Talent pools are one of the most valuable assets a recruiter has and yet they are hugely underused. As a repository of candidates that have been motivated to apply for jobs and that you have deemed qualified, they are a gold mine in the race to place. Wave’s Emily Buckley explains why talent pools should play an essential part in your candidate attraction strategy and details how to make the most of them.
How often do you go to your CRM to check your candidate database before posting your job to job boards? If your answer is ‘not often,’ ‘when I have time,’ or ‘when I remember’ you’re certainly not alone. In the race to attract quality candidates before the competition and deliver results to clients in the quickest time possible, it’s easy to miss a step and sprint straight to posting your job out.
However, that perfect candidate could be sat in your database all along. You may even find you’re getting applications to jobs you’ve posted on job boards from candidates that are already in your database – which is why it is vital to check your talent pool before using credits to advertise on job boards. And even more vital to ensure that you are building and nurturing that talent pool.
What is a talent pool?
A talent pool is a database of candidates, usually on an ATS or CRM and sometimes on a multi-poster or within your own website, that you have previously vetted and screened. It contains their CV with all their details, including skills and experience. Their purpose is to house a pool of candidates that are suitable for the different types of roles that you recruit for so that when jobs come in you can go straight to your database first. This enables you to jump-start the recruitment process before you’ve even posted a job out to the job boards, your website or social channels.
Why are talent pools so important?
Having a bank of talented candidates means that you can be more strategic and more flexible. You can find candidates more quickly than by advertising alone, as well as saving costs on job board credits. A talent pool is also incredibly valuable when hiring for roles that need discretion and therefore can’t be advertised in conventional ways. A reservoir of motivated candidates that are suitable for your roles is critical for urgent jobs and those that are typically hard to fill. Ultimately, going directly to your (carefully built and maintained) talent pool when you get a job can save you time and money.
How do you build a talent pool?
Talent pools can be built in a number of ways, including via:
Applications through your website – When candidates apply to jobs on your recruitment website, you gain all their details in your CRM. As long as you rank and code them properly, you’ll have a repository of great candidates sitting in your database waiting be matched to the right opportunity.
Candidate registrations – Every time a candidate registers their details on your website, you obtain another CV for your database, enabling you to capture their data. Make it easy for candidates to register, upload and submit their CV, and show transparency and accountability when it comes to the protection of that data.
CV Search – The ability to directly access relevant CVs from different job boards – instantly hugely extending your reach – is a game-changer when it comes to finding candidates quickly. The bonus is that every CV you acquire can be stored in your candidate database, helping to build your talent pool. Searching each job board individually can be a drain on resources so a CV Search feature which offers the ability to search multiple job board CV databases all from one location and in a single action, is incredibly valuable.
Referrals – Offering a referral scheme whereby candidates are rewarded for referring other qualified candidates is a great way to tap into their valuable networks. Most candidates will have worked with or at least be connected to people in industries that you are recruiting in so it makes sense to utilise those connections.
Social media – Building a talent pool that is diverse means looking in a range of different places and social media is great for that. Maintaining an active presence on a number of social media platforms and engaging with both active and passive candidates is a great way to source from a diverse pool. Posting about job openings, advice, general musings on the industry, and thoughts and opinions, will help to form relationships with candidates, eventually encouraging people working/ job seeking in the industries in which you recruit to register with your agency or send their CV to you.
How do you leverage your talent pool?
In order to have a talent pool that is usable and delivers for you, it must be coded and organised properly. This is when the right tech can be hugely valuable. A system that allows you to rank applications as they come in, for example traffic lighting them into green to shortlist them for the job, amber for when they’re not quite right for that particular job but a good candidate for future opportunities, and red for not suitable for your agency, is a great first step.
Once they’re in your CRM, segmenting and tagging will allow you to organise your talent pool for an easier search. Thinking that it takes too much time to search for candidates when you just want to get your job out there? A multi-poster that automatically brings up candidates from your talent pool that match your job specifications before you post your job means searching your talent pool doesn’t have to be an arduous extra step.
2024 – the year of the talent pool
Essentially, the question is why wouldn’t you utilise your candidate database, your talent pool housing a raft of motivated, qualified candidates? Why wouldn’t you check your CRM first and contact candidates that look a good fit for the job? Even if you decide to advertise your jobs on job boards too (and we’re certainly not diminishing the value of job board advertising here), tapping into your talent pool extends your reach and gives you greater options. A well-maintained talent pool means you don’t have to start from scratch with every job, saving you time and potentially slashing recruitment advertising costs.
Wave data has shown that applications are rising but there remains a skills mis-match in many industries. Talent pools are the ideal solution for industries with skills shortages as they allow you instant access to candidates you know have the right skills. The takeaway? We’re predicting that 2024 could be the year of the talent pool.
Wave helps recruiters to find talented candidates more quickly by providing recruitment solutions through a mix of cutting-edge technology and human expertise, via WaveTrackR (data-powered multi-poster, analytics tool and CV Search), RecWebs (tailored recruitment websites) and WaveMedia (strategic recruitment media buying).
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