Talent Pool: A Strategy In Its Own Right

Let’s start this post by stating the obvious: Every single company out there wants top-tier talent. But when you are searching for suitable candidates and hiring the perfect fit, don’t miss out on building a talent pool.

What is a Talent Pool? 

Preparing your company for the road ahead can be intimidating with so many competitors and limited talent to hire. With a talent pool, you can change the scenario.

A talent pool is a group of qualified candidates who can be your future hires. It is that part of your recruitment strategy that focuses on filling positions that don’t presently exist. It prepares talent acquisition professionals for demand by adopting proactive recruitment instead of reactive. 

Companies that have one, have an organized pipeline of talented, qualified candidates that can be their future employees. 

However, merely creating a talent pool doesn’t make it effective. Nurturing and maintaining interactions within the talent community and building deeper connections for improved employer value proposition is equally essential.

Why Do You Need to Build a Talent Pool? 

One of the most frequent complaints we hear from our clients is the lack of talent they find while recruiting. But that’s not the only scenario they encounter. There are times when they find more than one qualified candidate for a job role. Having a talent pool can help make the right decisions in both scenarios.

Imagine every time you had a job opportunity; you can save the details of qualified, top-talent candidates who are really interested in working with your company; it can also take the load off your talent acquisition team in several ways. 

Here’s why you need to build a talent pool and elevate your talent acquisition strategy:

How to Build a Talent Pool? 

Track Your Talent Inventory 

This is the cornerstone to successful talent pool building. Begin by mapping the talent that you already have and what you may need in the future (both short-and-long-term). Assess the skillset of your current employees and how you can add to it as you advance. However, as you track and map your talent inventory, leave enough room for flexibility. 

Sourcing Talent 

Next comes the vital step of finding the right candidate. To create an effective and proactive talent pool, ensure that you are looking for candidates in the right place. 

A talent pool in itself will not be helpful unless it is updated. Stagnant talent pools are worse than not having them in the first place. If you are not keeping your it up-to-date with candidates’ skills, availability, and experience, you are better off without a talent pool. That’s because wrong candidate information may do more harm than good. 

So, as you consider investing in a talent pool, aim for a vibrant community that’s not static and pushes your company toward its long-term goals.

Any talent that doesn’t make it to your hired list needs active engagement to add value. Today's world is so interconnected that you can’t afford to lose great talent to your competitors. Furthermore, it is crucial to create a positive candidate experience to strengthen your employer brand. And constant, healthy interactions with potential talent can help you do that. 

Building a Talent Pool: Best Practices 

Improve your recruiting flow with talent pools built around these best practices:

Inform Them Before You Include Them

When it comes to building a talent community, make sure that you inform the rejected but talented candidates that you may consider them for future positions at your company. In some countries, it may be a legal obligation. But even if it’s not, mentioning that you are interested in hiring them should a suitable opportunity arrives is an excellent way to build rapport.

Don’t Welcome Everyone

Don’t confuse a talent pool with a talent database. While the former includes information on just the top talent, the latter includes it all. Your talent pool, therefore, should only comprise the top-tier candidates to help you wield its power. 

Use Technology

The world of HR tech has been a wonder for hiring professionals. By employing the right technology, you can easily segment your talent with techniques like recruitment segmentation. And the right tools can also help you better engage and nurture different talent types by automating interactions. 

So, go ahead and make your talent pools more effective and relevant by using technology to manage your talent.

Get Help to Build a Vibrant Talent Pool

Let’s face it: not all companies can build and grow a vibrant talent pool without the right support. If you find yourself in a similar situation, let Wiggli be your friend. With our total talent management system, we can help you find the cream of the crop and include them in your list. 

How do we do that? Our exclusive nomenclature based on predefined skills rather than tags enables our expert team to use the same terms without losing top-tier talent in the crowd. Our system also allows us to incorporate a structure that doesn’t move with access to the candidates’ resumes.

