Talent networks are a method of social recruiting. Assembling a talent network means putting together groups of candidates to help anticipate future hiring needs. Members of a talent network often include:
- Candidates who are actively or passively seeking work with your organization
- Silver medalists or prior applicants who have already taken part in your recruitment process
- Candidates who were referred by other employees through an employee referrals program
Recruitment CRM software makes it possible to build talent networks using powerful candidate searching, sorting and filtering tools, empowering recruiters to narrow their database of talent to find the best candidates for a position.
How do you build a talent network?
With recruitment software like Yello, putting together growing a talent network is easy. Here’s a quick intro on where to start:
- Get organized. Use your recruitment CRM to sort your talent network into highly personalized segments based on candidate skills and interests. For example, one group of sales candidates and another for military veterans. Organizing your talent network enables you to communicate with each group of candidates more effectively with finely-tuned recruitment marketing, allowing you to share highly relevant content or information about open positions.
- Highlight hidden candidates. Chances are that most of your talent will make their way into your talent acquisition software by applying for a position through your website. Through the recruitment process, you’ll know which ones are right for a given role or don’t quite meet the qualifications. But there’s also a good chance you’ll find highly skilled, five-star candidates who might not match an open position right away, but could make a great addition to your team down the line. Reach out to these interested parties to let them know that while there may not be a current role for them, your company would love to consider them should something that better suits their skills open up down the line.
Read our full guide on how to build and maximize your talent network.
- Make sure candidates can find you. Candidates may be eager to work for your company, but don’t see any open roles listed on your careers page. That’s okay! Capture the interest of these candidates by including a talent network sign-up on your careers page, allowing talent to fill out a form that enters them immediately into your talent network.
- Stay engaged. Building a relationship with the members of your talent network shows that you’re invested in their interest in your company. Communicate with your talent network on a weekly or monthly basis and share relevant updates, like new open positions, industry events and news about your company.
- Be in touch! Just because you’ve put together a talent network doesn’t mean your work is finished. On the contrary: getting the most out of your talent network means reaching out to its members as often as necessary. Take time to communicate with your candidates as often as it takes — maybe once a week, maybe every couple days — to build strong relationships that could carry into their next potential role.
