What is a talent pool?
Essentially, a talent pool is a database of potential candidates. The individuals included in a talent pool are usually extremely qualified and have expressed interest, directly or indirectly, of joining your business.
The talent pool is usually a combination of active and passive applicants who can be identified by profile or specific skillset. The important thing to remember here is that these individuals have not been yet been qualified/earmarked for specific roles (see what is a talent pipeline). You are at the start of the talent acquisition journey (talent pipeline and talent acquisition make up the triangle of talent strategy).
Building a talent pool allows a business to develop relationships with individuals whose skills and experience align with their future requirements. A talent pool contains key information about each individual, including their skills, potential roles they could fill, how well they fit within business values and culture etc (worth noting here, GDPR still comes into play).
What this means, for you as a business, is that you are not starting the hiring process from scratch when you have an opportunity. When you are ready, you have a pool of suitable applicants who are not only familiar with your organisation but want to work for you.
Having a talent pool allows the business to raise the profile of their brand and tap into a valuable resource to help fill openings quickly and painlessly. From a candidate perspective, this means that they are more likely to find an opportunity that not only fits their skill and qualifications but is compatible to their personal value system.
Some benefits of a talent pool
- Increased retention rates
- Save money on third party recruitment costs and poor hires
- Promote from within
Now that you know what a talent pool is, it’s tempting to start build your own. For a talent pool to be truly effective, it needs to be part of a long-term strategy. Individuals can be sat in talent pools for some time. It is important to communicate with them. This may involve sending out a newsletter, or article of interest. Not everyone in the talent pool will be actively looking so it’s important that you are not spamming but sending relevant data.
A good talent pool managed well helps build strong relationships, improve your business reputation and keeps active and passive candidates happy whilst allowing your business to hire efficiently from an engaged and valuable source.
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