Additionally, our pools work with unique identifiers so that you get talent without duplicates. At Wiggli, we help companies create stronger, successful talent pools that are not passing fancies. 

Ready to Drop That Archaic Recruitment Process?

Today’s candidates live in an agile recruitment world where the entire globe is their workplace. To win top talent, drop the archaic recruitment process with proactive recruitment. 

Connect with us, and we will help you implement a Total Talent Management strategy so that you don’t lose out on the best talent. Ever.

Total Talent Management 101

There are many ways to see success in the employment world. Recruiting highly-qualified and skilled workers is one of them. But with the changing paradigm where flexible working is increasingly holding prominence, the new normal is contingent workforce management (CWM). More importantly, it’s the corporate world’s gateway to top-tier talent. How? Well, thanks to the everlasting impact of technology on modern business, the workforce is no longer confined to a company’s walls. And as reported in The State of Contingent Workforce Management 2018 by Ardent Partners, 40 percent of the total global workforce comprises the gig economy. It includes non-permanent workers like contingent workers, contractors, and freelancers. This workforce agility has led to the birth of the total talent management (TTM) strategy. Besides being a driving factor of a company’s talent acquisition (TA) strategy, this approach also covers the use of innovative hiring techniques, leading the recruitment landscape towards a total talent future.

Total talent management is all about redefining the workforce solutions industry by integrating permanent and contingent talent. It transcends the barriers between permanent and non-permanent workers – creating an all-inclusive approach to managing talent. However, another important (and often overlooked) component of this strategy is non-human talent such as software, bots, robots, and automation.

What is Total Talent Management?

In the absence of total talent management, steering business growth without contingent workers and non-human talent was a missed opportunity. But with the recent prominence of this concept across the world, organisations are progressively valuing talent of all types disregarding their employment status and existence. 

So, while defining total talent management, let’s consider it a critical driver of complete growth. With all, for all.

5 Ways Total Talent Management Fills the Growth Gap

Optimising a workforce ecosystem has a lot to do with the right deployment of talent. With total talent management, companies can break the silos and experience multiple benefits. Before we dive into them, let’s discuss numbers.

A Randstad Sourceright report titled 2021 Talent Trends found 97 percent of companies surveyed with a total talent approach were “extremely” or “very satisfied” with the model. At the same time, 77 percent say that their talent strategies are now more focused on workforce agility than ever before.

Source: Randstad Sourceright

Total talent management, thus, ensures that your business — and everyone involved — grows.

Now, let’s dig deeper and discuss the various benefits this model offers.

1) Brings Cost Savings

By leveraging all the talent, a total talent management approach helps streamline operations and reduce costs. Having this approach means you can optimise the supply and demand of human capital, standardise your talent operations, and ultimately, achieve economies of scale. Companies can also significantly reduce the investment in permanent staff with this model. 

The outcome? 

A better ROI with full utilisation of the top talent in the industry.

2) Translates Into Higher Productivity & Performance

Imagine easy access to top-tier talent. This is what total talent management makes possible. This approach ensures that your business can utilise talent more efficiently through proper talent acquisition and allocation. Plus, it takes the load off the permanent hires’ shoulders when you want to scale your business operations. 

As highlighted in the External Workforce Insights 2018 by SAP Fieldglass and Oxford Economics, 62% of executives say their external workforce enables them to improve the company’s overall financial performance.

Therefore, by making space for the external workforce, total talent management can significantly improve business performance. Perhaps, that’s the reason why more and more companies are spending money on the external workforce. That’s what this illustration from the study by SAP Fieldglass and Oxford Economics tells us.

Source: SAP Fieldglass & Oxford Economics

In fact, if implemented right, this model can help your company meet dynamic business needs without compromising quality and expertise.

3) Prevent Skills Shortage

According to the SHRM Skills Gap 2019 report, 83 percent of respondents had trouble recruiting suitable candidates in the past 12 months. 

Total talent management helps you avoid the pitfalls of a skills shortage. It enables you to make quick and adequate changes to your workforce ecosystem by helping you gauge the skill availability across your company. 

