9 Best Sourcing Tools for Recruiters

Want to find the best way to streamline your recruiting process? There are endless options with a global pool of motivated employees looking for work, but only a few good choices for your next role.

The internet can be chaotic. Navigating modern recruiting without using the many sourcing tools available is a near-impossible task. But with so many choices, finding the best fit for your company can be challenging.

We’ve put together a list of 9 sourcing tools to serve your needs best. Read on to discover leading solutions to your sourcing problems and find the perfect fit faster and more affordably.

What Tools Do Recruiters Use for Sourcing?

While nothing can replace your recruitment team, leaving certain aspects of the job to companies that specialize in the little details can help you save time and money.

Larger companies might be able to afford a separate team that specializes in sourcing employees. But for small and medium businesses, it may be more efficient in terms of cost and time to find tools to source high-quality employees.

The tools below are the ones top recruiters use to streamline their process. Some are specialized platforms, and some you may have already heard of but didn’t realize could be helpful for recruiting. We give you the details and the pros and cons so that you can find what works best for you.

1. LinkedIn

With over 800 million users, it’s hard to imagine modern recruiting without LinkedIn. Getting the most out of the platform for your recruiting is key to sourcing high-quality employees. For the last 20 years, this platform has helped extend hiring networks from local to global and is now used in over 200 countries worldwide.

Having access to such a large pool of employees is an excellent opportunity to practice sourcing techniques such as passive hiring. However, on the downside, this amount of users means a greater need to filter through your results carefully to avoid unqualified employees and even spam accounts.

2. AngelList Talent

AngelList could be considered an underused platform for recruiters. The platform is full of quality employees and provides a great alternative to LinkedIn. It’s popular amongst savvy recruiters looking to expand their network.

On AngelList, you must first post a job listing to search for employees. Doing so grants you free access to the entire pool, with many filters and options to specify your search.

As the platform’s goal is to attract only driven employees looking for work, many recruiters consider the talent pool on AngelList to be more active than others. However, one thing to note is that this platform focuses primarily on remote, tech, and startup jobs because it is an extension of AngelList Venture, which enables investors to fund startups.

The niche focus might only suit particular companies. But if your organization is hiring within that niche, with the current attention this platform is receiving, this could be one to watch for your next recruitment strategy.

3. Upwork

This platform is best for organizations seeking to source mostly freelance employees for smaller jobs. Still, many motivated employees on the platform are available for long-term work if you’re willing to do a bit of searching.

With the shift to online work in the past few years, more employees are searching for more at-home freelance work. For recruiters, this means platforms like Upwork are more valuable than ever.

One significant benefit of Upwork is its registration process that prevents fake accounts and bots from filling its pool with spam. It means the employees have gone through a pre-filtering process by the time you have access to them.

Unfortunately, with such a large, global pool comes some difficulties as well. Some recruiters find searching for reliable long-term workers on Upwork can still be challenging.

4. Jobvite

On the smaller end, Jobvite is an emerging tool that recruiters recommend to help easily navigate your recruitment pool. This app might be a more ‘minimal’ option, as it’s primarily for small to medium-sized businesses. Still, integrating this app into your recruitment process can aid your ability to source an employee pool with little setup.

Recruiters love this app for its simple and highly customizable interface. When it comes to technical setup, it takes just a little work for the results to become immediately apparent. Most users are pleased with the results.

The app does run into some issues, with some recruiters finding it to have a few bugs and some clunky interface issues.

5. Hired

On the search for tech talent? Hired provides a solution based on their top-of-the-line employee search algorithm to find the perfect candidate and save you time.

One issue with the bigger recruitment tools and services is you may feel like one out of many clients when it comes to finding extra support. This platform markets itself as being ‘more than a website’ as they show a clear focus on a team that actively helps and supports your company to grow.

Many recruiters love this platform for its attention to support and customer service, backing up their claim that they pay extra attention to their clients.

One of the drawbacks to this service is that it, for now, remains tech exclusive, with most job searchers specialized for particular roles in tech.

6. Slack

You might have thought Slack is primarily a messaging app for internal business communication. But in fact, many recruiters are finding new ways to source and integrate new employee pools with just some minor tweaking and searching.

For one, recruiters can join groups for hiring managers. Many groups feature highly desirable employees looking for work.

Many companies are using platforms like Slack in their businesses to communicate, and a motivated employee will likely already be familiar with this platform. The pre-existing familiarity with the platform makes it simple to integrate your potential employees without trouble.

One issue with this method is the reliance on extra apps and add-ons, which can be troublesome when trying to pivot your sourcing strategy seamlessly.

7. Sourcing

When on the hunt for software engineers, Sourcing is a solution tailor-made for your specific employee pool. This company has a large pool of indexed employees and boasts an affordable service with many options to browse and filter your results to find the perfect match for your team.

Right now, Sourcing focuses strictly on software engineers, so it is not suitable for every kind of company. However, companies on the hunt for programmers and software engineers can unlock access to a large group of motivated and specialized employees. It saves time filtering your results and speeds up the recruiting process, saving you money.

8. Hiring Solved

Recruiters designed this app for recruiters. Boasting integration with all major Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) and Client Relationship Management systems (CRMs), it uses intelligent automation and highly-advanced search mechanisms to help filter your employee pools.

This app has won many HR awards and has a high reputation within the recruitment community. However, this app may only be necessary for companies with an extensive ATS system. Businesses with a smaller employee pool might not have much use for it.

9. HireSweet

Using a CRM such as HireSweet is an efficient solution for your recruitment team to enhance your outbound hiring. This company works with your ATS to integrate and improve your employee pool to find more options for your next hire. A more proactive approach that doesn’t require changing up your current strategy is not easy to find, and this provides just that.

HireSweet is a growing company with a current focus on smaller companies. Currently, they work best for companies with 5-1000 employees.

The cap on company size means they may or may not be the best fit for your organization, but they make the list of notable recruitment tools.

Conclusion

After you’ve sourced your recruitment pool, you’ll want to vet all your candidates to clear them to take the position. To get on to the next critical phase of your hiring, look no further than ScoutLogic.

Our background screening service will save your recruiters time running background checks and give them more time to focus on the human factor, saving your team time and money.

Let your recruitment team work with peace of mind, knowing that our scouts have checked through your employee pool and cleared every candidate. Contact us for a free assessment today!

David Garcia

David Garcia, co-founder and CEO of Scout Logic, is an industry leader in the bulk background check world. With his strategic acumen and expertise in the HR sphere, specifically in hiring, recruiting, legal compliance, background checks, and resume screening, he’s an invaluable asset and consultant.

David's counsel extends across the boards of ScoutLogic, YipitData, and Supplier.io, drawing from his impactful stints on the boards of Infutor and Avetta. With an extensive 25-year journey, he champions unparalleled B2B commercial leadership within data & analytics, significantly shaping the HR landscape.