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What Is Candidate Sourcing?

Candidate sourcing is finding and reaching potential candidates — the activity that fills the top of the funnel.

An educational definition from the HR glossary. Explore related terms below, or jump into the resource center to go deeper.

Definition

Candidate sourcing is finding and reaching potential candidates — the activity that fills the top of the funnel.

Why it matters

The quality of who you source caps the quality of who you hire.

Examples

Illustrative example. Reaching out to qualified people who are not actively applying is proactive sourcing.

For the practical detail behind this term, follow the related metric, template and resources below.

Free, printable HR resources

Templates, checklists and calculators to put these concepts into practice — free and ungated.

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For informational purposes only. This is an educational, plain-language definition — not legal, tax, financial or compliance advice and not an official definition. Terms and obligations vary by organisation and jurisdiction. Numeric examples are simple, placeholder-based illustrations, not data. Confirm specifics with qualified professionals.
Related concepts

Related glossary terms

Keep exploring the HR vocabulary.

Glossary

Talent Pipeline

A talent pipeline is a nurtured pool of candidates you can draw on when roles open, built ahead of need.

Open Glossary

Recruitment Funnel

The recruitment funnel is the set of stages candidates pass through from first contact to accepted offer, with conversion at each step.

Open Glossary

Passive Candidate

A passive candidate is someone not actively job-seeking but potentially open to the right opportunity.

Open
Measure it

Related metrics & calculators

Recruitment metric

Candidate Pipeline Metrics

Candidate pipeline metrics describe the health of the candidates in progress: how many you have, whether they are moving, and whether there are enough relative to the roles you need to fill.

Open Calculators

HR calculators

Quantify the metrics in your browser.

Open Hub

HR metrics hub

How HR measures are defined and read.

Open
Put it into practice

Related templates

Template

Recruitment Planning Template

Planning a hire before you source it saves weeks later.

Open
Go deeper

Related resources

The clusters that put this concept into practice.

Lifecycle

Employee lifecycle

The full employee journey, stage by stage.

Open Operations

Employer operations

Run the workforce as a repeatable system.

Open Planning

Workforce planning

Strategy and organizational design.

Open Compliance

HR compliance

Documentation, records, data and policy.

Open Templates

HR templates

Free, printable, placeholder-based templates.

Open Playbooks

HR playbooks

Step-by-step plays for people processes.

Open Technology

HR technology

Automation, analytics and systems.

Open Funnel

Recruitment funnel

Sourcing through to accepted offer.

Open Reporting

HR reporting & dashboards

Turn people data into clear views.

Open AI for HR

AI for HR

Where AI assists HR, responsibly.

Open Resource center

HR resource center

The central map of every cluster.

Open

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is Candidate Sourcing?

Candidate sourcing is finding and reaching potential candidates — the activity that fills the top of the funnel.

Why does Candidate Sourcing matter?

The quality of who you source caps the quality of who you hire.

How is Candidate Sourcing measured?

It connects to the HR metric linked on this page, where you can find the formula and how to read it. This glossary entry is an educational definition, not a data source.