Here are two basic principles of recruiting that you need to apply when targeting passive candidates, diversity candidates, or any type of candidates in high demand:

• The more competition there is for a group of candidates (like nurses, pharmacists, sales reps who always exceed quota, design engineers who were elected to Tau Beta Pi, diversity candidates, etc.), the more recruiting effort is required to attract and hire them.
• Top people want top jobs, regardless of their cultural, ethnic or religious background or gender.

Let me make a few points about sourcing:

This is an article about how to find more top candidates. It might not seem like it until the end, though.

If your hiring manager clients are not doing a good job of assessing your candidates, you should review this article with them. No matter how good a recruiter you are, if your clients pass on your good candidates, you're working too hard doing searches over again. The key is just to assess a candidate's motivation to do the work.

If you do things better, you'll get a nice raise, a pat on the back, some recognition, maybe even a promotion. If you do better things, you'll become famous.

Semi-sourcing is a recruitment technique that maximizes candidate quality while minimizing time to hire and cost per hire. Most current recruiting programs focus their efforts on finding a few good people in large pools of active candidates - for example, by using job board advertising. Surprisingly, most companies continue to spend too much money and time on this tactic and are having limited success.

While there are only three types of candidates in the world, there's a world of difference in how you find and hire each type. If you're not seeing enough good candidates, it's possible you're using the wrong tactic to find the right candidate.

If everybody knows that one thing is true, why do so many people try something else? Most companies will tell you that their employee referral program is the best way to find top talent. Most recruiters, including me, will tell you that networking with former and current candidates is the best way to find top talent.

Are you aware that you are one of 10,000 people who saw this headline?

Are you aware that you are one of 1,000 people who decided to read this article?

Are you aware that you are about to be only one of 100 people who will respond to the offer I'm making at the end of this article? As a result of responding to this offer, you are about to become a better recruiter. Enjoy!

As I've mentioned in other articles, the iPod offers a great model for sourcing and recruiting. Three things stand out: