Talent pools – what are they and how do you create them?

Companies that are geared to rapid, thoughtful development do everything they can to ensure that they have the best specialists within their structure. Unfortunately, they do not usually come to a company on their own and ask to be hired. They need to be found in a certain way and then convinced that they should change their current employer. To do this, it is worth using talent pools.

In this article you will learn:

• What are talent pools?
• How do I create a talent pool?
• What tools are used to create talent pools?
• Why is it worth creating a talent pool?

Talent pools – definition

A talent pool, or talent database, is a collection of data on the best potential candidates for a given position. It is a kind of repository of information about people who are valuable and have qualities that meet the expectations of a company. It is therefore worth having their contact details – it will give you the opportunity to contact them in the future.

A talent pool is a database that collects information on the professionals who would potentially be best suited for particular positions within a company.

Definition of talent pool

Professionals from HR department consider a talent pool to be one of the most effective recruitment tools. Such a database can include information such as:

• personal data,
• employment status,
• the candidate’s skills and experience,
• the candidate’s degree of fit with the organisation,
• the candidate’s progress in various recruitments.

In other words, a talent pool is a complete picture of the competences of potential candidates and their career history. Interestingly, such a pool is often created thanks to the initiative of the interested parties themselves, who express their willingness to join the talent pool.

Creating a talent pool

Creating a talent pool will enable you to build relationships with potential candidates and attract valuable employees. The most important step is to create an attractive mechanism to encourage candidates to join the talent pool. How do you create a talent pool?

Inform your audience

Interested candidates should know that your company is creating a candidate pool. Inform your audience of this fact, for example by creating a Careers tab on your website. Publishing information on the Careers subpage that encourages people to join is extremely important. This is because it enables interested persons to submit their CVs even if there are currently no open positions for them. This ensures that the company is open to new talent and builds long-term relations with candidates.

Manage your data

Proper management of candidate data in the talent pool is essential. It gives you the ability to effectively search and analyse profiles, matching their skills and experience to the company’s current and future needs. It is also important to ensure compliance with data protection regulations and to obtain candidates’ consent to store their data. Ensure that candidate profiles are secure within your organisation.

Encourage candidates

It is very unlikely that candidates will be interested in your company because of fruit Thursdays or team-building events held once a year. They need something completely different. Encourage them to join your talent pool by underwriting future job offers or by showing them employee development at your company.

Take care of relationships

Remember that building a talent pool requires constant nurturing of relationships. Regular contact, sending updates on company or industry developments and maintaining an active dialogue with candidates should be a priority. Ensure that you build trust and maintain interest in your company, and you’ll have a real pool of professionals in your CV database.

Tools used when creating talent pools

Simply posting jobs may not give you the results you want. You may find that your ad is answered by people who do not even meet half of the requirements. The labour market is changing at an astonishing rate from year to year – to the employee’s advantage, of course. A robust talent pool therefore requires you to use proven tools. Here are some of them:

• A careers tab on the company website – such a tab is a must when building a talent pool. It should be in a prominent place and created so that applying is easy. Include any benefits of working for your organisation in the content that will be included in your tab.
• Contact form – if you want to build your talent pool efficiently, then make sure you also have a simple and visually pleasing contact form. This will work well for companies that don’t want to waste time going through CVs but want clear information about the candidate.
• LinkedIn – this is where you can find the profile of a candidate who meets your requirements. So make sure your brand is visible on LinkedIn and encourage users to join your talent pool. The platform is at the forefront of quality employment sources^[1].

Benefits of creating talent pools

Wondering if it’s worth investing the time and sometimes financial resources and creating a talent pool? Talent pools really do offer many benefits. You only need to discover them to enrich the staff recruitment process. Here are the biggest benefits offered by a talent pool:

• no need to publish a job advertisement,
• increased chance of attracting the best candidate,
• saving time and money that would have been invested in recruitment,
• the ability to match candidates to specific positions in your company.

Remember that 70% of the global workforce is made up of passive talent who are not actively looking for a job and the remaining 30% are active job seekers^[2]. This means that very often a job advert alone will not help you find the right candidate for the job. By having a solid talent pool, you can increase the likelihood of finding a specialist.