A talent pipeline – a pool of qualified candidates that you may want to hire at some point – should be an integral part of your recruitment strategy. The benefits of a strong pipeline include reducing your time to hire, avoiding the headache of bad hires that may occur when you’re pressured to quickly fill roles, and a better hiring experience for all your candidates, which will help them make a positive impact if and when they join your team.
Of course, your talent pipeline doesn’t fill itself. It takes an ongoing, proactive approach as you develop and nurture long-term relationships with potential hires. Here are three tactics for making this happen. Done well, they work seamlessly together.
- Use social sourcing.
When you think of using social media for recruitment, your first thought may likely be “let’s use LinkedIn.” And you’d be right: it’s a great start. But, you need to extend your reach beyond this traditional business-oriented platform. The key to is to go wherever the talent you want to attract is hanging out.
- Start by creating a persona of your target candidate. Then, you can determine whether you’re more likely to engage with them on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, or another platform. For example, while many people have LinkedIn profiles, they may not visit the site regularly, so your response rate may be low if you limit your reach to this single venue.
- Set objectives and timelines for reaching each targeted candidate. Create engaging pages and accounts for your company, where you can share consistent content. Participate in conversations, share links, and stay in touch. When the time is right, you can segue into meeting people offline.
- Build an employee referral program.
Your current team members are also your best brand ambassadors. Start or continue to build an employee referral program, whereby they are rewarded for recommending your company to like-minded talent. There’s no more credible source as candidates seek information about your business.
- Nearly 80 percent of companies use employee referrals in recruiting. Candidates who enter your pipeline via this route tend to already be familiar with your company and culture, based on their relationships with your current staffers. And, it’s in your employee ambassadors’ best interest to provide high-quality referrals: after all, their reputation is at stake, too. Plus, they will have to work with these individuals once they’re hired.
- Network.
Last bot not least, always be networking. This encompasses every aspect of building both on and offline connections with both active and passive talent. Identify events and platforms, and actively participate in them. Do the same with your website and social media presence, as well as job board postings.
- Networking ties all your career pipeline tactics together: it all comes back to those ever-important relationships, and communicating effectively to keep them strong and vibrant.
For additional guidance and resources to deepen your talent pipeline, contact Accurate Staffing Consultants, Inc., today. Let’s get to know each other, so we lead your successful quest for top talent.