Thus, filling the talent gaps becomes possible when you have a total talent management model in place.

4) Strengthens Your Employer Brand

Embracing the non-traditional workforce strengthens the employer brand of an organisation. By declaring to the world that your company has proudly integrated both permanent and contingent workforce, you portray your business as an employer of choice. Your company’s values towards a modern work approach are reflected, and it gives you a competitive edge in attracting and retaining top talent. 

5) Total Talent Management Makes HR More Strategic

The HR function in any organisation has long been recognised as a key success factor.

By focusing on an integrated talent approach, total talent management leads to strategic talent decision-making. It also helps to cut the inefficiency that bad hiring practices and processes often bring in tow. 

With total talent management, the contingent workforce no longer remains a procurement function. It is prioritised and cherished just like the permanent workforce.

This workforce planning and faster talent delivery have made HR more strategic through total talent management than otherwise.

Achieving Total Talent Management: Spotlight on Implementation

Winning with your talent pool is easy. You just need to push your talent management. And at Wiggli, we help you do that by linking you with a total talent supply chain framework. We’ve helped several companies scale their operations globally, with total talent management acting as a catalyst.

Here are a few best practices to prepare your talent strategies despite the growing focus on corporate belt-tightening:

1) Tap into the Power of Technology

Although technology seems to be ubiquitous in any modern business, there’s still a long way to go when it comes to total talent management. Backed by analytics, technology can help you harness talent like never before. 

Begin by investing in cloud-based technology to utilise workforce data and find loopholes in your current talent strategy. Also, consider using AI-enabled tools to streamline talent acquisition and management. With machine learning serving as your aide, you can also make the application process for permanent and contingent workers pretty straightforward. 

2) Build a Talent Network

Cultivate a pool of interested leads through a talent network. Apart from helping you deploy a direct-sourcing strategy, it’s also beneficial in creating a community of independent talent. A talent network works great in fetching data about candidates’ interests and skills while building a database of talent that you can count on at any time in the future. 

Whereas for the candidates, it’s an excellent way to receive ongoing communication about new jobs, projects, and events. In short, it’s a win-win!

Check out The Bloomberg Talent Community for some inspiration on how a simple talent network could be a great start to creating a talent community.

3) Frame a Special Plan For Contingent Talent 

Talent leaders need to look beyond the traditional approach of hiring to make total talent management work. Besides opening every possible sourcing channel, companies need to be available to contingent workers in as many ways as possible. 

Be there on popular social media networking sites, leverage online forums, create a compelling website, and do all you can to identify, attract, engage, and hire a contingent workforce. And make it a continuous process.

4) Redefine Your Company Culture

Remember, total talent management doesn’t end at hiring. It extends beyond that. Companies need to cultivate a strong work culture —inclusive of both permanent and contingent workers— to make it a success. That’s because a company’s culture has a direct impact on workforce productivity and engagement.

Traditional corporate culture often tends to skip its focus from contingent workforce onboarding. Top management and HR leaders must redefine the company culture and incorporate all talent types into the company. 

5) Showcase Your Employer Brand

Adding to the above point, HR leaders need to build a community representing the employer brand. This helps all workforces understand how a company delivers value across the talent supply chain, including different workgroups.

See what Dotdash (formerly About.com) does here with the company’s “Careers” webpage. Besides adding a compelling statement of how they are looking for like-minded people to be a part of their team, they have special job sections for the contingent workforce, including interns, contractors, and freelancers.

Managing Total Talent with Wiggli

As HR leaders worldwide look for ways to curb talent shortages, Wiggli helps them lean on total talent. Let’s help you find, attract, and retain talent throughout your recruitment and hiring funnel. 

Be a part of our total talent management revolution and let every talent count.

