Do you have more candidates then you need? Why, not? By building up your talent pool, you are helping to build your brand and drive momentum in your staffing firm. In order to ensure that your clients don’t wait for extended periods of time for their job openings to be filled, it’s necessary to constantly add to and maintain your list of qualified candidates. The more applicants you have in your talent pool, the better the chances are that you have access to a professional who has the qualifications that your client is looking for. Instead of taking a reactive approach, i.e. waiting to hear what positions your clients are looking to fill before searching for the right applicants, be proactive and use social networking to fill your talent pool.
Target Candidates
Social networking allows staffing firms to seek out candidates in a desired industry or those who possess a specific skill set. Platforms such as LinkedIn provide easy access to valuable information about a candidate’s educational background and work experience. Not finding the right applicants? Extend your reach by widening the geographic circle or making changes to your search criteria. Embrace your company diversity policies by contacting a more diverse mix of candidates and by using social networking to fill your talent pool.
Engage Your Audience
After you have successfully located qualified individuals, your next goal is to engage them in conversation. In addition to sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, consider joining industry chat groups or participating in meetups. Produce informative podcasts and promote them through your social media profiles to draw interested parties to your website. Invite applicants to participate in webcasts and offer to send them case studies and whitepapers at the conclusion of the presentation.
Keep Them Informed
When using social networking to fill your talent pool, remember to keep applicants informed about upcoming job opportunities and alert them when new clients are retained. Get them excited about networking events and encourage them to RSVP with your recruiters. Send out social media posts about important industry updates and regulatory issues. Ask your sales and recruiting teams to reach out to their own social media networks and invite their contacts to follow your staffing firm profiles.
Promote Your Brand and Company Culture
Pique the interest of potential candidates by highlighting your recruiting team and giving them a look inside your staffing firm. Interview key employees and invite them to write an entry in the company blog that highlights their skills and experience. Utilize various forms of multimedia to produce content and encourage your followers to share it with their networks. Allow potential candidates to better understand your clients’ company cultures by posting images inside the workplace and testimonials from current employees.
Segment Your Talent Pool
Just as you would segment your contact lists when sending out a targeted email campaign, be sure to create an organized way to sort and keep track of potential applicants. Having the biggest talent pool in the industry is only a benefit to your staffing firm if you are not able to effectively locate candidates and refer them to clients in a timely manner. Take the time to pre-screen applicants and understand their career goals. The more your recruiters get to know the members of your talent pool, the easier it is to identify those applicants who are most qualified to fill open placements.
Key Takeaways to Using Social Networking to Fill Your Talent Pool:
- Use social networking to target candidates with specific backgrounds and skill sets
- Engage your audience through social networking efforts
- Provide informative updates to your followers when building your talent pool
- Promote your staffing firm brand through you social media posts
- Segment your talent pool in order to ensure timely placements
About S.J.Hemley Marketing
S.J.Hemley Marketing is a marketing and sales consulting firm focused on driving tangible results for professional services firms. Brand matters, but not without ROI. With over 20 years of sales and marketing experience within staffing and recruiting, we have helped to drive successful branding, sales training, lead generation activities as well as defining marketing strategy for top organizations.