Finding great people with the right skills and cultural fit is, and will continue to be, a challenge in today’s ever-changing workforce. It’s never straightforward and easy, and the game keeps changing in terms of where to find the best talent for your business and how to engage them. Of course, some positions are easier to fill then others. However, when you do find yourself in a situation where you are having to fill a position which requires a very specific skill-set, what do you do? Enter – Talent Pipelining. If you haven’t heard of this term before, let’s break it down.

What is Talent Pipelining?

Talent pipelining is a proactive (as opposed to reactive) recruitment strategy where you are creating a pool of candidates with desired skill-sets who can be contacted when relevant job vacancies arise. This means getting to know who’s out there regardless of whether or not they are looking to make a career change. It’s important to be constantly building and maintaining relationships with those people that you feel have the right skills and experience to potentially join your company in the future. It’s a long-term strategy which will ensure you are engaging with and hiring the best for your organisation.

Some benefits of building a Talent Pipeline:

  • Finding better candidates (some which may not be actively on the job market)
  • Identifying key talent early
  • Time to fill decreases when you do have a vacancy
  • Higher retention rates
  • Competitive edge against other companies hiring for the same role

Where to start

No matter what type of organisation you are, your talent pipeline should include both internal and external candidates. Internal candidates include those who are high performers and looking to further advance their career with you. For external candidates, here are some typical places for you to start connecting and building strong relationships with high potential candidates:

  • Linked In – Join industry groups or other networking groups and engage with those people that have the right skills and experience you are looking for. If you have a company profile page, keep this alive and post regular updates about your business to keep people engaged
  • Networking events – Often industries have key networking events which are crucial for you to attend and not only build awareness of your business, but also connect with any future talent
  • Employee referrals – leverage off your existing contacts. You could introduce an employee referral program or it could be as simple as having regular catch ups with your team and reminding them to refer any great potential talent that they feel could be suitable for the organisation
  • E-recruitment system – If you do have an in-house e-recruitment system, you can set up an expression of interest advert that sits on your recruitment website permanently, catching any people who are keen to work with you. Constantly communicate and engage with this pool of candidates and you may just find some great potentials for future roles

It’s important to remember that building a talent pipeline takes time and is something you should be constantly doing in the background. Keep track of great people you meet (online or in person), engage with them regularly so that they don’t forget about you and provide them with good reasons for wanting to join your business. Once you can build this into your long-term strategy, you will start to have some key wins in recruitment.

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