ATS Software: The Ultimate Recruiting Tool

In the realm of talent acquisition, the process of recruiting new team members can be a formidable undertaking that consumes considerable time and resources. If you've been in charge of recruiting in the past, you're probably familiar with the challenges that come with it... The arduous tasks of posting job openings on various platforms, sifting through countless CVs, and managing candidate applications often prove monotonous and time-consuming, particularly when the process isn't automated. Thankfully, a transformative technological solution has emerged to alleviate these challenges: Applicant Tracking System (ATS) software, a tool proven to make recruiting easier.

The remarkable influence of ATS software is underscored by a study conducted by Capterra, an American company, which revealed that a staggering 75% of recruiters and talent acquisition managers use an ATS. Moreover, an impressive 94% of these professionals firmly believe that this software has had a positive impact on their recruitment processes.

This article explains in detail what is ATS software and how its utilization can significantly enhance the ease and effectiveness of your recruitment process.

What is ATS software?

The acronym ATS stands for Applicant Tracking System. It is software built to manage and streamline the application process also referred to as the "recruiting software."

This sophisticated computer program serves a dual purpose: empowering recruiters to organize successful recruitment campaigns while monitoring the progress of each stage in the process.

ATS software simplifies the task of selecting the most qualified individuals, by optimizing candidate searches.

It, simply, handles everything from publishing job posts to onboarding your new recruit; even automates certain time-consuming tasks. It's the go-to tool for successful recruitment!

There are two types of ATS software:

  1. Locally installed ATS: This variant is accessible through any connection to an organization's internal server.
  2. SaaS (Service as a Software) ATS: This cloud-based solution provides convenient accessibility from anywhere with an internet connection.

Most ATS software solutions operate under the SaaS model given the ease of access and versatility that come with it. Many of these solutions also offer mobile applications for smartphones and tablets, along with simplified update processes, further enhancing user experience.

Key Features of ATS Software

While each ATS solution may possess unique features, most share a core set of functionalities.

These include:

Moreover, many ATS solutions offer integrations with other digital services, such as messaging platforms, job boards, and electronic signature tools, amplifying efficiency and productivity throughout the day.

The Recruiter’s Tool for Productivity and Efficiency

An ATS represents far more than a mere CV management system. It serves as a steadfast companion, offering support at every stage of the recruitment process, and enhancing the overall performance.

Notable advantages of incorporating an ATS tool for recruitment include:

1) Optimized Recruitment

ATS will help you save time, by centralizing where and how you track your recruitment!

With just a few clicks, you can share job postings effortlessly across multiple platforms, eliminating the need for manual duplication.

Furthermore, ATS software simplifies candidate sourcing by presenting recruiters with top-tier profiles that align closely with their specific selection criteria. It can be configured to align with an organization's unique internal recruiting processes, placing technology at the service of the recruiter rather than vice versa.

To ensure that you never miss another perfect match, the sourcing platform Wiggli uses a targeted algorithm to pre-qualify the most competent candidates for your job openings.

2) A Strengthened Employer Brand

One of the most frustrating experiences for candidates is not receiving a response after submitting an application. While it is a common oversight, it can significantly impact a company's image.

72% of individuals who have had a poor candidate experience share it either online or through word-of-mouth, according to an infographic created by LaSuperAgence.

With ATS software's guaranteed and detailed status tracking, recruiters can ensure that every candidate is promptly informed of their application status.

This level of communication not only provides a positive candidate experience but also enhances the company's employer brand. Candidates who feel valued and informed are more likely to hold a positive perception of the organization. They will be more inclined to share their positive experiences with others.

It's a virtuous cycle of reputation enhancement.

3) Enhanced Decision-Making Processes

Recruiting often involves multiple stakeholders within a company. At times, it can be difficult to gather everyone's opinions and come to a decision. 

This is where ATS comes into play as a collaborative tool that facilitates communication among all parties in the recruitment process.

With ATS software, tracking and managing applications on an individual basis becomes effortless. Recruiters are better equipped to make decisions and the risk of information loss decreases.

4) Simplified Personal Data Management

In the era of data privacy regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), recruiting companies face increased scrutiny regarding how candidate data is managed.

