Talent Pools: 5 Ways of Effectively Creating Them

There is no question that building an effective talent pool is key to a business's success. Talent pools help streamline your recruitment strategy and maintain a continued source of top candidates in your pipeline. Simply put, a talent pool is a data bank of information on prospective candidates and past applicants. This pool continuously evolves with your business as do the open positions you recruit for. Proactive recruiters are constantly maintaining and updating their talent pools to ensure top candidates are readily available at any time. Talent pools also help foster relationships with candidates, keep records on previous outreach, and store notes on the individuals. This enables recruiters to quickly and effectively identify the right candidate for new roles at a fraction of the time and resources. Below, we will provide you with five sure-fire tips to help your team build an effective talent pool and up your recruitment game.

Keep Your Talent Pool Up to Date

The aim of creating talent pools is to streamline your recruitment process and simplify your candidate search. Having readily available candidates in your database can give recruiters a massive edge in acquiring top talent. While the size of the talent pool is important, the accuracy of data is just as important. It is essential to ensure that all vital candidate information such as education, skills, experiences are up to date and verified. While it sounds obvious, it is more difficult to maintain an up-to-date talent pool than one would think. Make sure you are consistently cross-referencing information on candidates so that your talent pool stays in line with the organization's future needs.

Leverage Technology in Creating Talent Pools

New recruitment and sourcing technologies have paved the way for modern tools to assist in the recruitment process. This includes managing and collecting candidate data. Leverage these tools to help your team find top candidates, access relevant information, and store profiles with the click of a button.No longer are the manual sourcing days. With new innovations breaking onto the scene, it is now easier than ever for recruiters to build out talent pools, find top candidates, and keep them stored within a database. Many tools can also help in keeping your current talent pool up to date and accurate. Use these tools to help your team efficiently grow and maintain your candidate pool.

Assess and Include Internal Talent Pools

While maintaining a talent pool of external candidates is essential, it is also important to store internal talent pools. This will enable your business to assess internal talent appropriately and identify any skill gaps within the organization. Interviews, performance reviews, and career progression can be valuable insights as new positions open within the company. Current statistics show that 61% of external hires are more likely to get laid off than internal hires. It is essential for in-house recruiters to maintain an internal talent pool to ensure the right talent match for their open roles. Maintaining internal AND external talent pools will give recruiters a holistic overview of potential candidates and ensure the right hire.

Engage Previous Applicants

Recruiters must keep qualified applicants who have engaged with the company in the past readily available within their talent pools. These candidates have already expressed interest and could be a strong hire when the right role opens. Beyond that, it is important to maintain a connection with these candidates even if no open roles are available. This will help as, when the time comes, your company will be top of mind for that individual. Whether it be sporadic outreach, tailored messages, or a simple LinkedIn connection, it is important to ensure you stay top of mind for all candidates within your talent pool. Find effective ways to keep your past candidates engaged, and you will have a strong and responsive talent pipeline for any open position you are recruiting for.

Segment the lists

As a Recruiter, you have a general sense of the roles and positions that you are helping to fill. To help streamline your process when the role comes, focus on segmenting your talent pool based on these specifications. This will enable you to quickly dive into a pool of candidates whose background and experience match that position. With an effectively segmented talent pool, recruiters gain a massive edge in finding the right candidate and ensuring the perfect hire before their competitors.These five tips will help ensure your team has a strong, engaged, and readily available talent pool for all future positions. It is now easier than ever to build and maintain talent pools. Those who are not proactive in this process will fall behind the curve. Make sure to implement these strategies to ensure your team is best equipped to make the perfect talent match. Talk to us now to learn more about the role of talent pools in your organization.