CareerBuilder VP: Here’s what firms can do now to build a talent pipeline

Even if you’re not actively hiring right now, build and expand your talent community with great candidates so that you’re not starting from scratch when it’s time to bring back your team. With uncertainty in the job market, both employees and employers can use this time to explore options and see what – or who – is out there.

Strong talent might have been laser-focused in their role, until a layoff or furlough came along. Companies should focus on attracting these candidates and nurturing relationships to make hiring more efficient and create productive teams. Now is a perfect time to source talented, diverse candidates who won’t hesitate to take your recruiter’s call when hiring ramps up.

Keep your foot on the gas

First – don’t slow down your recruitment efforts. With increased talent on the market, HR teams should be opportunistic and actively engage with candidates and build talent networks. This strategy helps you through feast and famine, allowing you to have good applicants on deck while meeting the current needs of your team. 

Second – lean on technology to help you create and maintain a pipeline; for example, utilizing company career sites and employee referral programs to amplify your employer brand. Take it a step further by hosting a virtual open house – or, if you’re hiring, try a virtual hiring fair. Even pre-pandemic, these modern hiring tools were becoming more and more popular as they are relatively easy to launch, save time for recruiters and candidates, and allow for increased diversity and accessibility.

Streamline your hiring process

One of the best ways to reduce time to hire and increase retention is to leverage your current employees during the recruitment process. Candidates who are referred are typically hired 55% quicker and have a 46% higher retention rate. If you want to grow your applicant pool, improve your employer brand or need to hire now, focus on empowering your employees to help you recruit.

Then, think about how your platforms work together – or, analyze how they don’t. Recruiters and hiring managers can lose hours each week just switching between tools, trying to make disparate systems more cohesive. Find recruitment tools that increase efficiency, offer consistency, provide a better candidate experience, and ultimately, saves you money. A unified hiring and recruitment process can help you keep track of and engage with candidates on a more consistent basis in more meaningful ways.

Prioritize diversity and experience

What does a candidate see when they come to your site? What is the first touchpoint a potential applicant has with your employer brand? Typically, it’s a career site. Analyze the visuals on that site – do they accurately reflect your company? Make sure your commitments to diversity and inclusion are front and center, and that includes job descriptions.

One of my favorite tools that CareerBuilder has is our AI job tool because it flags gendered language in job descriptions and will suggest gender-neutral alternatives. Plus, the AI can help with skills-based searching, which puts the emphasis on the skills a candidate has, not just past experiences.

This attention to detail – AI or not – is good for employer and employee. Busy recruiters and hiring managers can automate tasks that increase diverse applicants, and potential candidates have a good understanding of who you are as an employer, overall improving the candidate experience.

If you’re not hiring now, or are gradually starting to consider it, think through every level of the candidate experience and how your company is viewed as a potential employer. This is critical right now and extends to every aspect of the process, from usability of your career site to company responses to major current events.

Make sure your career site or page is user-friendly, inviting and inclusive, and you’ll be well on your way to attracting and recruiting high-quality candidates.