ATS software provides robust data security measures, ensuring secure user access to sensitive information while centralizing its storage and management in a single location.

This streamlined approach not only enhances practicality but also ensures compliance with data protection regulations.

ATS Solutions: Tailored Software for Every Organization

Once considered exclusive to large corporations and recruiting agencies, ATS solutions now cater to businesses of all sizes.

Most recruiting software plans charge a tailored fee depending on the number of users and the features you choose. This means you only pay for what you use! Regardless of your company's scale, a suitable ATS solution exists to address your recruitment challenges.

In summary, ATS software represents an essential tool for anyone involved in the recruitment process. By cutting down on time spent doing non-value-added administrative tasks, recruiters can focus on their core responsibilities.

Incorporating ATS programs along with successful recruiting campaigns can provide your company with a substantial competitive advantage.

Together, ATS programs and recruiting are a tried-and-true, winning pair in business!

10 Recruiting Tips for Hard-To-Fill Roles

We no longer live in an era where finding talent is easy. The days of posting a job, sifting through the applications, and making a quick hiring decision are long gone. Today, you can't just hope to hire the best talent. You get to work for it. And work hard. That's why we've got your back with some recruiting tips.

With the changing dynamics in the recruitment industry, the time to level up your recruitment plan is now. After all, recruiting employees is no cinch. In an era where everyone wants to hire the right candidates for their jobs, the competition in the HR world is fiercer than ever. When the going is already tough, how to find the perfect fit for some of the most challenging positions out there? 

In this article, we will share some useful tips to find the ideal candidate for hard-to-fill positions. But first, let's understand why are some roles tough to fill as compared to others.

Why are Some Roles Hard to Fill?

If you're serious about finding the right talent for your job, chances are you are keen to learn what makes a position difficult to fill. We can help you scratch the surface with some recruiting tips and insights sourced from the top industry research reports. 

Here are some common reasons why certain roles are difficult to fill:

While the reasons why a job can get hard to fill may be many, you can always turn the tables. All you need is the right knowledge. Read on to find out how you can hire top talent for the most difficult roles to fill. 

10 Recruiting Tips for Hard-To-Fill Roles 

Today's world offers an endless supply of talent, yet many HR professionals are still struggling to take advantage of that talent. It's time to think beyond the standard recruitment practices and start using the following recruiting tips to attract talent for hard-to-fill roles.

Here's what you can do to turn your recruitment challenges into opportunities: 

Find Loopholes To Eliminate Friction

At times your existing hiring process needs a careful review to find loopholes that may make hiring difficult for some roles. It could be a longer-than-usual waiting in between interview rounds. Or lack of the right information for the candidates. Collectively, these small loopholes make the job hiring a lot less smooth than it should be. So, steamroll hiring bottlenecks and expedite your recruitment process by giving it a major overhaul.

Create A Strategy

Once you have eliminated friction from your existing recruitment process, it's time for a revival. Create a strategic recruitment plan that focuses on your hiring goals. From the right job-posting platforms and active talent pipelines to the tools that make recruitment faster and more straightforward, there are several things you need to consider while finalizing a recruitment strategy. 

Build Your Social Media Presence

Armed with social media, organizations can hire people best suited for tough jobs. For example, by having a presence on platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram, and staying relevant with interesting job promotions on all these channels, you can attract and network with prospective candidates. Highlight your company's strengths on all these platforms and keep track of the key metrics that tell what works and what doesn't to improve candidate engagement

Need some inspiration to build your social media presence? What Accenture does here is solid gold. 

Check Accenture’s different social media profiles to find out why it’s the perfect example of impressive employer branding.

