Talent Pools in Recruiting: Definition, Benefits and Software Solutions

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Contents

• Talent Pool Definition: What Is It Actually?
• What Benefits Does a Talent Pool Offer?
• Talent Pool Software or Excel? Which Is the Better Solution
• Building a Talent Pool: How to Do It Without Much Effort
• Sourcing Candidates from the Talent Pool
• Conclusion
• Frequently Asked Questions

TL;DR

A talent pool is a company's maintained talent network, where pre-qualified candidates are recorded and tagged and become instantly available when new roles open up. This lowers recruiting costs and shortens time-to-hire. On top of that, the pool provides a safety net when people leave unexpectedly. Specialized software automates tagging and data maintenance far more efficiently than Excel. Regular contact keeps the pool warm and increases conversion for future hires.

!Illustration of a talent pool: connected candidate profiles in an applicant database, from which a recruiting team selects suitable talent for new open roles.

Author: Dominik Becker · Published: 07/06/2022

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For more and more companies, recruiting is becoming a focus topic. Anyone who wants to win the sought-after skilled workers has to win them over. In today's market that is the only way to get onto candidates' radar and to build the foundation for sustainable growth.

With the skills shortage, hiring people has become considerably more time-consuming and more expensive. So it makes sense to get the most out of every candidate contact. A talent pool lets you "keep candidate leads warm" so you can consider them again for new roles.

This lowers recruiting costs and makes it possible to fill future open roles faster. What you need to know about talent pools, what benefits they offer your company and how best to use them, you will learn in this article.

Talent Pool Definition: What Is It Actually?

Anyone dealing with recruiting today can hardly avoid the term "talent pool" or "applicant database." But it is much more than a list of potential candidates for future hires. A talent pool is a company's talent network. For this to work well, the network contacts need to be maintained regularly and kept up to date with company news.

Talent pools usually consist of applicants who applied to a company for an advertised role but were not selected at first. When a future role opens up, the HR team can simply draw on a selection of potential candidates. That way open roles can be filled faster.

In a structured talent pool, candidates are entered or tagged with detailed information. As a rule, their skills and qualifications in particular are clearly noted. This makes it easier for you to find a suitable candidate for a role later on. Contact details and, where relevant, other personal data such as location and details of a candidate's career history are stored as well.

What Benefits Does a Talent Pool Offer?

Most of the recruiting budget goes into sourcing new candidates. A talent pool lets you get back in touch later with candidates who are a good fit in principle but were not selected for a role at the time. Among other things, this offers the following benefits:

More Efficient Use of the Recruiting Budget

Candidate leads cost budget once and are then available for future hires. This means lower costs when filling new roles.

Fast and Easy Hiring

Future open roles can be filled more easily through a talent pool. All you do is search for a candidate with the desired attributes and get in touch. This simplified process saves you from actively advertising a new role.

Qualified Candidates

Since the candidates have already been pre-qualified, they are a strong fit in principle and relevant to your company. Companies with a talent pool benefit from considerably higher candidate quality.

A Safety Net for Your Recruiting

A talent pool can act as a kind of safety net when an employee resigns unexpectedly or you get an unexpected opening from a department. It is then your first port of call as a recruiter to look for suitable candidates. Ideally, you do not have to start a lengthy recruiting process. You go straight to the interview.

Low Administrative Effort When Filling Roles

Because you can find qualified candidates for a role quickly and easily, the HR team has to spend less time on the administration of the recruiting process.

What Are the Downsides of Talent Pools?

Of course talent pools have downsides too. The main one is the higher administrative effort of adding candidates. Good talent pool software can help keep this effort as low as possible. More on that later.

Talent Pool Software or Excel? Which Is the Better Solution

Many companies use Excel to manage their talent pool. That is better than not having a talent pool at all, but it is definitely not the best option. Because what many HR people are not aware of is this: a talent pool only pays off if candidates are also tagged in detail. As a rule, the more detailed the candidate profiles are, the easier it is to fill future roles from the talent pool.

If you want to maintain the personal data of hundreds or thousands of candidates, you should automate this as much as possible. Specialized talent pool software solutions such as mana HR take a lot of the effort of building and managing the talent pool off companies through automation. They also make it easy to search by qualifications and other details, even without extensive data entry and tagging up front.

In terms of data protection, talent pools in Excel can cause additional problems. This is especially true when candidates do not agree to their data being stored longer term from the outset. Overall, it is fair to say that Excel only pays off for very small talent pools. Companies that fill new roles regularly should opt for talent pool software to minimize the time spent on management.

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Building a Talent Pool: How to Do It Without Much Effort

Building a talent pool is relatively simple. In principle there are two target groups for it:

1. "Rejected" Candidates Who Are Interesting in Principle.

These are people who have already applied for an advertised role. It often makes sense to ask in the application form, or at the latest in the rejection, whether you may add them to the talent pool in principle so you can come back to them later.

2. Speculative Applicants Who Reach Out to a Company Proactively.

Most companies receive speculative applications now and then. But you cannot always accept them. Qualified candidates, however, will be glad of the chance to join the talent pool so they get notified directly when a future role is posted.

Before you add them to the talent pool, you should treat them like regular candidates. After reviewing the application documents, the next step is to create a candidate profile in the talent pool. Recruiting software solutions allow an automatic import of the data. If you rely on a manual talent pool, you should record the following core data:

• Qualifications
• Degrees
• Salary expectations
• Notice period
• Special skills
• Location
• Master data (name, email, phone number)

You should also store the candidate's consent to being added to the talent pool.

As soon as the first people are listed in the talent pool, you can use them to fill future open roles. In larger talent pools there are usually several suitable candidates for each role.

That way you can further reduce the advertising budget for recruiting as the talent pool grows.

Sourcing Candidates from the Talent Pool

Since the candidates in the talent pool are already pre-qualified, you can simplify the application process considerably. A cover letter and resending a resume are usually not necessary. If you also note a candidate's application progress in the talent pool, you do not have to invite people who, for example, already had an interview again. This means candidates from the talent pool can be hired faster than applicants who have not yet been in contact with your company.

To hire candidates quickly when needed, it is important to keep the talent pool warm. Regular email contact with candidates helps them keep their interest in the company. We also recommend staying in touch by phone with especially relevant candidates at regular intervals and building a relationship. You can, for example, let them know when a role in their area is likely to open up.

Conclusion

Talent pools are a firm part of modern recruiting and make it possible to keep cost-per-hire low despite the growing skills shortage. For companies, talent pools really only offer benefits. What matters, though, is that they are implemented sensibly so they do not create a lot of extra work for the HR department. Alongside the classic features of a recruiting software, mana HR also offers an extensive talent pool. Through the direct import of rejected candidates and the automatic data entry, you can keep your administrative effort as low as possible.