Due to 2020’s unforeseen events and unpredictable outcome, businesses of all sizes and industries are quickly discovering the importance of having a well-crafted talent pipeline. Perhaps you’ve needed to pivot fast and bring on more employees to meet high market demand. Or, instead, you might be in the process of revamping your hiring strategy to leverage top talent once you’re back to business as usual.
No matter where you stand, the first step to setting yourself up for success is to focus on your pipeline, which is defined as the pool of all potential candidates for your company. It’s vital that no matter what your company’s hiring status is today, you continue to engage and nurture your top candidates. Having top talent queued up and ensuring your company is top-of-mind for candidates will make for a much smoother hiring process once you’re back in the game!
After diving into this article, you’ll be fully versed in the benefits of mastering a proactive talent pipeline and tips to guide you along the way:
So, all of the candidates in your pipeline should be unemployed, right? Absolutely not. 90% of global professionals are interested in hearing about new job opportunities, regardless of current employment status! Forgetting to include these folks in your talent pool can be detrimental.
A proactive #talentpipeline will help you fill positions quickly and meet your #recruiting goals! @IQTalent explains how it’s done:Click to TweetA vast candidate pool puts you a step ahead of your competition in the hiring process, while also saving time in actively sourcing and narrowing down the ideal candidate profile to match what you’re looking for. This gives recruiters valuable time to develop a strategic approach to attract and hire key candidates because you’ll already know the ins and outs of their background. If they’re currently employed, you’ll have a better idea of what it will take for this candidate to make a move.
Additionally, strategically filling your pipeline allows the recruiter to have a greater influence on hiring decisions. Using a standard model on which you base hiring decisions can eliminate bias and ensure the recruiter and hiring manager are on the same page. Using standard sourcing practices, many recruiters feel their process is rushed. As a result, they overlook some of the best candidates. Shifting focus to the pipeline model gives hiring managers greater confidence in their hiring decisions; they’re able to use their time to build relationships with each candidate instead of aimlessly cycling through a stale bag of candidates. Even if these candidates aren’t on the job hunt today, they might become your knock-out new hire down the road.
“One of the ways we manage our proactive pipeline is by getting candidates in the door. At IQTalent Partners, we hold Open Houses so we can build relationships with prospective candidates. We've hired people we met at the open house weeks and months later.”
– Chris Murdock, Co-Founder and Chief Sourcing Officer at IQTalent Partners
It’s no secret that every company wants the most qualified talent to work for them. But, focusing on hard skills alone won’t get you there. Even the most impressive talent won’t be successful long-term if they don’t fit in with your culture and values. By getting to know your prospective candidates early on (beyond their resumes), you’re able to gain more in-depth insight into their personalities and whether or not they would vibe with the rest of your team.
By proactively building your pipeline, you’ll end up with a large number of high-quality prospects — hitting both quality and quantity right on the head! And, once you've identified who these candidates are, you’ll have more time to build personal relationships with them and effectively gain their interest. Not to mention, you’ll also have more time to accurately assess them and determine which positions (open or not) best suit them.
So, what’s in it for you? Going the extra mile will save you time and result in higher-performing employees. By adopting a more thorough process, your percentage of “weak hires” will decrease dramatically (50% of new hires fail). Ultimately, the chance of hiring unqualified candidates will no longer be one of your biggest worries.
Once you’ve filtered out poor cultural fits, you’ll be able to target the most talented and fitting candidates for your company. Because you’ve built a relationship, your potential candidates have a stronger chance of wanting to work with your company. Now that those in your pipeline have been exposed to your company beyond your LinkedIn profile or website, they’ll have a detailed understanding of why working at your company is better than working elsewhere.
@IQTalent has all the information you need to build a #talentpipeline filled with top talent waiting for a great opportunity:Click to TweetYour candidate experience should follow the foundations of targeted, account based marketing. You have time to engage in real conversations with candidates, so you should easily be able to determine their unique needs and market your open roles to them by personalizing their offer to match their specific wants and needs. Staying open-minded about everyone’s work style is key!
After all, great candidates know their worth. For them to take your offer seriously, you need to offer them beyond what they expect. This will dramatically increase your offer acceptance rates.
There’s a recurring theme of candidates being rushed into accepting a job offer without having the time to think it through. Does the role make sense for them? Is the pay what they deserve based on their experience and work ethic? A rushed acceptance can result in employees regretting their decisions and ultimately becoming dissatisfied and beginning to look elsewhere. Your pipeline alone won’t resolve this issue. Instead of quickly filling open positions, employers and candidates can make calculated decisions prior to accepting an offer. This is advantageous not only to candidates but also to your current employees as you add to their team.
Between your communication and offer letter, your new hire shouldn’t have any surprises after they start. Transparency between your organization and the candidate will result in a much higher retention rate versus the retention of hires found fresh from an online job board.
You know the importance of building a proactive talent pipeline, so are you ready to start building yours? As long-time recruiting experts, we’re passionate about filling our partners’ pipelines and helping companies build their talented workforce from the ground up. Contact us today to learn more about how IQTalent Partners can help you revolutionize your hiring process.
This article was originally published in 2018. It was updated on April 27, 2020.