As every one of us involved in recruitment marketing and talent acquisition knows, it all starts with TALENT. Getting the right people on board is a complex and ongoing challenge. Therefore, building a pipeline of candidates goes a long way toward helping you reach your goals. In this post, we’ll talk about why you need a talent pipeline strategy, what the advantages are and how you go about building and engaging candidates who have opted into your pipeline
1. What is a talent pipeline?
You’ve probably seen the following stat:
Only 25% of the workforce is actively looking at any given time, but 85% is willing to talk.
And you probably know that you need to reach out to both active and passive candidates if you are going to meet your hiring goals. After all, there is a pretty huge number of passive candidates that you could convert into applicants with the right messaging and nurturing. That’s why it is key to build your talent pipeline.
A talent pipeline is a collection of candidates that are engaged and can be easily contacted when relevant roles become available. They could include any of the following:
- Candidates that your team has sourced
- Leads from careers fairs or events
- Unsuccessful applicants that you’d like to re-engage
- People who signed up for your Talent Network
- Individuals from diversity initiatives, executive or corporate searches
- Job seekers who visited your site but left without taking action
- Candidates who were referred by current employees
- Current employees who may be ready for a promotion
