Talent Pooling is a pro-active approach to recruitment which sets your hiring strategies up for long term success.
Your talent pool, as the name suggests, is a pool of quality talent that can be saved and utilised in the future.
Perhaps a vacancy had a high uptake of suitable candidates, of which you can only take one on board. These other candidates can become ‘pooled’, and contacted at a later date should another employment opportunity arise.
This allows organisations to explore their own talent pipeline first before outsourcing, making it a much cheaper and more time-efficient alternative.
And after all, who would not want to acquire quality candidates for less?
So, how do we efficiently manage our talent pool, so it delivers the best results?
End to End Recruitment Software
Recruitment software with a talent pooling feature is the best way to manage your talent pipeline. Not only can you manage your whole recruitment process from within the system, but you can also store and manage your talent pool. This allows you to keep the recruitment process all in one place. Nothing gets lost in the cracks, everything is organised and seamlessly connected to the hiring process, with no need to use a separate piece of software or a time-consuming spreadsheet.
GDPR Compliance
Saving data can be a risky business, so another reason why we suggest using recruitment software to manage your talent pool is to protect your organisation from GDPR constraints. Being with a GDPR compliant recruitment software provider ensures that the data you collect has gone through the sufficient processes of compliance in a secure and protected environment.
Filter and Categorise
Filtering and categorising your talent pool is the best way to keep it organised so it can be sufficiently utilised when required. Good recruitment software should allow you to do this. You can categorise candidates in whichever way works best for your organisation. Maybe that is by skill set or by the job on which they previously applied. You can also add notes and see the resources from the previous hiring process, so there is no need to backtrack and go digging for information you probably will not have saved or remembered.
Utilise Employee Networks
According to LinkedIn Statistics, employee referrals can make your talent pools 10x bigger, so why not utilise them? It is another great way to extend your talent pool with ready to go candidates for less who have already been referenced and recommended. It also provides organisations with the opportunity to give back to their employees by rewarding them if one of their contacts were to be hired.
Engage in a Periodic Outreach
Once candidates are in your talent pool, you need to keep them engaged, and you can do so with a periodic outreach. Notice we say periodic, there is no need to contact them every week, but every now and again engages them to ensure they remember you. Their circumstances may change, but at least you were there when they did. This also works alongside GDPR compliance. It informs candidates who have been in your talent pool for an extended period, from which they can be deleted or reconfirm for their data to be stored.
Set Up Job Alerts
Allow for candidates to also pool you as a potential employer. These candidates may not get past the first stages of the recruitment process or have even applied, and so not directly added into your talent pool. But who is to say they are not of suitability in the future? Providing them with the opportunity to sign up, whether that be after finding out about their unsuccessful application or through a landing page on your careers site, keeps them connected. They can then be alerted when suitable positions become available, providing you again with a pool of potential talent for less, with no sourcing methods required.
Offer Work Experience or Graduate Schemes
There’s a big pool of young talent available on the market which you may not have considered. Even if you are not in the position to upskill in a graduate scheme, opening your business up to work experience provides opportunities within itself. This not only supports your current workforce and the external workforce but also allows you to further build your talent pool with candidates that already have recognised potential.
Marketing
The marketing of your employment brand is a great way to build your talent pool by engaging both a network of active and passive candidates. Recruitment marketing like talent pooling is a long-term hiring strategy applied when not even hiring. It is done so that when you are ready to hire, you already have a pool of candidates invested and ready to apply. Some of the best ways to do this are by sharing interesting and informative content, setting up departmental communities, networking both online and in-person, having an engaging careers website and by showcasing your company culture through employees. This acts as a testament to your employment brand.
Improve the Candidate Experience
But remember, yes this is all a great way to enhance and manage your talent pools, but without a great candidate experience to coincide, all this hard work will prove unviable. Why not have a read of our other blog which discusses what drives a successful candidate experience here.
And if you would like further support on how to successfully build and manage a talent pool, get in touch!
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