My previous article on blended sourcing looked at the concepts and principles of blended sourcing: combining high-touch sourcing techniques, like personal networking, that have deeper individual penetration with high-yield, scalable sourcing techniques, such as job boards. As a review, here is our simple source list with examples of high touch vs. high yield sources on this continuum. A blended sourcing approach should have a good mix of both high-yield and high-touch sources.
In this article, we’ll focus on tracking a blended source program to help you allocate your sourcing efforts most effectively. What to Track In the words-to-live-by category, “What gets measured gets done.” Most companies have some form of source tracking, but there is always a percentage of sourcing efforts that don’t get tracked, either because it’s too hard to track or because there is no process set up to do the tracking. There are four basic characteristics that are desirable for source tracking:
Once you have captured at least the general or specific source, then you can have fun with metrics such as:
All of these source details are not possible for all organizations. The best way to approach tracking is to start simple, with the overall general source. Costs are important to capture any time (more on that upcoming). For general sources, I’ve seen exhaustive lists at some organizations, and others that were very general. Work with your team to come up with a list that reflects your general avenues of sourcing. Just be sure to include high-touch sources if they are part of your practice. This list should not exceed about 20 categories, but the fewer the better if possible. In the old days, “Internet” used to be a general source. Now Internet has splintered into several general sources, such as job boards, corporate career sites, news groups, third-party resume databases, etc. Make sure your general list is easy to upgrade and change as you watch your source trends. In addition to your corporate website, examples of high-touch general sources could be professional association events, recruiter networking, non-professional events (such as sporting events), and others. Specific sources may only apply to some general sources. Event-level tracking may also only apply to some sources (such as campus career days) and not others (such as job boards). High-touch source tracking is less obvious than high-yield source tracking. Here are suggestions on building out your source list:
How to Track If your organization has the support of an HMS or enterprise staffing solution that integrates and measures a number of sources for you, half your battle is won (if you utilize the functionality). If you don’t have access to any automated source tracking, then you will have a manual challenge on your hands. However, there are things you can do to track sources. For automated source tracking, the first rule is garbage in, garbage out. If you don’t get the information in the system, you don’t get to report on it. Automated source tracking can actually be more reliable in some cases than a verbal indication from a candidate. Many candidates really don’t remember where they first saw the job. In a study I read on radio advertising, a company put a “radio-only” job on a particular radio station, yet those who responded to the ad were later interviewed and many said they saw the ad in the newspaper. With automated source tracking, your objective is to have the “unknown” sources at zero percent. With that objective in mind, here is a checklist to make sure you have processes in place to track all possible sources:
For manual source tracking, formalize a process that each recruiter must follow and review it regularly. This could include a master source list that tracks candidates on individual Excel sheets, a code to put in the Outlook subject line, or a checkbox on a form that goes in with candidate file. Designate someone to consolidate sources on a quarterly basis. When the source metrics are tracked, there must be an analysis for two primary reasons:
Analyzing and Budgeting Sources Budgeting is sometimes done once a year on projected source expenditures. The past results as well as the future needs must be evaluated in determining budget. Keep in mind, continued efforts to leveraging your brand will help reduce source costs overall. Here are myths and guidelines to look out for when budgeting your source program:
Tracking Costs Finally, when thinking about sourcing costs per hire (not to be confused with cost per hire), there are some challenges. For example, job board contracts don’t always align with how companies track costs; financial information on agencies may be maintained by procurement or accounting areas, not the recruiter; expenses for ads placed by the ad agency may reflect more than one job per ad, etc. When tracking costs, it is not often possible to track the nickel and dime transactions for each hiring activity (although for a smaller organization without large budgets or diverse sources, this may be a reachable goal). To help obtain some idea of costs, use a sourcing cost per hire metric. This metric requires analysis of, let’s say, a year’s worth of hiring activity. Some fees are fairly straightforward and can be tracked easily through accounting records such as agency fees, etc. Others, such as job board hires, could take some computation, such as the Overall Investment / # of hires = sourcing cost/hire. Example $20,000 / 10 = $2,000. This type of calculation may be needed for several source categories. With all these costs, it should be noted that 1) there are candidates not yet hired that the source may still produce, and 2) the quality of the candidate is a different factor, and costs should not be assessed in a vacuum. These are some ideas that you can put into place to help develop, track and evolve a blended sourcing program. I welcome any of your ideas and comments on this constantly changing topic.