How talent pools improve your recruitment processes
Talent pools are a beneficial, proactive approach to talent acquisition. A talent pool is a database of candidate profiles interested in working for your organisation. They can be a limited group with a specific area of expertise, or a broad group capable of performing a variety of tasks.
There are a number of reasons talent pools are becoming more widespread in recruitment marketing strategy.
1. Reducing the cost of recruitment
While talent pools take time to build, if they’re built correctly they can greatly reduce your recruitment costs. Talent pools reduce or eliminate the need to need to advertise. A recent study found that recruitment costs could be reduced by up to 50% when using talent pools.
2. Reducing time to hire
Talent pools save you time, as you’ve already screened, selected and prequalified a group of candidates. Talent pools allow you to quickly fill a role with the right candidate, with minimal effort from hiring managers and less impact on your day-to-day business. Research has found that 50% of organisations using talent pools had reduced their time to hire.
3. Identify quality candidates for the future
Having a qualified talent pool helps you identify future potential candidates before you need a role filled. A high-quality talent pool is one where you are continually connecting with talent and updating them with relevant, engaging information, and continuing to grow it by bringing in new, diverse talent.
Whether you’re looking to speed up the recruitment process, reduce cost or identify skill sets, talent pooling is an excellent solution. At Employment Office, we have built our own talent pools and have seen positive results.
“Since we started treating recruitment as a sales process, we’ve been able to funnel talent into one database, our talent pool. As a result, we’ve reduced our recruitment time and costs while nurturing and developing relationships with candidates.” Tudor Marsden-Huggins, Employment Office Managing Director.
How to create your own talent pools
There are a number of different resources to use and factors to consider when developing your own talent pools. Here’s what you need to keep in mind.
- Collect and manage candidate data: Plan how you will collect and manage candidate information. Will you use an Applicant Tracking System or manually collect data? Great recruitment software gives you the ability to segment talent pools based on skills and experience, and provides a platform to send communications with ease. When communicating with your talent pool, software gives you greater control and accuracy, and is often easier and more effective to use than data on spreadsheets.
- Publish an “Expression of Interest” form: Having an expression of interest form on your careers site is a quick and simple way to capture candidate data, even if you don’t have any current vacancies. It allows both passive and active job seekers to express their interest in working for your organisation.
- Post regular job advertisements: Posting regular, branded recruitment advertisements to stay front of mind for active candidates and will result in a steady stream of applications, who you can add to your talent pool and keep in touch with personalised recruitment marketing content.
- Utilise social media: Social media adds another touch point with potential candidates and enables you to grow your talent pools. Interact with potential employees through social media channels, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Share your expression of interest form and recruitment advertisements to continue to grow your talent pools.
- Implement Google Adwords campaigns: Google Ads don’t just work for regular marketing. It’s great for recruitment marketing too and increasing brand awareness.
Decide how to segment your talent pools, based on your recruitment needs and the resources you have available. You might like to create a large talent pool of all candidates who have applied for role with your organisation (who do not currently work in your organisation) to send general recruitment marketing content to. Alternatively, you might like to create smaller talent pools based on skills, experience or location. You can also establish exclusions, so candidates who were ineligible for your roles, or duplicate profiles, are not included.
Designing a content strategy and communication plan
To get the most from your talent pool, determine how often you want to communicate with candidates.
Depending on your organisation’s needs and if you have the resources and skills in place, you can design a more sophisticated, advanced communication strategy. An engaging content marketing plan keeps potential candidates warm, well-informed and excited about the prospect of working for your organisation.
- Create communication templates: Having branded communication templates in place ensures you’re keeping your communication with candidates consistent and on-brand. For example, you may like to design templates for sharing a job vacancy, or sharing a piece of interesting content.
- Conduct an employer branding project: Establishing your Employee Value Value Propositions (EVPs) makes it easier to design content that promotes your core messaging and connect with your ideal candidates.
- Consider your upcoming recruitment needs: Understanding the roles you need to fill will help you design content in line with the type of talent you need to attract. For example, if you regularly recruit people to join your customer service team, you can incorporate employee profile stories that showcase a “day in the life” of these roles.
- Assign a dedicated content manager: Sending relevant, timely communication takes dedicated work and planning. Regular communication with your talent pool can easily fall off the radar without a dedicated content manager. Assign someone the responsibility of designing your content marketing plan, making updates to your talent pool, and managing any responses you receive from candidates. Do you have a dedicated content specialist or someone in your marketing team with the capacity and skills to execute this strategy? If not, consider outsourcing this responsibility to an external specialist to work with you and support your strategy.
Create a structured process for reviewing applications and communicating with candidates who have submitted an expression of interest form. Set clear expectations from the start; being part of your talent community does not guarantee people a role in your organisation, but is a way to keep in touch and stay up to date with new opportunities.
Talent pools are a proactive recruitment initiative that will help you find great candidates in a shorter time frame, without spending big bucks. You’ll develop better relationships with potential candidates and be able to fill positions as they become available, instead of scrambling to find candidates. Although they take some time to build and develop, the long-term payoff can be priceless.
At Employment Office, we have experienced Recruitment Marketing Specialists and advanced talent pooling software to help you design an effective strategy. Find out more about our talent pooling solution here.
Do you need support building talent pools and designing an engaging content marketing strategy? Schedule a discussion with our Recruitment Advertising Specialists here, call us on 1300 366 573 or email info@employmentoffice.com.au.
