How to Build & Manage a Talent Pipeline

How to Build a Talent Pipeline

Having a talent pipeline—a pool of candidates that can fill an open position—is integral to an organization’s recruiting and staffing success. 

While many companies are aware of the available talent pool, having an active talent pipeline is different. A talent pool refers to a much broader group of job candidates while a talent pipeline refers specifically to those candidates that are partially or completely prequalified to fill an open role. 

How Does a Talent Pipeline Work?

A talent pipeline is beneficial for companies that can dip into it as needed to fill new positions. Understanding how to create and fill a talent pipeline is critical for organizations looking to take advantage of this strategy. 

There are several ways to fill a talent pipeline, including an active collection of job applications and resumes, advertising for candidates, offering internships, and attending job fairs. The specific tactics utilized will be different for each company. However, highly skilled occupations will likely require a more complex strategy with a multi-year ramp-up to fill the talent pipeline. 

Best Practices for Building a Rich Talent Pipeline

Effective talent pipelines require planning, candidate identification, and candidate engagement. Here are some of the ways to be successful at talent pipeline management. 

Planning

Planning includes a number of considerations, including employer branding to represent your company’s solid reputation as an employer. This can help engage more passive candidates. Buy-in from stakeholders will also be critical during planning to get the resources needed to attend recruitment events and to execute other tactics. Honing in on the specific roles that require a pipeline (e.g. those that may have a high turnover) will be critical in the planning phase. 

Identify Passive Candidates

Employing the right mix of sourcing techniques can help a company identify the right passive candidates for a given position. Social media recruiting, in-person events, boolean searches, pursuing portfolio sites and getting referrals are all great ways to identify solid passive candidates. Don’t forget to leverage your own internal talent database to keep an eye on interesting candidates. 

Engage Candidates

Once you’ve identified the right mix of candidates for a potential role, the next step is to make contact. This can be a tightrope walk, so the first rule is to be honest. Let people know that the position is not an immediate hire but that your organization will likely be hiring soon. Respect each candidate’s time and communication preferences. Show them that you’ve done your research on their experience and qualifications and be sure to show genuine interest. 

Building a solid talent pipeline requires you to understand what your future workforce needs may look like a year or even two years down the road. It also requires an accurate picture of turnover rates, training systems, and the future of your industry. Leveraging people analytics can streamline the collection of this information, making it easier to maintain an effective talent pipeline. 

The bottom line is that relationships matter and take work to maintain. Maintaining a talent pipeline can build and sustain the important relationships that could lead to your next great hire. 

If that sounds like a lot of work – it is! You can always contact us to learn more about how we can help you curate and manage your own talent pipeline today.

A group of recruiters doing a panel interview with a candidate.A hiring manager conducting a video chat remote interview