A talent pool refers to a database of potential job candidates.
How Does a Talent Pool Work?
A talent pool is a list of potential candidates that have manifested interest in working for a company or have the right profile for current or future job openings. Talent pool databases contain the information of each candidate: name, skills, potential roles they could fill, fit with corporate culture, etc.
Companies use talent pools to recruit and hire new employees, allowing them to both make the recruitment process faster and select the best candidates directly from their database.
Why Is Building a Talent Pool Important?
Building and maintaining a talent pool is important because it allows companies to have a number of potential candidates to quickly reach out to whenever new positions are opened within the organization. Thus, it reduces both time-to-hire and cost-per-hire.
Talent pools can also promote diversity by circumventing the traditional method of applying for a position with specific criteria.
How to Build a Talent Pool?
Talent pools can be built using both outbound and inbound recruiting strategies.
HR professionals can use sourcing software in order to build a high-quality pool of candidates. Such tools automatically screen the profiles of a large number of candidates on the web using a set of specific keywords. Employees can also refer candidates they believe would be a good fit for the company.
Talent pools can also be built through marketing recruitment strategies. Such strategies aim to bring candidates to the talent pool of the company because they are interested in working for a particular company, as opposed to looking to hold a specific position in any company.
