Sourcing is a talent acquisition discipline which is focused on the identification, assessment and engagement of skilled worker candidates through proactive recruiting techniques.
To further develop a list of names that were sourced some companies have a second person then reach out to the names on the list to initiate a dialogue with them with the intention of pre-screening the candidate against the job requirements and gauging the interest level in hearing about new job opportunities.
[1] In recruiting and sourcing, this means the leveraging of techniques to identify candidates with limited to no presence of these individuals in any easily accessible public forum (the Internet, published list, etc.).
[2] In recruiting and sourcing, this means using of techniques (primarily Internet research and utilizing advanced Boolean operators) to identify candidates.
Individuals in the recruiting industry can have deep expertise in uncovering talent in the harder to reach places on the internet (forums, blogs, alumni groups, conference attendee lists, personal home pages, social networks etc.).
With the boom of social networks and the more people sharing information about themselves on the internet the amount of data has become unmanageable.
The status of being an "active" or "passive" candidate is fluid and changes depending on the circumstances, including the position being offered.
Many of the best sourcers started out as recruiters who found they enjoy the “thrill of the hunt” more than the rest of the process and became successful because of their heightened research skills and abilities.
Several recruiters can rely on the same sourcer to generate leads and fill their pipelines with pre-screened or pre-qualified candidates.