For a progressive organization, it is necessary to grow toward its long-term goal and that is only possible through an efficient team. Developing and optimizing an adequate talent pool is the key to turning the company toward growth. The process of building an efficient talent pool is the way to onboard an efficient team in the company that can help to take the company towards its goal. Let’s read about what is a talent pool, how to build a talent pool, its basics, and how to optimize them

What is a Talent Pool?

A talent pool refers to the databases and places where recruiters and hiring managers keep the records of their top candidates and stay in touch with a variety of skillful candidates.  For building talent, HR managers should comprehend hiring goals and consider activities that ensure future growth. Talent pools contain databases of potential candidates sourced from various channels and a set of people who can fulfill the future needs of the company (if they get hired).

In other words, candidates sourced from different stages in their career journeys can become a part of the talent pool.

How Talent Pools Work

A talent pool contains all the information about candidates such as their years of experience, companies they have worked with, qualifications, certifications, etc. that a hiring manager can use in scrutinizing them for the open position. Ex- colleagues, former permanent employees, freelancers, retired personnel, and previously non-shortlisted candidates can be included in talent pools which are managed by an ATS system as part of the managed service program.

The talent pool comes in handy especially when there is an urgent need of closing a position. For building an effective talent pool, organizations must be willing to invest in a candidate and their employment experience. For that they must ask workers and applicants for their honest feedback and interest in suitable opportunities should they arise in the future

Why Build and Manage a Talent Pool?

Talent pools are great for growing organizations but they are also suitable for organizations willing to hire strategically. Having a pool of talent in hand implies that the organization can hire in a more resilient way.

Reduces the Cost of Recruitment- An adequate talent pool saves money in two different ways- firstly by reducing the time to hire. Secondly, it lowers the cost per hire and saves your spending on advertising job openings.

Reduces the Time to Hire- An adequately segmented and managed talent pool ensures that the database you possess, has a candidate pool who are eager to work in your company. So, when there’s a vacancy in the future, you have ample applications to choose the best candidate from. It will help to lower the recruitment time to hire a candidate with what you already have, a pool of great candidates!

Improves the Quality of Hire- Lower quality hires happen because of four main reasons: not enough qualified applicants, not finding exact matches, time constraints, and not enough time to keep a check if the best candidate is the perfect fit for the job. As the most appropriate candidates reject the job offer, companies have to settle for the second best.

An effective talent pool can help you to avoid these four mentioned scenarios and ensure a steady flow of qualified candidates for the job.