In the world of IT, finding top talent is crucial for companies to stay competitive and innovative. However, with the current job market being so competitive, recruiting and retaining skilled professionals has become increasingly challenging. This is where a talent pool can come in handy. In this case study, we will explore the benefits of having a talent pool and the challenges involved in creating and maintaining one.
What Is Talent Pool?
Talent Pool is a Database of potential candidates who are interested in working for a company. Candidates are collected individually to the Database and their interest in working for the organization is updated regularly. Talent Pool is a valuable resource for companies looking to fill positions quickly and efficiently.
Why Should IT Companies Have Talent Pool?
Faster Hiring Process
Having a talent pool can significantly speed up the hiring process. Instead of starting from scratch every time a position becomes available, companies can search their pool of potential candidates for qualified individuals. This not only saves time but also helps to ensure that the most qualified individuals are being considered for the job.
Better Quality Candidates
Since a talent pool is made up of individuals who have expressed interest in working for the company, the candidates are often more engaged and invested in the company’s success. This can result in higher quality candidates who are more likely to stay with the company long-term.
Cost Savings
Recruiting and hiring new employees can be an expensive and time consuming process. Creating a talent pool can help to reduce these costs by allowing companies to fill positions quickly and efficiently. By using the Talent pool approach, companies can fill a position 1-2 months faster than starting recruitment from scratch. This significantly saves costs for the company, when a competent and motivated person can start work faster.
Challenges in Creating and Maintaining Talent Pool
Building the Pool
One of the biggest challenges in creating a talent pool is building it in the first place. It can be difficult to attract and engage potential candidates, especially if they are not actively looking for a job. Many IT talents are passive job seekers, so you have to reach them directly in order to get their interest. Many companies claim that employer branding is the answer to the challenging recruitment situation. However, as mentioned, many high-quality talents are passive job seekers, and employer branding alone does not bring them to the company’s pool. The organization really needs to see effort to bring right talents to the pool. The positive here is that candidates can be offered many reasons why they should consider changing jobs.
Keeping Candidates Engaged
Once candidates have expressed interest in working for the company, it is important to keep them engaged and interested in the company. The idea of a talent pool disappears if the pool is full of profiles that are actually no longer interested in the opportunity to work for the organization. This can be achieved through regular communication, personalized messaging, and providing relevant content that showcases the company culture and values.
Managing the Database
Managing a talent pool database can be a time-consuming and complex process. It is important to keep the database up to date with accurate candidate information and to ensure that candidates are being contacted in a timely and appropriate manner.
Avoiding Candidate Fatigue
Candidates who are contacted too often or with irrelevant job opportunities can become fatigued and lose interest in the company. It is important to ensure that candidates are only contacted when there is a relevant job opportunity available and that the messaging is personalized and relevant to the candidate’s skills and interests. Therefore, this emphasizes the treatment of those in the pool as individuals and people, and not just as job seekers. Of course, this increases the challenge of Talent Pool Management, as there can be several people in the pool, but everyone should still be treated personally.
Global Talent Pool By NextLink
Implementing Global Talent Pool requires a strategic approach and consistent effort. NextLink continuously improves the Global Talent Pool through networks. The goal is to continuously develop our comprehensive database of candidates who are technically qualified and willing to relocate to Finland and Europe. In addition to own Talent Pool, NextLink builds Talent Pools for clients, which contain qualified candidates who want to work for that particular client and relocate to the desired country. How does this concept created by NextLink actually work?
Defining Criteria
Before starting to build talent pool, it is important to define the criteria that will be used to identify potential candidates. This could include factors such as skills, experience, location, education and personality. The most important aspect is that criteria align with the strategy and needs of client. Therefore, this is the starting point when we start talking with the client about the pool we will build for them and what kind of profiles this pool contains.
Building the Talent Pool
As mentioned NextLink has comprehensive global network that covers India, Asia, Middle East and Europe. Through this network, we start gathering desired profiles. Gathering right people is carefully designed and implemented work. We will implement technical interviews to each person added to the pool and consult them about job opportunities in Finland. It might be difficult to believe that creation of this kind of pool is possible. But based on our past year’s work we can say with confidence that we are able to find a lot of high-quality talents who see Europe and especially Finland as an attractive destination.
Keeping the candidates warm
This is the hardest issue with talent pool. Finding the right candidates itself is not enough as the opportunity might appear, for instance, 2-3 months after the candidate has entered to the pool. For this we have designed clear procedures how the pool is updated and talents are kept warm. However, it is totally understandable that talents still might not wait forever dream opportunity in pool. For this reason, we update the pool and constantly add new talents there.
Making hiring decision
This is the stage which we want to make easy and simple for our client and talent. Basically, at this stage our client can just pick and hire. Sounds easy, right? However, as we are talking about global talents, they might be located on the other side of the world. But this is not an issue, as NextLink’s services always include Relocation Services. We will help the talent to arrive in Finland without stress and we strive to make relocation always excellent experience.
Conclusion
Creating and maintaining Talent Pool can be a valuable resource for IT companies looking to fill positions quickly and efficiently while also improving the quality of their hires. While there are challenges involved in building and managing a talent pool, these can be overcome with the right partner and strategies. Ultimately, Talent Pool can help IT companies stay competitive and innovative by ensuring they always have the best talent available. This way talent acquisition will not be a bottleneck for the growth.
