3 Reasons Why you Need to Build Talent Pools

Recruitment is a lengthy process, don’t be fooled, talent acquisition is no easy task. It’s crucial the right hiring decision is made because hiring the wrong candidate promotes unproductively, inefficiency, tensions within the workplace culture and loss of business momentum. 

How many roles do you hire for at once? Depending on the size of the business, and the retention rate, you may have anywhere between 1-15 jobs listed at once. Regardless of the precise number, in all situations your talent pools will warrant a superior recruitment process. Why? Let me show you.

Reason #1: Invest Smarter

Let’s consider this situation: 

Whilst recruiting for a particular role you screen a candidate (or multiple candidates) who would be the perfect cultural fit for your company, and based on their hard skills have great potential, but just aren’t quite right for the position. 

PAUSE.

Ever heard of the famous saying “Time is Money”?. Benjamin Franklin was really on the money here. Excuse my poor pun but what I’m trying to imprint is that your time is valuable. Every minute a recruiter spends sourcing or screening candidates is money out of the company’s pocket. This is why you need to invest your time wisely, and make sure your efforts aren’t going to waste! Implement strategies to increase efficiencies.

RESUME. 

Although they might not be the perfect candidate for this current position they might be the perfect fit for a future position! You have a choice, a) you forget about them because they’re not suitable for the position listed, or b) you’ve already reviewed their experience & skills and have an understanding of their personality so you save their details for future use. 

If you choose option a, the time you invested into the candidate is money wasted. If you choose option b, you grow your talent pool that is created and built by you based on your standards and notes. By doing so you empower yourself with quick accessibility to quality candidates whom you’ll have a pre-existing relationship with.

When creating talent pools you segment your candidates based on traits that stood out to you. For example, you may mark a candidate profile with: #marketing #culturalfit #finance #4yrsexperience and so on. This means you can filter your talent pools based on segments you create! Did someone say efficiency? 

Reason #2: Counteract Wrong Timing 

Recruiting is like speed dating, you only briefly get to know the person and then you move onto the next. You never really unravel who that person is and your insights, at first, are minimal (unless you use video interviews). 

In saying this, at some point you’ll meet the one. You’ll meet someone who is PERFECT for your company. I’m talking flat out perfect- instant connection, huge potential and completely coachable. HOWEVER, there’s a problem! Either a) you’re not hiring at that specific time, b) you don’t have the right position for them or c) they’re stuck in a commitment and can’t leave. Whatever the reason is, it’s the wrong time. 

Timing is everything in relationships and business. Timing is superior to any other influence, and this is where recruitment gets tricky! Sometimes the universe doesn’t align and you have to wait…perhaps for a new moon (you’ll have to excuse me, I’m an Aquarius). If you hire someone at the wrong time things can very easily (and quickly) turn sour- so you must be careful!

Okay, so let’s say you’ve met the perfect person for your company, but the timing is off- that’s fine! Don’t freak out. We have a plan! 

Save them to your talent pool for future use. Make digital notes on their profile, put a reminder in your calendar or phone, and come back to them! The best thing about time? It’s never ending! 

You’ll want to save their candidate profile to your database with tags similar to: #perfect or #wrongtiming, so you can easily pull up their profile. 

Make it a habit to review your #wrongtiming segment once a week (fortnight, month) to review the current situation and reach out when seems appropriate. By keeping their details handy you ensure you’re wiser with your time, and ensure when the right time comes by you’re completely prepared. 

Reason #3: Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency!

Through developing your talent pools you promote talent on tap. At any given time you have an entire database of potential new hires that a) have already been screened, b) you have insights about, and c) are familiar with you and your company. 

This means your time-to-hire is quicker, and you’re selecting candidates from a talent pool that is refined based on quality and qualifications. 

Not only does this reduce the time-to-hire, but it also reduces the money you spend on advertising job listings! Therefore, talent pools increase recruitment efficiencies and reduce recruitment costs…

You could be working ten times harder than your competitors, putting in extra hours and be on top of all your work…but this doesn’t guarantee success and progression. Why? Although you’re working harder they might be working smarter! 

It’s not only about the work you put in, it’s about your strategy and processes. If your process is timely and outdated, you won’t see the same results as someone who’s process utilises resources to be efficient and modernised. Just imagine the outcomes your business would see if your process optimised efficiencies and you maintained your standard of work…  

For this reason, it’s important to implement efficiencies in every process, to constantly reconsider your position and your current activities, and question whether there’s a better way to do things.

Through using talent pools, the money you spend on advertising is reduced, and the time you spend on recruitment is better invested… since time is money… think about how much money is actually saved! HUGE. Big potential, especially for fast growing companies, companies with specific roles, or companies that hire regularly or have a low retention rate. 

Now that you know the THREE reasons to develop talent pools, let me ask you this… 

Big question: 

Talent pools are embedded into your recruitment software and require no additional time or resources. So, what do you have to lose? Why aren’t you creating your own database? What’s stopping you? 

Ponder these questions, consider your current stance and brainstorm what would happen if you did things differently.

In a world that’s so fast paced, and with the workforce changing drastically with no warning, you use the resources available to you to amplify your efforts and hard work.