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FOUR WAYS TO EXPAND YOUR TALENT PUDDLE TO A TALENT POOL

Expand your talent puddle to a talent pool

Many of the metaphors of talent share a link to water. We’ve had talent pools, talent pipelines, talent flow, talent leakage, and talent waves. I’d like to now add another, the talent puddle.

A global tech company's HR Director recently voiced concern about their limited talent supply. It appears that the same five names consistently receive recognition as the individuals with potential in the business. In the HR Director’s words, ‘we don’t have a talent pool, we have a talent puddle!’

It seems that lots of businesses are suffering in the same way. CEOs and HR Directors are concerned that lack of future talent in the job market will limit business growth and success.

So, if you find that you have a puddle instead of a pool, what can you do about it? In this blog, we discuss four strategies to create a talent pool that will include an abundant supply of top talent.

What is a talent pool: meaning in modern workforce management

A talent pool is a group of engaged candidates that have made an application to work at your company in the past. Or these individuals may have previously worked for you. Often these people have multiple relevant skills and are keen to work for your organisation in the future. Your talent pool may include:
 
  • Former contingent workers
  • Previous permanent employees
  • Freelancers
  • Retirees
  • Previously unsuccessful applicants
 

What are the benefits of building and maintaining a talent pool? 

There are many benefits to hiring candidates from an existing talent pool. You can save the time, energy and resources of searching for new potential candidates. That’s not all though. Using a talent pool can also:
 
  • Reduce time to hire: An up-to-date talent pool can save you the time of conducting an entirely new search from scratch.
  • Offer access to passive candidates: A passive candidate with desirable skills and qualifications may consider a new opportunity if you make a tempting offer.
  • Improve the overall candidate experience: When you contact candidates after keeping their details, it can help emphasise your positive employer branding. This approach also helps reduce the number of rejections at the interview stage.
  • Improve diversity and inclusion: Diversifying your approach to candidate engagement makes it easier to consider candidates from a wide range of backgrounds.
  • Lower the cost of hiring: You can save the cost of advertising or outsourcing your recruitment strategy.
 
 
 

Four strategies to create a talent pool

 

1. Focus on the strategically important talent that is hard to find.

Spend time thinking about the talent that you actually need in your business, in both the short term and for long term succession planning. Consider these questions:
 
  • What are your future plans?
  • What are the strategically most important skills, knowledge and experiences that you need to deliver these plans?
  • Which of these are likely to be difficult to find?
 
Make the answers to these questions the focus of your talent strategy. For example, if you need lots of people with a specific technology background, focus on this. Don’t waste resources on investing time building talent in easy to find areas.
 

2. Try to find the root causes of the talent puddle.

If you have a talent puddle, try to understand why that might be. Then you can concentrate your efforts on solving the cause of the problem. Do this before defining your strategies to create a talent pool. You may need to do some simple research to understand what the talented people you want are looking for, including:
 
  • How good are you at providing what candidates are asking for?
  • What can you do better?
  • Can you improve the candidate experience?
  • How can you communicate what you are doing to potential employees?
 
Some organisations struggle to attract potential candidates. Others are great at attracting and developing candidates, but are poor at keeping hold of them. We call this issue a talent leakage problem.
 

3. Identify the hidden gems in your internal talent pool.

Most organisations have more existing talent than they realise. Identify people who are ambitious, knowledgeable and show motivation and commitment, but for some reason never receive recognition. This lack of recognition may be due to a lack of strong advocacy from managers or leaders.
 
Employees may not understand how to promote themselves. Some might feel that the best way to progress is to keep their head down and keep delivering. Only then will someone notice them. These people need help to shine.
 
Address this by educating your managers on how to recognise, nurture and liberate talent. You can also educate everyone in the business on how to proactively manage their own career. By taking these steps you are likely to be more successful at identifying talent that may otherwise go unnoticed.
 

4. Broaden your talent ‘ecosystem’.

Lots of businesses still think in traditional terms when it comes to talent. Some prioritise their focus on full-time, permanent employees. We refer to this approach as the ‘buy or build’ strategy.
 
However, this is only one approach. But there are a growing number of talent sources that organisations must consider:
 
  • Skilled contractors
  • Partnership or exchange with other companies
  • Use of freelancers and platform workers
  • Crowdsourcing of activities
  • ‘Co-opetition’, or collaboration with the competition for mutual benefit
 
Tapping into these ‘borrowed’ talent sources can build your organisational agility. You will be increasing your access to qualified candidates with the skills and experience that you need.
 
Next time you’re in a talent review and worry that a lack of talent is impacting your business, try these actions. There is no need for a talent puddle – but you may need to be smarter about how you define and build your talent pool.
 

For more expert advice on attracting and retaining top talent, take a look at the following articles:

 

AUTHOR

Dr Maggi Evans
Chartered Occupational Psychologist, Consultant and Coach
Maggi is an experienced consultant and coach with international experience across a wide range of sectors including professional services, financial services, retail and FMCG. She is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and combines research and practice to develop practical solutions to drive business improvement.

Maggi has been a consultant for over 20 years, specialising in talent strategy and talent development. She has a reputation as an insightful consultant, helping clients to reduce the ‘noise’ around an issue so they can focus and act on key issues which will make a difference. Maggi is on a mission to help organisations, leaders and individuals to liberate talent.