Has your recruitment journey expanded over a decade? If so, you would remember how recruitment used to be more of a reactive process. What that means is, a company would come to you with a job requisite and you would scramble to get the most apt candidates for the role, as quickly as possible. However, things aren’t quite the same anymore. Now, savvy teams are taking a proactive approach, thinking ahead about their company’s future hiring needs. A key part of this strategy is building a talent pipeline.
Developing a candidate pipeline allows recruiters to not only manage the current talent pool in a much better manager but helps them look beyond immediate job openings, positioning them as strategic advisors. Moreover, it also simplifies hiring for tough roles, boosts team productivity, and cuts down on recruitment costs and time.
Imagine having a ready pool of talent to fill vacancies without the rush of sorting through resumes or endless interviews. That’s the power of a talent pipeline. It’s the new and enhanced way of securing top talents.If you don’t have a candidate pipeline already, this guide will show you how to create a pipeline strategy that attracts the best candidates, reduces costs, and enhances business performance with talent pipeline management.
Talent Pipeline & Recruitment Pipeline - What’s the Difference?
Offlate, there have been a lot of pipelines building the network of recruitment and if you find yourself stuck in one of those, you sure aren’t alone. Among the many pipelines, there are two that recruiters and hiring managers confuse with more often. There is the recruitment pipeline and Talent pipeline. So, before we move further in the blog, let’s clear the air on these terms and help you understand each in a bit more detail.
Let's talk about the recruitment pipeline first. You can consider recruitment pipelining as juggling candidates through your hiring funnel, which can help you visualise the process from start to finish. The pipeline includes specific milestones such as sourcing, application, phone screening, assessments, hiring manager interviews, and job offers. Recruitment pipelines can be tailored to your specific hiring needs, including, specific job role, recruitment strategy, role requirements and more.
Then, we have the overarching topic of this blog – Talent pipelining. It however, is a strenuous process of developing a network of qualified candidates who, most commonly, are passive talent, that can come in handy for future openings. Instead of solely relying on new applicants, having a pool of high-potential candidates like this, who are ready to step in quickly, can save a lot of hiring efforts.
The basis of your talent pipeline is built from candidates you have already interacted with, including some who you have met, interviewed and vetted. While some might have been finalists for previous roles others you might have interviewed informally when there were no current openings. In any case, as you already have a connection with these candidates, you and they both can make decisions faster. Plus, you can skip a lot of details like explaining the company's values and mission when reaching out to them for a specific position. You can quickly explain the job requirement and get them for a focused interview and, if all goes well, make an offer.
With an updated talent pipeline of these vetted candidates, you can full positions faster, skip lengthy searches, and reduce time to fill substantially. Both, talent and recruitment pipelines are equally important in understanding the recruitment process. By cultivating a candidate network, you can streamline your recruitment process, making it more efficient.
Tips to Create an Effective Talent Pipeline
Now that we know why you should indulge in developing a talent pipeline when working on your talent acquisition strategies, here are 10 tips to help you understand how to go about it.
Know your candidate profile
The first step in building an effective talent pipeline is clearly defining the candidate’s profile. Imagine what an ideal candidate for the job role would look like, the skills and qualifications they would need, and note the characteristics you seek in them. The more detailed your candidate profile is, the better it works as a roadmap for your recruitment efforts. This will help you zero in on individuals who truly align with your organization’s vision and values.
Moreover, by creating these detailed profiles your chances of finding the best fit candidates increases exponentially. This clarity not only streamlines your search but also ensures that your recruitment process is more targeted and efficient. With a well-defined candidate profile, you build a talent pipeline filled with individuals who can drive your organization forward.
Develop a resource group
A resource group can be a long term effective tool for recruitment. It can significantly enhance your recruitment pipeline by generating referrals and recruiting specific candidate groups through websites or social media. Recruiters can personalise these programs within the groups to meet their unique needs and preferences. This will allow them to target the right people with the right messages at the right time.
Getting a bit complex? Let’s understand it with an example. Imagine if you need to hire a developer. You can use specific resource groups to create a recruitment drive from where you can get leads or references for potential candidates. Offering rewards for successful referrals can motivate the members to participate more actively. This approach not only provides you with valuable leads but also helps you tap into the recruitment market more effectively. Such resource groups can assist you in easily identifying and connecting with interested candidates, making your recruitment process more targeted.
Keep an eye on the top talents in your domain
As an avid recruiter, you must know the key players in your niche. Your ability to track the careers of top professionals in your industry, including those you’ve worked with before or met at conferences and professional associations, defines your proficiency as a talent acquisition specialist. This becomes much more important for entry-level workers like Millennials and Gen Z, who prefer short term engagements with organisations.
