Why has sourcing become the most important stage in recruitment?
Because the market has changed, and with it the rules of the game. Today's top performers no longer apply: they evaluate the opportunities offered to them. From the very first contact, they filter out impersonal approaches, perceived as a foretaste of their future experience in the company.
A generic approach is no longer enough to capture attention. Only genuine sourcing that demonstrates a real understanding of the person's background and ambitions will succeed in converting passive talent into interested candidates.
Technology is amplifying this challenge: AI and matching tools can now detect rare skills with just a few clicks, but it's the relationship, the human touch, that makes the difference at the moment of contact. Candidates want to feel that they're more than just a CV in a database, but a special person whose potential has really been perceived.
Good sourcing not only cuts recruitment time by 30%, it also helps to identify profiles that will fit in with the company's culture over the long term.
LinkedIn Recruiter: the #1 platform... if you know how to use it
With 900 million users, LinkedIn Recruiter is the essential sourcing tool. However, the platform's functionalities are largely under-exploited by its users. The result: too many uninteresting profiles, low response rates and a lot of wasted time.
One of the most powerful, yet often overlooked, techniques is Boolean search. Using operators (AND, OR and NOT) combined with a strategic selection of keywords, trained recruiters know how to refine their searches and access rare profiles that conventional filters would not detect.
But technique alone is not enough! Once the right profiles have been identified, the art of recruitment lies in personalizing approaches. Whereas a generic InMail is likely to end up in the trash, a carefully crafted message that mentions a precise element of the person's background and offers a clear opportunity can triple the response rate, according to LinkedIn.
After identification, a challenge remains for recruiters: how to turn interest into real engagement? This is where recruitment needs a know-how that's much older than any algorithm: the Art of storytelling...
Storytelling & Personas: the tools of persuasion
A well-constructed message does more than list the job requirements... It tells a story, about a candidate and the impact he or she could have within your company, and how your future collaboration could help him or her in his or her professional project. For candidates, this approach radically changes their interest in recruitment. When you understand what motivates them, you're not offering them a job, but a vision. You make them want to look beyond their current situation.
Let's take an example: an engineer specializing in artificial intelligence receives a message that mentions his work on a specific subject, and presents him with a unique challenge where his skills could make all the difference, then it all makes sense! You've just transformed an ordinary job offer into a tailor-made opportunity.
How do you deliver messages that have an impact and resonate? That's where personas come in. These are typical profiles created from the analysis of top talent, which enable you to anticipate the expectations, motivations and possible obstacles of the candidates you're targeting. In this way, you can tailor your approach to the levers that really matter to the individual. Recruiters who have mastered personas and storytelling don't just offer jobs: they offer the chance to write new chapters and turn opportunities into realities.
Conclusion
The best talents won't come to you; it's up to you to go and find them, and above all to make them want to join you. Convincing them means going beyond a logic of volume to resonate with their aspirations, offering them a story and a vision that will make them want to be part of it.
That's how you'll turn every opportunity into an opportunity.
Recruitment: sourcing and attracting talentStatistiques : La différence entre les candidats actifs et passifs - Randstat