Focus On The Job Description

A job description is one of the most critical elements of a successful recruitment process. To ensure that potential candidates don't scroll past your job content, consider these recruiting tips in your description:

  1. Make it compelling
  2. Work with the hiring manager to understand the job's critical requirements, the experience, qualifications needed, and the benefits offered
  3. Use positive language in the description 
  4. Show the prospective candidates why your company is the employer of choice by including links to your social media pages

Lean Into Employee Referrals

Give your hiring process a positive push with employee referrals. By requesting your employees for candidate recommendations, you get an additional (and much-needed) tool to recruit for hard-to-fill roles. Thus, make employee referral campaigns a part of your recruitment strategy and nurture your connection with your employees. 

By making your employees your hiring buddies, you can quickly scale up your teams and bring in more qualified leads for potential employees. And it's a cost-saving tool too. Imagine not having to pay external recruiters to find the right fit for a job! Wonderful, isn’t it?

Elevate Your Employer Brand

Employees today need more than fat paychecks and lavish perks. They seek a culture that aligns with their values, lifestyles, and long-term goals. And as a brand, you ought to give it to them. 

Create a positive employer brand with growth and development opportunities, excellent online presence, social responsibility, and sustainability initiatives, and you are sure to attract candidates for those otherwise hard-to-fill roles. 

That's because when you work towards standing out in the recruitment landscape, you deliver impressions that you care for your existing and future workforce. And that, there, is a lead magnet for top talent.

Also, don't forget the importance of positive communication throughout the recruitment process. Each interaction that you make with a candidate should leave them with a positive outlook toward your brand, no matter the hiring decision.

Remember, candidates these days have the power of social media to bring any negative aspect of your organization into focus. And that's the last thing you would want while building a strong employer image to hire for hard-to-fill positions.

See how leading customer data platform Segment has built a strong employer brand with content that shows why it is a great place to work. 

Leverage Internal Mobility

Sometimes when hiring goes awry, it's time to pump the brakes and stop wandering. You may need to look within the organization to find what you have been searching in the outside world. 

When you take the internal hiring route, you find resources that are already well-acquainted with your corporate culture and the way your business works. 

Training and upskilling existing employees and preparing them to step up the ladder by taking up hard-to-fill roles is an efficient cornerstone for talent succession as well. 

Go For Interim Staffing

If internal hiring isn't working for you and finding the right candidate through external recruitment practices seems like a far cry, try interim staffing. One of the best reasons to go for temporary staffing is that it keeps the work going on till you find the ideal permanent employee for the role. It's also a fantastic tactic to test the waters and judge a candidate's caliber before making them permanent. 

Hiring a skilled interim employee is also an excellent decision when it comes to training new or existing employees so that they can take up that hard-to-fill role with greater confidence, knowledge, and skills.

Extend Your Talent Circles

Every company wants to win the war for talent. But only a few care to move beyond the traditional recruitment channels and extend their talent circles to achieve that goal. 

Build a constant pipeline of talent by exploring networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook. Dig into web groups, forums, and related sources to find talent. 

Also, consider recruiting fresh talent to make the most of their out of box thinking and new ways of handling tough jobs. 

Analyse, Tweak, and Persist

While strategic thinking and branding can help your brand draw talent for hard-to-fill jobs, there's no substitute for continuous improvement. Monitor your process regularly to find bottlenecks and modify your strategy as per the changing scenarios. 

As Lawrence Bossidy said, "Nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day, you bet on people, not on strategies." 

Examine the changes needed, make them, and keep at it. It's the roadmap to setting benchmarks with realistic compensations and perks. And that’s what will take you toward the employees you need for hard-to-fill roles.

Build Your Talent Team Like a Pro 

The takeaway from all these recruiting tips? HR people need to go the extra mile to recruit for those hard-to-fill roles. After all, these are hard-to-fill jobs! So, you need to do more than you usually do to achieve hiring success with them.

Dive deeper into your processes to create a winning recruitment strategy for filling the most challenging jobs. Think creatively. Network more. Focus on building a brand. And leverage industry insights to hire like a pro. 

Feel free to reach out to Wiggli for an aide that can help you through the hiring process from start to finish and set yourself up for recruitment success.

Happy hiring!

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