Many organisations speak of the challenges when it comes to talent. As someone who has been in the recruitment industry for over ten years, I am here to tell you it is not as hard as you think. If you prepare in advance. Often not weeks in advance, often not even months in advance. We are talking about having a talent strategy from day 1 that can evolve with the business throughout growth, twists, and turns. The key to a recruiter’s success is talent pooling, so why should this not also be part of an organisation’s talent strategy.
The future of recruitment is proactive and highly targeted with ready-to-go talent. It requires nurturing the interview process, building talent pools, building experience, and staying ahead of the game to beat out the competition. Gone are the days of just posting an advert and getting responses. Its time consuming and attracts very active candidates when some great talent is out there and not applying!
How to talent pool:
During the interview stage keep the door open when you find talent that does not quite fit what you need at that moment and keep in touch for when the time comes.
Have a seamless interview process, always providing feedback for candidates whether good or bad, making sure the experience is positive and/ or just appearing like you have got it together! This also means that the candidate who has interviewed may have great feedback to tell other prospects.
Take on interns, they may flourish into your next superstar, it may give a team member an opportunity to develop managerial skills or even be a future prospect especially if they are still in education, at the very least they will be a brand ambassador for your company inspiring the next generation of hires for your company… they may also teach you a thing or too.
Keep an eye on targeted communities, and think about where your future hires might be hanging out on socials whether in Facebook communities, local groups etc.
Get LinkedIn savvy… a skillset often overlooked but if you can build a targeted audience on either your LinkedIn profile or the company profile you are basically creating a free way to advertise your jobs. Think of it this way you post about the great incentives and work culture with potentially thousands of people witnessing what it is like to work at XYZ. Then when you post a quick canva with details of a role you will likely get some direct applicants that are more targeted than say if you posted a paid LinkedIn ad!! Tricks of the trade right here…!
Get recommendations from people in the know, whether it be someone in industry, an ex-colleague or even a client. They will know some great talent they have worked with before… if you don’t ask you don’t get!
Think outside the box, I often recruit based on gut feeling and there has not been a one size fits all strategy when it comes to hiring for my own team. I have taken talent from being tagged in social media posts, to training interns, to offering a job to someone who applied for something else, to take people from the industry and even relocating candidates from other regions. My eye is on the ball, and I believe having a combination approach to fill in weaknesses in the team is a strong strategy to go by.
Get a recruiter bestie, someone who understands the business and what you want and can be your eyes and ears on the ground to the talent pool for you. Some people may think recruiters are an expensive option but remember they are experts, they are literally targeting skillsets, personality and are searching for talent day in day out. Usually, they have a good idea of what talent is out there!
A targeted approach to talent pooling will reap the rewards of a strong team in the future saving you money and a lot of headaches!