Candidate sourcing is finding people who could fill a role before (or instead of) waiting for them to apply. For a small agency the best order is: search your own database first, then job boards and CV databases, then LinkedIn and direct outreach, then referrals and events. Track which source actually produces placements, and do more of that.
Sourcing is the part of recruitment that eats the most time and gets the least thought. Most recruiters just open LinkedIn and start scrolling. This guide is for agencies of 1 to 20 people who want a sourcing routine that fills roles faster without living on LinkedIn all day.
Candidate sourcing is proactively searching for and contacting people who match a role, rather than waiting for applications. It sits before screening: you find them, start a conversation, then decide if they’re right.
It’s worth separating two types of candidate:
| Type | Who they are | How you reach them |
|---|---|---|
| Active | Looking right now, applying to adverts | Job adverts, job boards, your careers page |
| Passive | Happy where they are, but open to the right move | Your database, LinkedIn, referrals, direct outreach |
The best candidates for specialist roles are usually passive. That’s why clients pay you: anyone can post an advert, not everyone can find and move the person who isn’t looking.
Related reading: candidate sourcing tools.
Start every role by searching the candidates you already have, because they already know you and it costs nothing.
Most agencies have thousands of people in their CRM and still go straight to LinkedIn for every new job. That’s money left on the table. To make your database actually searchable:
Related reading: your own free candidate database and free CV search tools.
Post adverts on the boards your candidates actually use, and treat CV databases as a search tool, not just a place to post.
Generic boards bring volume. Niche boards bring relevance. For most small agencies, one big board plus one or two niche ones is plenty. Giig’s multi job board posting (through idibu) pushes one advert out to lots of boards from inside your CRM, so you’re not logging into five sites to post the same job.
Every applicant should land on your careers page or in your ATS, not in a messy inbox.
Use LinkedIn to find passive candidates and to be visible, not just to send connection requests.
Boolean search lets you combine keywords with AND, OR, NOT, brackets and quotes, so you get a short, relevant list instead of thousands of results.
A simple example for a CV database or LinkedIn:
(“project manager” OR “programme manager”) AND (construction OR “civil engineering”) NOT recruiter
X-ray search uses Google to search inside a site, for example:
site:linkedin.com/in “quantity surveyor” (Manchester OR Leeds)
You don’t need to be a Boolean wizard. A few saved strings for the roles you fill most often will cover most of what you need.
Referrals are often the best quality candidates you’ll get, because someone’s vouched for them.
A good candidate experience is what makes people happy to refer their friends to you.
Direct outreach works when the message is clearly written for that person, and fails when it’s obviously a template.
A good first message is short and says:
Then follow up. Plenty of good candidates reply on the second or third message, not the first. There are more ideas in these outreach strategies in recruitment.
Industry events, meetups, online groups and Slack or WhatsApp communities in your niche are where passive candidates hang out.
You don’t need to work the room. Turn up regularly, be useful, and people will start to know you as “the recruiter for X”. That’s worth more than a hundred cold InMails.
A talent pool is a group of pre-qualified candidates for the roles you fill again and again, so the next shortlist takes minutes, not days.
Keep pools for your bread-and-butter roles, keep in touch every few months, and update their details when you speak. On Giig Plus, candidate lists and bulk email make it easy to message a whole pool about a new role.
Use AI to search, summarise and draft, and keep the actual conversations human.
AI can help you write job adverts, build Boolean strings, summarise CVs and draft outreach. Connected to your CRM, it can also search your own database for you. What it can’t do is convince a passive candidate to move. That’s still your job. For ideas, see these 50 Claude AI prompts for recruiters.
Track where every placed candidate came from, because “source of hire” tells you where to spend your time.
Watch these numbers each month:
If one job board brings lots of applicants and no placements, stop paying for it. If referrals keep turning into placements, ask for more of them.
Candidate sourcing is the proactive search for people who match a role, before they apply. It includes searching your database, job boards and CV databases, LinkedIn, referrals and events, then contacting the best matches. It’s different from screening, which is assessing candidates once you’ve found them.
For a small agency: your own database, niche job boards and CV databases, LinkedIn search and outreach, referrals, and talent pools for repeat roles. The best method is the one that produces placements in your niche, so track source of hire and adjust.
Active candidates are looking for a new job and applying to adverts. Passive candidates aren’t looking but would move for the right role. Active candidates are quicker to reach, while passive candidates are often stronger for specialist roles and are where recruiters add most value.
Search your own CRM first, use job board CV databases, try X-ray searches through Google, ask for referrals and build talent pools. A well-tagged database often beats an expensive LinkedIn licence for the roles you fill most often.
AI can write Boolean strings, draft job adverts and outreach, summarise CVs and, when connected to your CRM, search your own database in plain English. On Giig AI, Claude can find candidates who match a job spec from the people you already hold.
Three or four, done well. A searchable database, one or two job boards that work in your niche, LinkedIn, and referrals cover most roles. Adding more channels before the basics are consistent usually just means more admin.
Good sourcing isn’t about finding more people. It’s about finding the right people faster. Start with your own database, use a couple of channels properly, personalise your outreach, and track what actually turns into placements.
Want a database you can actually search? Start on Giig for free. No credit card, no contract.