Tracking the top talents means building relationships. When doing so, be transparent and express your belief in their potential as an asset. The potential candidate must be able to see value in coming on board when the timing is right. Take a step further and arrange informational interviews with organizational leaders to explore various roles they might excel in. Also, acknowledge that they might not join your company immediately, and that’s perfectly fine. Emphasize that you’re interested in a long-term relationship because you see their great promise. Focus on building relationships not hiring.
Build a strong employer brand
This is not exactly a part of building a talent pipeline but how you shape your employer brand will, most certainly, affect your ability to draw candidates. So, before building a talent pipeline, take a moment to evaluate your employer brand. An employer brand that is strong, embracing and inclusive can pull the right candidates, making your job easier. Also, in the recruitment pipeline as you nurture relationships with candidates, your employer brand can keep them engaged and interested in your company — or push them away.
When thinking about employer branding, see beyond career sites. From the company’s social media presence to the opinions of current employees, there are several factors that impact a candidates' perceptions of your company. Thus, it's necessary to make your employer brand more engaging and allow candidates more receptive to connecting with you. This is crucial, especially now when culture, well-being, and remote work are hot topics.
Fun Fact: Companies with positive brands receive twice as many job applications as those with less favorable reputations.
Focus on proactive sourcing
A robust talent pipeline can be built more effectively when you practice proactive sourcing techniques. Yes, traditional tactics have been fruitful in the past but one cannot deny how slow and outdated they are for modern day recruiting strategies. Thus, actively sourcing candidates from multiple channels is the way to go as it helps you explore a variety of avenues to find the best talent.
You can start proactive sourcing by diving into niche job boards and career sites to discover top talents. Industry specific events are also a great place to find and interact with potential employees. Then, there is social media and professional sites like LinkedIn for continued engagement and interaction. This way you increase your chances of discovering qualified candidates with the right skill set who can be perfect for your team.
Dedicate more time to repeat and hard to fill positions
Identify and strategically think about roles that are hard to fill and repeat more often.
There are several roles that are quite easy to fill and don't require much effort. However, there are other roles that can take weeks and sometimes months to fill. These are the ones you need to focus on building a comprehensive candidate pipeline for. By identifying such roles you can focus your recruitment efforts where they matter most and avoid wasting time and resources on roles that are short lived.If you think that these positions are complex and demand an expertise outreach, hiring domain specific contractors isn't a bad idea. They can allow you to test potential candidates before committing to permanent hires especially for critical positions.
Add diversity to your talent pipeline
When you build a talent pipeline from scratch, you have an opportunity to embed diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategies into it. With a diverse talent pipeline, you can actively work towards building a more diverse workforce at every level. You can rely less on third party groups and sources to fill in last minute diversity hiring needs by developing better relationships with multicultural professional associations, women-focused organizations, veterans' groups, and other entities representing underrepresented communities.
It also becomes easier for you to align your recruitment strategies with candidates who share their values on diversity and inclusion when you have a diversity first recruitment pipeline. That being said, if you happen to neglect DE&I, candidates can just as easily deter you from engaging with your organization, potentially impeding your ability to attract and retain the best candidates. In essence, focusing on diversity isn't just morally sound—it's essential for sustaining your talent pipeline with top-tier candidates.
Set targets based on data
A target driven strategy can help you keep you focused and assist in gauging your process with each job. Targets also help you measure the success of your efforts and give you more power to advocate the resources you require to assist the top management recognize the true value of your work. And, you can’t set targets with the backing of data.
Data in recruitment allows you to understand your team’s capacity and identify bottlenecks. Inevitably assisting you in setting realistic targets. Once your targets are set and goals are defined, you can push your team and ensure they are not overwhelmed during the process. Other metrics like candidate engagement, submission-to-interview ratios and acceptance rates can be derived from data which offer valuable insights into the effectiveness of your pipelining efforts.
5 Easy Steps to Build Your Talent Pipeline Strategy
Step 1: Define your talent goals
Highlight the need for a talent pipeline and what you and your team seek to achieve with the pipeline in place. Think about current and future needs when penning down your talent needs.
Steps 2: Develop a framework
Adopting a tailored talent acquisition strategy can sync your pipelining needs with company goals. It can also optimise hiring for a steady influx of top-notch candidates.
Step 3: Proactive sourcing
When it comes to sourcing, go the distance. Identify the most impactful sourcing strategies for varied job roles and practice them proactively to get the best candidates, every time.
Step 4: Use Skima to narrow down, instantly
Once you have a job requisite, use Skima to narrow down your talent pool to the best fit candidates. Simply upload your data and witness the magic of artificial intelligence and machine learning at play.
Step 5: Build and nurture connections
Keep a track of the top talents and focus on building long -term connections with them.
End Note
A streamlined talent pipeline can reduce time to fill, help you close more good hires and ultimately build a successful recruitment strategy for any job role. If you haven’t already, use our tips to create a talent pipeline for your next job. Happy recruiting!
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