Here’s a familiar scenario. You’ve advertisedadvertized a vacant role. In just a few days, it’s gained traction on various online job boards. There are numerous applications to be pre-screened, but only a select few will make the first cut. Through the process, you’ve built up a pool of good, strong candidates who aren’t quite right for this particular role. Which begs the question – what do you do with this invaluable candidate pool and how can you put it to good use in the future?
If you haven’t already, it’s time to implement a talent funnel. A talent funnel is a continuously evolving pipeline of candidates that allows you to hire efficiently when the need arises.
Defining a ‘talent funnel’
Just like a sales funnel where prospective customers are moved down the path to purchase, a talent funnel (or ‘recruitment funnel’) is the journey of the candidate as they move from their first point of contact with an organisationorganization to becoming an employee and advocate. When utiliseutilize correctly, a talent funnel can be a lifeline for recruiters. A well-designed (and well-maintained) talent funnel can expedite the hiring process – allowing recruiters to identify and reach out to top talent quickly.
Throughout the entire recruitment process, it’s imperative to have a sound Recruitment Management System (RMS) in place. This lets you keep a repository of candidate resumes, applications and profiles, with flags and notes about each candidate. A good RMS will give you an overview of people’s skills and what roles they can potentially step into.
To ensure your talent pool remains current and valuable, it’s important to stay in touch with prospective candidates. Here are three ways to keep in touch with people.
1. Make the ‘silver medalist’ phone call
The ‘I’m sorry you weren’t successful in this role’ call is one most recruiters dread making. At the same time, it presents an opportunity to highlight the silver medalist candidate’s skills, attitude and enthusiasm for the role – great reasons to advise them why you’ll keep them in mind for future roles within your organisationorganization. Says Gareth Brannigan, Talent Acquisition Consultant at PageUp, “It pays to keep strong candidates in a talent pool. It means when a relevant role comes up, it’s easy to pick up the phone and reach out directly to them. We already know their skill set and cultural fit, which means they don’t need to go through the entire process all over again.”
“It pays to keep strong candidates in a talent pool. It means when a relevant role comes up, it’s easy to pick up the phone and reach out directly to them.”
2. Be proactive and reach out
There are no hard and fast rules about reaching out to candidates (provided they have given you permission to do so). It doesn’t hurt to give them a call, or send them an email to see where they’re at in their job search. Even if they’ve found a new role and not ready to jump ship now, they might be in the next 12 months.
3. Implement a continuous pipelining strategy
Equally important is engaging candidates with your organisationorganization. This can be done by providing past candidates with updates about your wins, innovations and thought leadership: all things that provide an insight into the culture of your organisationorganization. “We run candidate email communications every quarter at PageUp. These include tech blogs, articles on emerging trends in HR tech, and even our own PageUp Hackathons, so we can make people aware of the technological developments we’re implementing. That way, we keep potential candidates continually interested in our brand, culture and offering,” says Brannigan.
“Equally important is engaging candidates with your organisationorganization. This can be done by providing past candidates with updates about your wins, innovations and thought leadership: all things that provide an insight into the culture of your organisationorganization.”
Having a good Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) system to manage all of the above adds efficiencies to the process. PageUp research found organisationsorganizations that use effective CRM and proactive sourcing have an offer acceptance rate of 98% compared to the industry average of 89%.
With so many great candidates out there, it’s advantageous for your organisationorganization to build a talent pool and utiliseutilize a number of strategies to keep in touch with silver medalist candidates. They were narrowed down as a finalist for a reason and soon enough they will be ready to earn that gold.
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