SUMMARY:
Talent Sourcing Specialist
POSITION INFO:
This is not a traditional recruiter role. We're looking for someone who is future-thinking, strategic, and highly proactive, with a strong understanding of the technology talent landscape.
As a Specialist: Talent Sourcing, you'll sit within the business as a strategic talent partner — not simply taking job orders, but translating business needs into clear recruitment strategy, challenging and guiding stakeholders, providing market intelligence, and helping steer business decision-making around talent.
You'll provide a specialist sourcing service for external talent acquisition through appropriate channel selection, direct talent sourcing techniques, market research and lead generation, and applicant screening and engagement.
Core Focus Areas
The role requires thinking about talent across three horizons:
1. NOW – Current Hiring Understand immediate roles and deliver against what the business needs today.
2. NEXT – Pooling & Pipelining Build proactive talent pools for skills and roles the business knows it will require, rather than waiting for vacancies to open.
3. FUTURE – Strategic Workforce Thinking Look ahead at where technology, skills, and the business are heading. Understand and embrace AI, identify emerging skills, and anticipate future requirements before they land.
Key Performance Areas
- Talent planning and contracting
- Sourcing and screening of talent
- Shortlisting and presenting of talent
- Market mapping and gaining market intelligence
- General talent sourcing administration
Key Tasks and Accountabilities
1. Talent Planning and Contracting
- Collaborate with business stakeholders and talent acquisition specialists to understand the type of talent required
- Conclude a detailed briefing on role requirements, candidate persona and current team overview
- Clearly contract sourcing project timelines for delivery with stakeholders
- Consult on application questions and advert content to attract the right talent and ensure candidates meet minimum technical and qualification requirements
- Track and interpret trends in the technology talent landscape, including AI and emerging skills
- Build and maintain proactive talent pools and pipelines ahead of business demand
- Act as a strategic talent partner — guiding and challenging stakeholders where needed, rather than simply executing job orders
- Translate business and workforce needs into a clear, actionable recruitment strategy
- Provide market intelligence to inform business decision-making around talent
- Confidently engage and influence senior stakeholders
2. Sourcing and Screening of Talent
- Use direct sourcing techniques aimed at passive candidates with specialised, critical and/or strategic talent to build and maintain a strong future talent pool, in line with transformation targets and objectives
- Apply appropriate telephonic screening techniques for shortlisting and attracting candidates
- Acquire relevant candidate information and clarify key areas of experience to match role suitability
- Uphold an excellent candidate experience through effective response handling and timeous feedback
- Conduct regular skills searches and proactively engage candidates to build a continuous, timely talent pipeline
- Drive and maintain allocated talent sourcing campaigns (e.g. advertising, referrals)
- Summarise market trends and candidate skills through candidate submission presentations
- Effectively use sourcing tools, platforms and techniques to achieve sourcing objectives
3. Shortlisting and Presenting of Talent
- Shortlist and present passive and active applicants who meet agreed job specifications to relevant stakeholders
- Provide stakeholders with an overview of the candidate shortlist and market insights on the relevant talent landscape
- Ensure a proper hand-over of candidate shortlists to the Talent Acquisition team
4. Market Mapping and Gaining Market Intelligence
- Gain industry and competitor insights and stay up to date with talent trends to inform sourcing strategy recommendations
- Stay informed on the best sourcing strategies per skill set to attract top talent
- Provide monthly insights through reporting and participation in team community-of-practice sessions
- Contribute input toward the compilation of HR leadership reporting
5. General Talent Sourcing Administration
- Update and maintain candidate data platforms
- Maintain the integrity of the applicant tracking system, moving candidates in real time and including screening notes on profiles
- Maintain the LinkedIn sourcing platform
- Provide timely feedback to all candidates on the status of their application
- Track conversion ratios (submission-to-interview and interview-to-offer) to measure team performance
- Track the percentage of AA candidates submitted per project for reporting purposes
Experience
Minimum:- 3–5 years' experience in direct sourcing techniques and methods, specifically aimed at passive candidates with scarce and/or critical skill sets
- Experience in telephonic screening techniques for shortlisting and attracting candidates, upholding an excellent candidate experience through effective response handling and timeous feedback
- Experience in market mapping and gathering market intelligence
- Experience working in a target-driven environment
- Grade 12 / National Certificate / Vocational qualification
Ideal:- 5+ years in a talent sourcing and acquisition environment
- Experience working with a wide variety of candidate sourcing platforms
- Prior experience working with SAP SuccessFactors
- A strong talent network
- A relevant degree in Psychology or Industrial/Organisational Psychology
Knowledge
- Commercially minded — understands the business impact of talent decisions
- Curious — proactively seeks out trends and market shifts
- Tech-savvy — comfortable engaging with technical roles and technology direction, including AI
- Proactive — builds pipelines ahead of need rather than reacting to vacancies
- Confident — able to guide, challenge and influence senior stakeholders
- General HR processes and procedures
- Relevant legislation (e.g. LRA, Employment Equity Act)
- Effective and efficient telephonic interviewing/screening techniques
- Competency-based recruitment
- Sourcing approaches and methods
Skills
- Computer literacy (MS Word, MS Excel, MS Outlook)
- Communication skills
- Interpersonal and relationship management skills
- Attention to detail
- Planning, organising and coordination skills
Competencies
- Simplify and make it easy
- Earn and extend trust
- Plan, deliver and raise the bar
- Curious and continuously learns
- Act, learn and adapt
- Inspire optimism and persistence
- Have courage, disagree and commit
- Build one team
