What Is Candidate Sourcing in 2025 — and Why WhatsApp Is Becoming Recruiters’ Secret Weapon?

What Is Candidate Sourcing?

Candidate sourcing isn't what it used to be. The old "spray and pray" approach of a few years ago, where you'd send out hundreds of generic LinkedIn messages and hope someone got back to you, is dead. Now, the best talent in the most competitive industries receive dozens of these messages every single day, and they've learned to tune them out if they’re not context-specific or personal.

These days, talent sourcing is all about context, precision and actually talking to people like a human being. While LinkedIn is still a great tool, recruiters are increasingly seeing success on WhatsApp – with open rates of 60-80% when using the right messaging.

In this article, we’ll explore the state of candidate sourcing in 2025 and how you can leverage WhatsApp to increase your open rates and close better placements.

How Has Candidate Sourcing Changed?

Candidate sourcing used to be pretty straightforward. You’d write your job description, then find people who matched a specific set of keywords, reach out to them and wait for the responses to come flooding in. But this doesn’t work anymore.

Nowadays, talent sourcing is all about understanding the context embedded in your job description: What does the role actually need? What kind of person would genuinely be excited by this opportunity? What environment would they thrive in? Starting with these questions changes everything, meaning you’re targeting people who will actually succeed in the role, not just casting a wide net.

This shift in the approach to candidate sourcing happened partly because LinkedIn’s "Easy Apply" meant recruiters were suddenly drowning in applications from people who weren't even close to qualified. The good candidates got buried in piles of generic applications, and smart recruiters had to pivot if they wanted to remain successful.

However, recruiters don’t have all day to scroll through LinkedIn profiles to find the right people to target. This is where AI tools like Kalent come in.

Kalent doesn’t just search using keywords – as a recruitment co-pilot, the tool understands what a job ad is asking for and works backwards to find people who genuinely fit. This results in open rates five times higher than most recruiters see, which is no small difference.

The Difference Between Candidate Sourcing and Talent Sourcing

There's a subtle but important difference between candidate sourcing and talent sourcing. The first is about finding people, while the second is about understanding them. However, these terms are often used interchangeably.

Modern talent sourcing digs deeper than the candidate sourcing of a few years ago. You’re no longer just asking "does this person have Python on their resume?" It’s more about where they are in their careers, what their goals are, and what kind of companies they’ve worked for in the past. You're trying to figure out if there's actual alignment, not just keyword overlap.

This is where Kalent makes a real difference. Our recruitment tool starts with the job itself and builds outward. Starting with the job context means every candidate you look at actually makes sense for the role. Recruiters spend less time building lists of names and more time having real conversations.

Why WhatsApp Actually Works for Recruiting

Most recruiters around the world use LinkedIn and email in some capacity for candidate sourcing, but you may not know that WhatsApp is also becoming a go-to channel, especially in Europe.

One of the reasons for this is that WhatsApp is more personal. Emails can sit in an inbox with a hundred other unread messages, and LinkedIn DMs can also get lost in a lot of recruiter spam. WhatsApp, on the other hand, is right there on your phone, in the same space as messages from your friends and family. People usually see WhatsApp messages within minutes, not days, leading to better open rates and faster response times.

WhatsApp messages are also more authentic and conversational by default. They don’t have that same corporate, salesy vibe as LinkedIn or cold email outreach. It also instills trust – when someone gives you their WhatsApp or accepts your message, they're letting you into their personal space, which can lead to genuine connections.

What we're seeing with Kalent's clients is that WhatsApp consistently performs better than other channels for first responses. Candidates who take three days to respond to an email will reply to a WhatsApp message in three hours.

However, geography (as well as individual communication preferences) is also important when it comes to candidate sourcing. While WhatsApp is huge in Europe for professional communication, in the U.S., people lean more on LinkedIn and email because it’s illegal to send unsolicited corporate messages via SMS or WhatsApp. The point isn't that everyone should use WhatsApp, but that you should find out where candidates are and meet them there.

How to Improve Your Open Rates with Effective Candidate Sourcing

Start With The Job, Not Keywords

Instead of just leading with a list of keywords, find out what the role is really asking for. What problem needs solving, and what kind of person gets excited by that? Use that as your foundation to help you find the right candidate.

Let AI Handle The Research

Candidate sourcing is a huge endeavor, and you should use AI tools wherever you can to lighten the load and streamline your workflow. Tools like Kalent can pull together candidate details such as experience, career trajectory and goals to help you build a focused list.

Write Like a Human Being

Don’t use a generic template – instead, reference something specific about their background and you’re much more likely to get a response. Explain why you think there's a connection between what they've done and what this role offers. This makes it clear you've actually looked at their profile and not just sent a generic, automated message.

Pick the Right Channel

If you're in Europe, try WhatsApp. If you're in the U.S., stick with LinkedIn and email for now. Test what works and double down on it.

Track Your Progress

Look at your open rates and reply rates by channel. When something works, figure out why, and when it doesn’t, keep adjusting.

Why Contextual Outreach Works for Candidate Sourcing

Contextual outreach is far more effective than mass outreach in 2025. But where many people go wrong with candidate sourcing is believing that everything has to be manual, super-personalized and context-specific. This is a sure-fire way to burn out completely.

The smartest recruiters understand that AI can help them with the tedious parts of their job, such as the research, data gathering and filtering. Letting a tool like Kalent handle this stuff means you can focus on the parts that actually require a human touch, such as building relationships and guiding people through tough career decisions.

Kalent: Bring Your Candidate Sourcing into 2025

Kalent can help you bring your candidate sourcing into 2025, searching our candidate database according to what the job actually needs, rather than a list of keywords.

We’ll help you increase your reply rates 5x by enabling you to send the right messages, to the right people in the right way – and using the right platform. This way, you can send personalized messages without doing hours of research, helping you build relationships that last beyond a single hire.

To upgrade your talent sourcing, book a demo today and see how you could simplify your process, personalize your messaging and start seeing better results.

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