I recently met with a perspective client about Internet Sourcing. She is in charge of the sourcing function for all of the recruiters at her company. Her role is to make sure that all of her recruiters have all the tools necessary to successfully source candidates. She told me that they had recently subscribed to a resume database and purchased 23 user licenses so that all of the recruiters could have access. After thirty days had passed she went back and did an analysis of how this database was being used by her recruiters. To her dismay only 3 out of the 23 recruiters had sourced candidates from this site! This may surprise many of you, but it is more common than you think!
As the Internet grows, so does the number of resume databases. Companies are constantly struggling with the decisions to subscribe (or not) to new sites to assist them in their sourcing efforts. The big question that comes to mind is if the source looks effective do you have time to effectively use it? You need to ask yourself, "how many reqs am I working on at one time?" We have determined that it takes about 12 hours to effectively source for a single position. If you are working on 25 or more reqs at any given time, then you probably don’t have time to effectively source multiple sites. This is a catch 22 because many recruiters feel that the more places they have access to, the better their odds of finding better candidates. This can be true if you have to time to effectively source these databases. If time is an issue, (which for most recruiters, it is) then more is not always better.
In a recruiters hectic day it is difficult enough to effectively source for one position on one site, imagine trying to do that for 10 positions on 10 different sites. This is the challenge that many recruiters face on a daily basis. You probably are asking yourself how can I effectively manage this process? There is no quick and easy answer to this question. Each recruiter works differently so you really need to evaluate how you work most effectively. Is it by sourcing or posting? In my opinion sourcing is by far more effective than posting jobs. When you post jobs, it is like fishing, you are waiting for a nibble on your line. Some candidates are like a prized Marlin and others are like the common mackerel. When you are actively sourcing you can look for those top candidates and throw back the ones that don’t match your position description. Sourcing may be more effective but it is also much more time consuming!
When deciding on what databases to subscribe to you really need to analyze your needs. Focus in on sites that meet your hiring needs and be realistic on how much time you can dedicate to sourcing these sites. Make sure you look at the search function of each site to make sure that they have an effective interface to source candidates. Once you have reviewed a number of sites and decide which ones you like most, then you really need to look at cost. Cost is becoming more and more of an issue so you need to find a balance between the cost of the site and the time you have to source this site.
It is important to learn from others, like the example in my opening paragraph, so you don’t get caught in the trap of spending a lot of money and getting poor results. Be realistic and smart when making these costly decisions. If you do your homework and are realistic on the amount of time you have to dedicate to sourcing the better results you will have.

This article originally appeared on the Electronic Recruiting Exchange.