What is a Talent Pool?

Talent pools allow us to have access to a constant stream of high quality candidates. They are a resource that, when used effectively, could mean the difference between successfully filling a role and having to begin the entire recruitment process again.

It is important we ensure that these candidates are ready and willing to take on the challenge of beginning the application process. But how do we prevent our talent pools from becoming stagnant?

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Talent Pool Engagement

Engaging with talent is hugely important. Whether we access them via talent pipelines, pools, or communities, this should be key to any organisation’s recruitment strategy.

We need to communicate with these potential applicants, they need to know who we are and why we want to be in contact with them. This allows us to be ahead of the game and prepared for when that next vacancy is authorised.

How to engage with your talent pool successfully

The difficulty comes in knowing how to engage effectively with these different talent streams. We need to treat each potential candidate as an individual and work to build a unique rapport with them, because each of them is different and has a distinctive experience of you or your organisation.

Some of these individuals may be a ‘like’ on your company’s Facebook or LinkedIn page, others might be a speculative CV sent in via email and others with great potential, might have already been to interview with a Hiring Manager and are now ‘on-hold’.

We need to communicate with the talent, whether we drop them a call or a tweet, to ensure that they want to be contacted whilst they are patiently awaiting the right role. Any communication should be on a level that they request and are happy with, so as not to turn them away from your organisation.

Targeting communications with your talent pool

Once we know what they are comfortable with, it’s worth creating a defined communication plan around their requirements – what are you communicating and why? Also, how is it adding value in engaging with these candidates (for both parties)?

This is where the human element comes in, intelligently selecting targeted communications – automated systems can help in this process of course, but they lack the personal touch that ‘real’ human beings bring to recruitment.

Through using our talent pools effectively, we are able to improve upon candidate experience as well as lowering the time and cost per hire. We must provide the service we promised and ensure that our pool of glowing talent, does not turn stagnant.