Sourcing in 2020: A Whole New Playbook

Sourcing did not fundamentally change in 2020, but the conditions around it did, and getting candidates to respond and to move became harder than almost any point in recent memory. A breakdown of quit-rate data shows just how much passive candidates pulled back from making moves, which means the old playbook needs new emphasis in specific places: strategic sourcing, outreach and engagement, staying productive through downtime, candidate experience, and self-care.

Diversity hiring gets treated as a first priority rather than an afterthought. Practical steps include:

• Bringing team composition directly into intake conversations with hiring managers, breaking down exactly who is currently on the team by gender and race before setting hiring goals
• Pushing back on hiring managers who dismiss diversity as a checkbox exercise, and asking harder questions when a rejection reason sounds vague or unsubstantiated
• Considering a Rooney Rule-style commitment to a minimum percentage of diverse candidates in every interview slate
• Using market and internal data to set specific, tangible goals rather than general aspirations
• Getting explicit buy-in from senior management so the effort has support beyond the recruiting team
• Holding hiring teams accountable and speaking up when patterns in rejections or feedback don't hold up to scrutiny

The larger argument is that sourcers sit at the point where new talent enters an organization, acting as matchmakers between the outside world and hiring teams. Recruiting the same profiles over and over guarantees no change in outcomes, regardless of what leadership says about priorities. Systemic change has to come from the top, but sourcers do not have to wait for a company mandate to make diversity part of every search.

Beyond diversity, the broader message is that best practices from before still hold, but priorities shift under pressure: response rates, hiring volume and candidate behavior vary wildly by company and even by team, so there is no single "right answer" to copy from one org to another. What stays constant is the need to keep testing, adjusting outreach, and treating sourcing as a discipline that has to flex with conditions rather than follow a fixed script.