Sourcing channel cost refers to the efficacy of the various job boards or media platforms you use to advertise your job posts. The reason for tracking this metric is significant, there are hundreds of options for sourcing candidates ( e.g., job boards, social media networks, corporate websites, referrals), but depending on your industry or organization, some sources will be more productive, and give you higher quality candidates than others.
Sourcing channel cost is how the amount of money you spend on sourcing candidates. Yes, you could potentially be losing money while searching for that perfect hire. So, in this article you will learn:
- How to calculate sourcing channel cost?
- Best sourcing channels to power up your hiring
- How to use referrals to cut your sourcing cost?
Once you know which sources provide the highest number of candidates, then you can start to analyze which will offer the best quality of candidates over time, and start focusing your energy and resources on these channels. An active channel should include applications received, candidates hired, your screened-to-hire ratio, and the percentage of total hires.
How to calculate sourcing channel cost?
To calculate the cost-efficiency of the various sourcing channels, recruiters combine ad spend, with the amount of money invested in their advertisement.
There is a formula you can use:
The efficiency of sourcing channels
Deciding which sourcing channels give the most results for your specific company, you must keep track of various metrics ( e.g., source of hire, cost per hire, time to hire, quality of hire). Ideally, you should track these metrics per role, job family, or per level of the position.
Determining the efficiency of each sourcing channel for specific roles requires you to ask some specific questions:
- How many applicants per channel
- How many qualified applicants per channel
- How and where did candidates hear about the job posting
Analyzing this data will help you manage your investment, and also guide you in optimizing your sourcing channel cost.
Best sourcing channels to power up your hiring:
Understanding how to measure the efficiency of your recruitment channels is beneficial, but you also have to know where and when to use these specific channels. Here are some sourcing channels that we recommend you should be using.
Job boards
Let us start with one of the most popular and visible souring channel methods, and that is online job boards. Over 41 million people search for job boards online and are recruited into jobs every single year. So, you should be using the most popular recruitment platforms for your job postings, which will increase the odds of your advert being spotted by high-quality candidates.
Just don’t pull out all of our tricks on one online job board basket, consider using the niche job boards too, the ones that are specific to your industry. For example, if you work in the tech industry, try to find the channels that post job ads that are related to that industry.
Niche job boards may get fewer applications, but they are often more likely to be high-quality candidates.
And, when you’re writing job posts, don’t forget to make them as appealing as possible:
- Make them eye-catching as possible – Make them stand out from the rest.
- Make it appealing to their career goals – A single opening statement that acts as the lead will make candidates want to keep on reading.
- Optimize keywords – People will read your post, but AI will be scanning and ranking your job post for relevancy. Make sure that you incorporate some keywords that your ideal candidates will search for, and don’t forget to add the locations.
- Make the position more attractive but also remain truthful to the information that your posting– Tell candidates about the benefits your company is offering, e.g., free gym membership, flexible working hours, healthcare, free gym membership, etc.
Company career page
If your company doesn’t have a website, make sure you get one.
A company career page is a low-cost first step in your employer branding. It’s a passive but incredibly efficient method of recruitment. After candidates review your job post, the first thing they do is check out your website so that they can get a better impression of your company.
Not only does it give you more credibility as a business, but it can also be a great method to attract potential clients and employees.
You must include a separate Career Opportunities page so that potential candidates can see any available positions, and if you’re not actively recruiting, make it clear that you encourage proactive job seekers.
Also, don’t neglect to set up analytics on your career page so you can gather information on how it’s being used. You can collect and measure data from every other aspect of your business, so do it for the website too. Also, it will help your recruitment drive.
Internal recruitment
Why are employee referrals so important? Because this method is considered to be among the most effective recruitment channels, this is because employees will only refer people with whom they would like to work with and who they know would be a great fit within the organization.
Also, why spend time and money on a recruitment campaign when you can recruit from within the organization? If you have someone suitable for promotion, you know that they are reliable and competent, and you’ve invested a lot in them up till now.
Social media channels
Using social media is very beneficial, it will make it easier for you to reach out to your targeted group/audience, plus it’s very far-reaching and a low-cost method.
- Start by encouraging your employees to distribute job openings on their social media platforms.
- Always work on your employer branding because it’s still considered to be among the most effective sources of hires.
- Use your social media platforms to highlight what makes your company different from others.
- Show the community behind-the-scenes workings of your company.
Job fairs
Consider attending a job fair, because this is a great opportunity for you to meet new candidates face to face and have a quick chat with them on the spot about their experience, even a 5-minute conversation with them will be enough for you to see if they are a good match for any open position that you might have. Also, this is an excellent chance for advertising your company, and give the candidates a better view of what makes your company so different from others.
How to use referrals to cut your sourcing channel costs?
It’s quite apparent. The first people that should know that you are hiring are your existing employees. Ask them if you know someone for the job, and the next thing you know: you’re interviewing candidates instead of writing a job description.
You don’t have to spend a small fortune on recruiting costs to source people for your team, whether it’s posting on job boards or agency fees. Additionally, since referrals are faster to hire, you will spend less on your internal recruitment costs.
Congrats, you just saved at least $3.000. Also, the fact is that some candidates don’t have LinkedIn profiles at all. To be exact, only 30% of LinkedIn users are from the US. That’s a huge talent pool you’re missing!
If you’re wondering how to get referrals outside your existing team, you’re in the right place!
That’s about it!
Now, remember to measure the metrics and also consider the variations among diverse roles and levels to guarantee that the recruitment channels you’ve chosen continue to be the most productive, efficient, and best sourcing channels to meet your company’s hiring criteria.
