UK 
United States
The 2016 Candidate Attraction Report has revealed some interesting insights on candidate sourcing in the UK. The report- drawn up from a survey of over 600 UK in-house and agency recruiters, has provided information on the role of social media in candidate attraction strategies, as well as the (perhaps surprising) importance of blogging regularly.
But one aspect of candidate attraction we are yet to explore is who is responsible for sourcing candidates? And does this responsibility shift with size and sector?
In the SME space HR play a major role in sourcing candidates. In organisations under 1000 employees, roughly half of all companies use HR Generalists to source candidates.
But as companies increase in scale the responsibility shifts more toward dedicated Recruiters, TA Specialists and Resourcers. 88% of organisations with over 10,000 employees use specialists, compared with just 33% of smaller enterprises.
These changing percentages indicate an entirely expected and predictable shift- as organisations grow, then roles within that organisation become more specialised.
Candidate sourcing responsibility by size of organisation.
The Role of The Hiring Manager
But surprisingly, the role of the hiring manager changes very little. Their role in candidate sourcing remains relatively consistent (21-33%) irrespective of company size. When looking at their role by sector, we see slightly more variation. ‘Branch based’ sectors, such as retail and third sector organisations, rely more heavily on hiring managers. But even here their involvement peaks at around 45%. In short- hiring managers play a consistently important role in the hiring process.
Given their relative importance, are hiring managers always provided with the right set of tools to complete their recruitment tasks?
One solution is to give hiring managers access to your core recruitment ATS/ CRM. But this can be overkill, providing access to core recruitment features they don’t need.
Hiring Manager Portals
Another solution is to give hiring managers a dedicated application that is designed specifically for their needs. Hiring Manager Portals are streamlined recruitment applications that allow hiring managers to complete their recruitment tasks in an efficient way.
Basic Hiring Manager Portals should include job requisitions and authorisations workflows, as well as a way for hiring managers to review candidate applications.
But in order for hiring managers to complete their resourcing responsibilities, access to their existing talent pool of candidates can be a great feature. This allows hiring managers to kickstart the search for top talent to fill their vacancy.
Find out more about Hiring Manager Portals or download the 72 page Candidate Attraction Report
