Recruiting is about finding the right fit for each position in your organization. Don’t miss the opportunity to hire top talent by waiting for an opening. Instead, provide opportunities for high-quality candidates to connect with your brand. Consistently nurture appropriate candidates by developing a talent pipeline.
What’s A Talent Pipeline?
A talent pipeline is a database of potential employees. It’s a collection of qualified candidates considered appropriate for future openings in your corporation. These potential employees are finalists for past positions, those you’ve met informally, those whose CVs you’ve vetted, qualified internal employees, and referrals. Maintaining a robust talent pipeline reduces the time it takes to hire, saves money, increases diversity, promotes better employee quality, develops internal talent, provides access to passive candidates, and improves the applicant experience.
How Do You Develop A Talent Pipeline?
The following are the basic steps for developing and maintaining a robust talent pipeline.
- Define critical positions: Prioritize critical shortages, hard-to-fill positions, vital leadership positions, and fast-growing departments (developers, technologists, specialized sales representatives, managers, etc.). Determine the competencies, skills, and backgrounds required.
- Set metrics/goals: Decide how many prospects to add to the talent pipeline monthly, the number of touchpoints per prospect every month, and the maximum period candidates may stay in the pipeline.
- Determine the candidate profile: Outline the qualities of an ideal candidate (years of experience, education, skills, type of experience, industries employed in, competencies, past employers, titles, etc.), aligning your pipeline methods with your vision.
- Be proactive: Set up referral networks, organize events (meetups, tradeshows, etc.), utilize niche job boards, capitalize on social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), and leverage AI recruitment technology.
- Vet and assess candidates: Screen candidates against determined requirements using video interviews, assessment tools, skill testing, and phone screening.
- Consistently nurture the talent pipeline by providing candidates with online development resources, sending regular updates, granting information regarding new services/products, spotlighting employee profiles, inviting prospective employees to company events, and hosting webinars.
How Can a Staffing Agency Help Develop Your Talent Pipeline?
The process of developing and maintaining a talent pipeline is complex and time-consuming. Hiring a recruitment agency simplifies and speeds up the process. A staffing agency:
- Provides experience and expertise: Staffing agencies supply a high level of competency. They’ve operated in various industries, worked with companies of many sizes, are familiar with new technology, have knowledge of technical skills/roles, know market trends, and can identify transferable skills. They determine areas of need, develop a position profile, and quickly find highly qualified candidates.
- Shares market knowledge: Clients have access to a Staffing agency’s knowledge of salary rates, available skill sets, career expectations, current hiring complexities, and market trends.
- Assists in creating a hiring strategy: Agencies help a company decide whether to look for a contract-to-hire or direct-hire candidate, determine how many employees are needed to meet the company’s growth goals, and clarify what traits/skills are appropriate for the position. They provide guidelines and tips on how to interview.
- Possess a large talent pool: Agencies have access to a talent pool of referenced/pre-screened candidates, attract top talent, and constantly expand their professional network.
- Provides extended reach: Staffing agencies help businesses find passive candidates not actively seeking work.
- Saves time by sourcing candidates, posting job openings, verifying information (references, qualifications, education, etc.), scheduling interviews, and reviewing resumes.
- Saves money by bearing the cost of pre-employment testing, background verification, and drug screening.
Need help creating a robust talent pipeline for your company? Want to simplify and speed up your hiring process? Contact Equation Staffing Solutions. We can help.