Building Sourcing at Scale: How Booking.com Turned Pipelines into Market Advantage

In this episode of Leaders in Talent podcast, we’re joined by Kanwar Kohli, who leads global sourcing at Booking.com, supporting close to 1,000 hires per year with a team of ~20 sourcers.We go deep into what sourcing really means today, and why it’s no longer about volume, pipeline, or “more candidates.”Kanwar shares how Booking.com built its sourcing function from scratch, why sourcing is the only part of TA that truly controls supply, and how market intelligence, judgment, and AI are reshaping the role of sourcers.Timestamps:01:02 Welcome to the podcast and Kanwar’s background03:02 Why sourcing exists and why it matters05:02 Booking’s original brief, pipelines and hiring at scale07:06 Proving value without owning the full process08:12 From volume to competitive advantage10:23 How to justify long term nurturing to the business12:06 What “the ask” really means, not just more candidates13:58 Why sourcing needs 1 to 2 years runway15:49 KPIs that matter, short cycle and long cycle metrics17:42 Shaping demand, not just reacting to open roles21:30 When a sourcing function makes sense24:57 Skills Kanwar looks for in top sourcers31:03 Is sourcing ending, smaller teams and higher bar36:40 Where to connect with Kanwar and closing___________________________Connect with us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/matchr/Get in touch with us: https://www.matchr.io/who-we-are/contact/____________Connect with Kanwar Kohli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kanwarkohli/Connect with Adriaan Kolff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriaankolff/___________________________RSS feed: https://media.rss.com/leaders-in-talent/feed.xml___________________________Need a Recruitment Support? Embed Matchr’s expert recruiters directly into your team. Seamless integration for immediate impact on your hiring process.Learn more: https://matchr.io