Over the past few months, organizations have had to make difficult decisions in terms of headcount and budgets.  This is a great opportunity for talent acquisition teams to build their talent pipelines.

According to Recruiting Daily, “Despite ongoing cutbacks and layoffs, businesses will continue to rely on talent to survive and thrive.” 

As defined by HR Technologist, a talent pipeline is a ready pool of potential candidates who are qualified and prepared to step up and fill relevant key roles within the organization as soon as they fall vacant.  This on-hold talent pool can include internal employees who show promise as well as candidates from external sources like referrals, online job portals, and career web pages.

Let’s focus on building a pipeline of external candidates.  Organizations cannot afford to react to critical job openings when they become open; pipelining is proactive recruitment at its best.  The cost of posting a position, waiting for applicants, and conducting the initial screen is far too expensive and takes too much time when you have a vacancy. 

Rarely is the ideal candidate available at the moment you need them.  Talent pipelines allow you to identify and build relationships with passive candidates without pushing specific job openings. Over time, you build trust and the candidate has a positive experience.  You can then introduce the idea of roles that could be a good fit and see if they resonate - a far more effective method of passive engagement.

Rabul Varbneya with Undercover Recruiter recommends three sourcing strategies for building an effective talent pipeline.

1.       Use Branding to Your Advantage

The reputation of your organization gives you a head start when sourcing candidates in this highly competitive market.

a.       Carefully curate the content:  Ensure your organization’s website leaves a positive impact on what working for your organization is all about. 

b.      Keep track of the employer branding: Social media can be a great platform for giving behind the scenes insight to your culture.  Know what turns up if a candidate searches you on any search engine.

c.       Invest in employee development: Encourage your employees to share their experiences on various social media platforms. 

2.       Setting Up the Talent Pipeline

a.       Identify high turnover positions within your organization.  Identifying these critical areas and having suitable talent in the pipeline for the roles with a high attrition rate can significantly reduce the time-to-hire for these positions.

b.      Source for hard-to-fill roles.  Having qualified candidates for hard to fill roles that require a high-level skills saves significant time and money for your company.

c.       Plan for future needs by having knowledge regarding the upcoming projects within the company.  Know your company’s plan for growth and expansion.

3.       Sourcing the Candidates

a.       Define the talent you are sourcing.  Know the key criteria, skill sets, academic background, and culture fit to assist you in profiling the best possible candidates.

b.      Utilize internal and external resources.  Keep track of your internal high-performers who have expressed interest in career progression.

c.       Know when and how to source externally.  Sourcing externally can help fill the gaps in the existing skills sets within the organization.  Utilizing an applicant tracking system, referrals, networking events, and social media outreach will help target the audience you are sourcing.

d.      Perfect your outreach message.  Draft your message so it is compelling enough to make a lasting impression on the potential candidate.  The message needs to be a personalized one with the emphasis on the candidate, the responsibilities that the position would entail, and information on how they can be a valuable addition to the organization.

e.       Follow up with the candidate to keep them engaged and continue communication so you understand their intentions, and they understand yours.

f.        Be truthful, ensure your communications are clear that you are sourcing for a position that isn’t currently open.  Emphasize that you are always searching for talented people and you are shortlisting the candidate list for future hiring needs.  Be genuine.

g.       Let the candidate drive the communication. Be persistent, but also make sure the candidate is comfortable with the communication.  Keep it flowing just enough so the shortlisted candidates become eager to join your organization as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

Effective talent pipelining focuses on how you plan, strategize, and leverage technology.  As the demand for the best candidates is only set to increase, getting ahead of the curve will allow you to hire better talent.

The landscape for candidates today is drastically different from the past years. Empathy, flexibility, and understanding will go a long way in building lasting relationships with candidates and successfully adapting to the realities of a post-COVID world.

Additional ASE Resources
ASE Talent Acquisition – ASE talent acquisition is ready to partner with you to build your bench of qualified candidates.    ASE offers contract, direct, and consulting/project-based placements.  ASE members pay only a 10% direct hire fee.  For more information contact Sheila Hoover.

Sources: Recruiting Daily, HR Technologist, Undercover Recruiter, Rabul Varbneya