Recruiterflow's benchmark of 2,100 recruiting firms found that 71% of placements came from candidates who were already in the firm's database before the req opened.
71% of placements came from candidates already in the firm's database before the req opened.
Source: Recruiterflow recruiting benchmarks
If that holds for your desk, most of next quarter's fees are sitting in a pool you have already paid to build. Yet sourcing still eats the week. Usually that comes down to two things: the pool goes stale, and it is hard to search the way you think about a req.
1. Keep the pool current without chasing it
A record is only worth searching if its terms are current: still looking, same rate, same location, same start date. Keeping that up by phone does not scale past a few dozen people.
Automated check-ins do. A short, scheduled email asks the candidate whether they are still looking and whether anything changed. They answer in one click or in a sentence, and the record updates. The people who matter most to your desk stay current without anyone chasing them.
2. Search the way you talk about the req
Keyword search fails on exactly the candidates you want: the ones whose resumes describe the right experience in different words. Search that understands the requirement does better. That means skills matched even when phrased differently, years of experience per skill rather than a keyword count, and the extra conditions from the intake call typed in plain English.
3. Screen on terms before you pick up the phone
The fastest call is the one you do not need to make. When the shortlist already shows who fits the client's must-haves and who fits on rate, location and availability, your calls go to the candidates worth submitting and to the ones with a single thing to confirm.
What this looks like in TalentYield
- Resumes in your pool become searchable profiles, whether you upload them or forward them to your intake address.
- Plain-English search ranks the pool against the req, and the same search works in reverse to find the best reqs for a candidate.
- Each candidate is marked fits, check or conflicts on the client's must-haves and on their own current terms.
- Check-ins run on a schedule and write the answers back.
Sourcing still matters
Net-new candidates are how a pool grows, and some reqs need them. But if most placements come from people you already know, the first hour on any new req belongs to your own database.