for placement services offers a remarkable way to source the best talent. A placement coordinator from their end could be in constant touch with you and help identify the best students/candidates for the specific job openings. 

In addition, reaching out to industry associations or hosting and attending various networking events and job fairs could also open the gateway to talented resources.

Recruitment Agencies

Alternatively, you could hire the services of recruitment agencies which can fetch the outstanding candidates for your open jobs in return for a fee. These organizations have a wider outreach and strong candidate base that can help fill your vacancies with the best talent in just a matter of time. 

Conclusion

Only effective sourcing can help achieve the goals of recruitment in the true sense. Follow the steps outlined here to source the ideal candidates for your start-up.

About the Author

BCjobs.ca is Western Canada’s largest job board, with majority of the jobs coming from Vancouver. For nearly 20 years, BC Jobs has connected job candidates with companies looking to add talent to their team. If your team is looking to recruit, BCJobs.ca is the right tool for you. Our job board has grown through virtual career fairs, branding, and partnerships. Contact us at community@bcjobs.ca today.

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Paulo Oliveira came to our April 2017 Talent Day, where he met Anthony Azar (one of our Career Experts!) and the team from Traction on Demand. Thanks to this connection from Talent Day, Paulo found a developer role! Paulo recently moved to Vancouver, and Talent Day was the first networking event he went to. We asked Paulo and Anthony to share their Talent Day experiences with us – keep reading to get a look at Talent Day from both sides.

Please describe your experience at Talent Day.
At Talent Day, Paulo took his time to check all the companies attending the event, deciding which ones he would speak to. The event was busy, but “there was enough time to talk to all companies [he] was interested in”. Traction on Demand was the first company that he applied for, and the only one that he went from start to finish with through the recruiting process. While he had applied at a few different companies, the process at Traction on Demand was so smooth and efficient that he received an offer even before going to any other interviews.

What it was like to network and connect with great companies like Traction on Demand?
Paulo shared that “it was super easy to approach and speak to recruiters in each company’s booth,” and “they were very open to start a conversation with all present candidates”. Traction on Demand stood out in particular because Anthony “was very excited about Talent Day” and their booth was buzzing all night.

What was your experience at Talent Day like while representing Traction on Demand? 
Anthony: Talent Day gives us the opportunity to connect with a variety of great talent – often those who are new to the market – that have a variety of technical skills. We really appreciate the opportunity to get to know candidates in-person and chat with them about the great things that are happening at Traction on Demand.

What do you look for in candidates when you’re hiring?
Anthony: Traction on Demand’s hiring philosophy is based on culture, intelligence and then skills as we think that if someone is a great culture fit and has the aptitude to learn, then they can pick up many of the skills they might be missing. Salesforce.com talent is quite rare in Canada and so it has always worked better for us to look for great people to train, as opposed to searching for ramped salesforce.com talent. We are interested in people who want to join an active community of engaged individuals who see business as more than just a vehicle to make money. We care about our people, wider community and planet.

Want to connect with Traction on Demand? Read up on Anthony’s networking tips, check out their job postings, and learn more about their culture. Don’t forget to join our Tech Talent Meetup group in order to stay updated on future events like Career Experts Panels and Talent Days.

The post Talent Day Success Stories: Paulo and Traction on Demand appeared first on BC Jobs Blog.

Lorraine Boutin is a recent grad who came to Talent Day in April as part of her job search. At the event, she met the team from Drive Digital, where she got the chance to learn about their culture and found a front-end development role! Keep reading to learn more about Lorraine’s experience at Talent Day and life at Drive.

Please describe your experience at Talent Day.
Lorraine: Talent Day was great! I had seen many of the companies throughout my job searches and it was valuable being able to meet with them directly and give my resume and a sense of my skills in person. It was a very busy event, however I was able to meet with all of the companies I intended to.

What it was like to network and connect with great companies like Drive Digital?
Lorraine: Networking and connecting with companies at Talent Day was a great experience, and allowed me to get a feel for company culture and the type of people they were looking for. I had heard of Drive Digital before the event, so I made sure to meet the team in person and get a sense of the position they were hiring for.

Now that you’ve been able to find an awesome new role from Talent Day, what is life at Drive Digital like?
Lorraine: Life at Drive is awesome – I’m really enjoying my new job and especially the company culture. Being a recent grad it was very important to me to find a place where I could grow and continue improving my skills, and Drive has all of that and more. The company has a very laid-back atmosphere, which I love, as it makes even the more stressful times during deadlines fun.

We were able to connect with Miles Sellyn, Managing Partner at Drive, to learn more about their time at Talent Day, and this is what he had to say:

What was your experience at Talent Day like while representing Drive Digital? 
Miles: We had a great time attending our first Talent Day a few months ago. We met over 60 candidates for our 3 open positions, interviewed 6, and have now have one working for us…and she has been doing an amazing job since day one!

What is Drive Digital like?
Miles: Drive Digital is a creative digital agency with a specialization in web design and development. We’re a team of 26 talented UX/UI designers, developers, strategists and project managers with passion for creating top quality websites that make an impact for our clients. We take our work very serious, but not ourselves (except when it comes to MarioKart).

If you’d like to learn more about Drive Digital, be sure to visit their website, like them on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter!

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