know exactly what it is that we seek and whether we are prepared to go the whole hog to get the talent we have discovered.

No doubt, part of the problem many of us tasked with recruiting seem to face is the amount of transactional work we have to complete. We have to multi-task, we have to prioritise, we have to balance competing needs and interests. But there are definite, clear steps we can take in our efforts to identify the right talent and a lot of this involves being very clear about our research goals and getting a better understanding of the technologies and platforms we are very lucky to have at our disposal. The fact remains that the internet presents, a sea of opportunity for us, in our recruitment endeavours. While there is as much junk out there that we need to sieve through, there is gold as well. Knowing where to look and how to look is part of the skill-base we need to embrace. Our choice to ignore these platforms can only mean certain death in the long run.

So, we approached a sourcing researcher, Kelly Dingee, to find out what sourcing truly involves and how we can tweak our processes to get better results. Kelly is a Sourcing Researcher and Technical Writer with AIRS, a Company of The RightThing, an enterprise recruitment process outsourcing provider. AIRS, on the other hand, provides recruitment training. Founded in 2003, The RightThing has ranked in the Top 25 Best Small and Medium Companies to Work for in America for three consecutive years. Kelly trains all classes that AIRS offers, on things like search, diversity recruiting and social sourcing. A regular blogger, Kelly has had more than 15 years HR experience with the last ten specifically focused on sourcing and recruitment.

But first, let’s take it back a notch. What exactly does a sourcing researcher do? Well, contrary to someone who works in a corporate organisation or is holding a contract role, a researcher such as Kelly, is tasked with looking for best practices, new tools and techniques, innovative websites to check out and additional resources, all of which can be used when you are out looking for the right person to bring on board.

There’s no magic to the skill base attached to a sourcing role and it pretty much depends on how the organisation treats the role. Sometimes, a sourcer comes in, in a junior role. If they start there, it’s really a chance for them to get familiar with the process. At other times, organisations may view the role far more strategically and this is typically the case in a fairly larger organisation where perhaps, the role may require complex abilities and handling a multitude of roles, ranging from handling phone interviews to sourcing, among other things. A good sourcer however, starts out with the basics. According to Kelly, from a sourcing perspective, she would start out with things like Google and Google Docs.

“There are many top features on things like Google and many people don’t go beyond the search facts. With things like iGoogle, for example, you can create your own customised search engines and you can check in on it when you are ready, you can access it from anywhere literally. I use laptops and desktops and when I don’t have access to either or when I’m on holiday, I can access any random computer and use any of the tools that they have. I would also encourage the use of favourites on your browser bar. Otherwise, it’s a case of starting over each time. With Boolean searches for example, you can create search templates and pull up the search string and then just change the search parameters each time you are looking for something different. If not, you’ve got to start again from the top. You can have the search string pre-programmed, ” Kelly explains.

And what is a Boolean search? Boolean searches allow you to combine words and phrases using the words and, or, not and near (otherwise known as Boolean operators) to limit, widen, or define your search1. Kelly explains that Boolean is about using algebra. Using ‘and’ and ‘not’ statements as well as additional modifiers enables you to extract more information from the internet. Kelly likens it to flipping the card catalogue at the library, only that you are doing this online and using algebra to create statements or phrases to extract the information you need. And as you go along, you can get potentially more and more complex.

For example, typing URL : will get you a whole different set of responses. Best practice dictates you use lower case when doing this. “You could also look for documents, like resumes, by putting that keyword after the command and take it further from just a general keyword search. So, for example, you could search ‘in title: cv business development manager’. By doing this, you get very specific information and it works out to be the opposite to just simply typing in Google the phrase ‘business development manager’,” Kelly explains.

So the question remains, how do you start when you first get a job description? Well, having been a sourcer since 1997, Kelly recommends starting by reading the job description first. You should pull as many keywords, which is commonly known as harvesting. Kelly prefers spending between five to ten minutes with the hiring manager at that point to find out the ‘must-haves’. Sometimes, there is a make/break situation that you need to be aware of, you need to know how to expand on the keywords. Things like wordnik.com2 and Google Sets3 are helpful to expand keywords. Wordnik.com is an online dictionary while Google Sets allows you to create sets of items from a few samples.

What Kelly stresses however, is that you need to see how the candidate puts the information in the document because there are effectively no rules on how a resume should look really. You need to see how a job could be accounted for, on a resume. The next step is to get from the hiring manager, any associations or competitor organisation information that could be targeted as part of the search. Doing all this presents a list of requirements and you can then begin the process of researching over the internet using four simple steps. While deceptively simple at the start, it can get quite complex as you move along.

Step 1 is to do Boolean searches looking for cv type documents. Step 2 involves power searching for names, looking up telephone directories, rosters, excel spreadsheets. Step 3 is what is commonly called ‘the x-ray method’ where you use the site command :.

So, for example, let’s say you are looking for a Sales Manager in the area of Petaling Jaya. And let’s say you are hoping to get information on this from Facebook account holders. Your x-ray search would be

Site:facebook.com (sales manager) (petaling jaya OR pj)

Step 4 is the flip search or flipping, which is about looking for links to the sites. It’s another technique to mine the internet. It’s a simple search that can be performed on some of the more well-known search engines. What you’re doing is finding people who link to specific sites. For example, if you want to see if they’ve linked to Twitter, you do the search on say, google.

You enter the following : “link:twitter.com”. The results will be all the sites that have linked to twitter.com. Going through the results, you may find links or resumes to potential candidates.

Considering the impact and influence of social media is important, from a recruiting and sourcing standpoint, particularly for effectively profiling people online. Many already use LinkedIn regularly. Facebook may represent more of a social and personal tool as compared to LinkedIn, which is regularly used more for professional purposes. Facebook is also limited due to the fact that there are many privacy features which enable the user to determine exactly what is presented to the public eye; this means, far more networking involved. Twitter, according to Kelly, is a site that’s both professional and personal. “When people list their profile, they list what they do as a profession so I would say that I use Twitter a lot as well. But this is really just the tip of the iceberg. There’s Xing as well. These are all searchable ie they have internal search features but you could also do Boolean searches on them.”

Now sometimes, job specifications may be rather bland or the requirements for the role fairly generic. What do you do then? Well, work with the job title. Depending on the level of the position, you can find anyone on Facebook. There are times, however, as, Kelly argues, that they may not always identify themselves by their profession but you could go to social media sites and search by job title and by location. You could pull profiles from here and get the hiring manager to review it and see if you are on track. How about when all you have is a name or an email address or even a name and a previous company worked at? Well, Kelly works with a nice little site called pipl.com which she finds accurate and consistent. “If I have a geographical area, then it helps me get a phone number and it’s quite thorough.”

This is however, only the tip of the iceberg. These are some of the basics that those well versed with sourcing the impossible work with. Nothing is taken for granted and the process can sometimes be long. But armed with the right techniques, good sites and the knowledge of exactly what it is that you seek, you can pull up so much more than you currently do, if you can begin to see the internet for the power it presents.

Kelly Dingee is a Sourcing Researcher and Technical Writer with AIRS, a Company of The RightThing, an enterprise recruitment process outsourcing provider.