How to do sourcing for volume requirements (part-2)

Contd from here...

Sourcing approach for volume requirements:

-    Understand the JD- This is the 1st step in any requirement. Only here you don’t have much time. By the time you do a research about the technologies mentioned, strings of resumes would have started flowing into the client’s inbox. So understand the JD really fast. If you haven’t worked on such requirement earlier ask and get clarification from some colleague who has worked on it.

-    Use of Technology- Use different tools like mass mailing and job posting on job boards, social networking sites. 
             # These will help a lot because by the time you are doing manual candidate finding from different sources, you will also get responses from interested candidates who have received your mass mail or job post. This will ease your  pressure. 
             #  Again there is a limit to the number of candidates you can talk. But mass mail and job posting has wider reach.
            #  Another advantage is,  if you talk to a candidate and he has already seen your mail or post, it wont take much time to explain the req to him.
            #  When you put a search, you put it for max 3 months, but you can do a mass mail for 1 yr to 2 yrs. This way you can reach the candidates otherwise unreachable. Again given the average time a candidate sticks to a company now a days, you actually have real  chances of getting some good responses.

-    Fast and furious sourcing – After the entire pre sourcing work jump into the sources of resumes like job boards, own database etc. Put a good search and start calling candidates. Act fast and send good resume in large numbers. Here proper utilization of time is very important as other consultants are also working on the same req simultaneously. Don’t waste much time. If you feel you are not getting much good profiles , change the search. In such requirements initial days are very important, as you won’t get many duplicates in that time. Later with more effort, you will get less result. So you know which time is best to put your best effort!

-    Reference – When you talk to a candidate don’t forget to send a corresponding mail immediately. For this you can make a template mail earlier. Many candidates forward requisition mails to their needy friends who in turn reply to the consultant. Always ask the candidate for reference. Anyhow you are already talking to the candidate, right. It will take 10 more seconds and can give you some good resumes. Not bad deal actually.

-    Scheduling and follow up- Remember you don’t get paid for the amount of resume you send, rather for the number offers you make. So your job doesn’t end once you send the resume. You have to schedule all the shortlisted candidates and send confirmation mail and follow up with them through phone or SMS before the interviews. The more the turn out ratio, the more are the chances of offers!

-    Joining- Similar to other reqs you have to follow up with the candidate through out the offer release phase to joining stage.

Volume reqs are definitely demanding, but when you make 4 offers in one day, it all seems sweet!

How to do sourcing for volume requirements (part-1)

By volume requirements I mean when the client has large number of openings for similar skill set.

Here generally the skills are generic, no of positions more , client wants to close it ASAP and in process they pass the requirement to many consultants thus creating more competition. Most of the times clients organize weekend drives to close such positions, where large number of shortlisted candidates come in a specific day and attended all rounds of interviews there.

E.g.:                     Required- Software engineer for a service-based company

                           Exp: 3-5

                           Skills: Java, J2ee

                           Number of position: 10

As Java, J2ee is a widely used programming language and projects are more or less similar in all service-based companies, finding candidate for this requirement will not be that difficult. Just put a simple search for java, J2ee, 3-5 yrs in any job board and you will get plenty of similar resumes.

Challenges in volume requirements:

Volume- As the number of positions are more, client expects us to send more profiles. More decent profiles mean more short listings, which in turn means more scheduling and more follow ups!

Time – As it is open to other consultants you don’t have more time to understand the JD. You have to act quickly.

Duplicity – More or less, all the consultants are dependent on Job boards for resumes for such reqs. So as the source is same for all, same candidate is likely to get calls from many consultants. If the candidate doesn’t inform you that his profile has already been processed and you also process it - It will come as a duplicate for you. And it is a waste of time and effort. Duplicity is a major issue in such kind of requirements. Two minutes delay to process a resume can cause a duplicate.

Competition – More number of vendors means increased competition.

Note--In the next post we will discuss about how to approach such positions.