As we all know, sourcers and recruiters are mortal enemies. Their rivalry has been compared to that of Hamilton vs. Burr and East Coast vs. West Coast rap. The feud dates back to the 1984 Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) conference in Dubuque. It’s rumored that a sourcer failed to adequately compliment a recruiter’s “totally bodacious” fingerless gloves, leading to an epic breakdance battle whose effects are still felt today.
If this sounds a little silly, that’s because it is. But so is the all-too-common misunderstanding between sourcers and recruiters. While roles vary from company to company, sourcers and recruiters can be the “A Team” that brings crucial talent in the door. Here is some background to make your sourcer/recruiter relationship more beneficial to your whole organization.
What Does a Sourcer Do?
As their name would suggest, sourcers hunt for talent from the bottom up. It is their job to mine web platforms, sites, and personal relationships for leads to top candidates. These folks need to be very detail-oriented and skilled, analytical researchers. They use their strategic thinking to see which candidates fit the job description.
It’s important to note that while the sourcer understands the requirements, they usually do not work directly with the hiring manager. In fact, sourcers are often contractors who are not directly employed by the hiring company. This means that they are often working to fill quotas for their clients.
In general, sourcers are also not the ones sifting through submitted applications. They are looking for passive candidates and making first contact with them over the phone, email, messaging, etc. In millennial terms, sourcers are skilled “internet stalkers;” they can take a morsel of information and web stalk it into a list of qualified potential candidates to hand off to a recruiter.
What Does a Recruiter Do?
Again, every organization has different resources at their disposal, but usually the recruiter gets handed the baton from the sourcer. They will usually post jobs, review applications and begin the screening process with the leads generated from the sourcer. More often than not, recruiters will work directly with the hiring organization and will understand the dynamics of the role and the team it’s on.
Recruiters will reach out to candidates, conduct initial phone screenings, schedule and conduct interviews, and work closely with the hiring manager to ensure that the needs of the team and the position are being met. Sometimes they will do this with the help of a “recruiting coordinator”—someone who handles the logistical tasks of recruitment (scheduling, booking rooms, arranging offer letters).
If a candidate is hired, the recruiter will often be the intermediary with the finance team and hiring manager to make formal offers and facilitate salary negotiations. They also may assist with onboarding.
It’s worth noting that, at smaller organizations, a sourcer and a recruiter may be the same person. This makes sense, since they share so many skills.
What Do Sourcers and Recruiters Have in Common?
Whatever confusion exists between the sourcer/recruiter roles, their priority numero uno is the same: hiring and retaining top talent for your organization. But even more than that, they share so many of the same valuable talents:
- Good people skills
- Keen judgment of character
- Researching, critical-thinking, and attention to detail
- Ability to sell the virtues of the hiring organization
- Building people networks that will help create a pipeline of talent
We all have skills that we’re proud of, years of experience, or education that we think puts us a cut above the rest—and that’s good! We should feel good about our unique contributions to our work. However, it takes a universe of people and skills for an organization to fulfill its purpose. Do you realize that a hospital needs a diligent custodian just as much as a skilled surgeon in order to serve and heal its patients? We all have a role to play—and should respect the unique roles of others.
Especially in a cleared marketplace where talent is now at such a premium, don’t take anyone on your acquisition team for granted. Let’s forget what happened in Dubuque and put the age-old, sourcer vs. recruiter feud to rest.
