Shane Barnfield highlights the importance of managing a pipeline of talent reminding us that its as critical as finding them. First and foremost, talent pipelining is not a database.

The KENTZ approach

What they do?

Maintain relations with their hard-to-find and high-volume talent. Not dissimilar to what agency recruiters do but it goes beyond the phone catch-up every quarter or so…

How they do it?

Shane sees that there are 4 key elements to talent pipelines:

1. Identification

Know what your business needs and profile the hard-to-find and high volume roles cf: Lou Adler. Know where to find these talent. They utilise external search firms to identify talent which they use to build their talent pipeline. They also rely on LinkedIn.

2. Qualification

Prequalify candidates through phone calls – not necessarily about an active job. This process is normally just an introduction and the opportunity to surreptitiously ascertain if they are interested in working for your organisation. One interesting tool they have been using is evolveondemand. It crunches big data on profiles based on previous experience, job titles, etc then outputs a shortlist of suitable candidates. He notes that its definitely not for all roles but its great for high volume positions.

3. Engagement

In his eyes, the most important aspect of talent pipelining but he finds it’s the most poorly managed. It’s not just about sending the company newsletter. He believes that the agencies are ahead of the game on this. In Kentz, their  hiring managers often catch up with suspects to talk about upcoming projects. In this way, they are not actively pursuing these potential candidates for hiring purposes but they ensure that their business is at the front of their minds and they have an opportunity to subtly entice them  across.  He further suggests other ways to engage with candidates by holding:

• Lunch and learn sessions
• Open days/networking events (think Sourcing Breakfast)
• Mini-conferences

4. Conversation

The transition from suspect to candidate.

 

The Big Takeaway: Do you need a talent pipeline?

Consider:

• Do you have a lot of hard-to-fill roles or high-volume roles?
• Can you invest in a talent pipeline? It takes a lot of time and effort.
• Are you losing business from not having these talent?

 

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