If any of the situations below are happening in your search, you may think the solution is to do more sourcing. Even though the problem may be called “sourcing”, that often really isn’t the problem. Worse?  It really isn’t the solution, though it’s the go-to solution in many of these situations.

• Searches have been open for a long time, and everyone is unhappy with how things are going.
• Your hiring manager rejects candidates you, the recruiter, think are a good fit to the requirements.
• Changes are made to title, requirements, and/or duties in an attempt to attract qualified candidates without any input from you.
• You are sending a whole bunch of Linkedin Inmails with very low response.
• If you could say it without looking bad, you would admit you aren’t really sure what the position does and/or what the hiring manager is looking for.

If you have a situation like this, here is how to get the search back on track:

1. Have a meeting/call with the hiring manager to get more clarity around the position, what they are really looking for, and how this position makes a contribution to the company.
2. Call it a mid-course correction or the “I have a few questions so we can more closely target candidates” conversation. No need to throw anyone under the bus here, including you.
3. Make sure you ask the questions you have without apology or feeling stupid for having them.
   NOTE: I’ve been recruiting for more years than I want to see in writing and absolutely have never seen a job description that gave me the information I needed to do a quality search.
4. Rewrite the posting as if you were talking to the ideal candidates on the phone. That will pull more qualified candidates, and the good news is that it will saved you time because you won’t have to say that to every candidate individually! Use any sound bites that you heard from the hiring manager. Those are almost always magical and magnetic to your candidates.
5. Rewrite your Inmail message with a subject line that speaks to what is most important to your ideal candidates. Any email should be brief, centered on them and include a direct link to the new engaging posting.

Only after these steps, can you determine what sourcing changes you need, if any.

For some great strategies to get your search moving faster while building your consultative recruiter image, please visit: Building Your Consultative Recruiter Reputation Master Course