Hiring the right candidate — from the beginning of the search process to the new hire’s start date- can be long and arduous. Unfortunately for businesses everywhere, time isn’t a luxury in our current hiring climate. Many talented individuals are reassessing what’s most important in their life and career, looking for new jobs, and planning to jump ship as the Great Resignation of 2021 continues. Despite 10 million available jobs, 8.4 million workers remain unemployed, and many U.S. companies are having a hard time finding skilled workers to help close that gap.
"This is a super tight job market," said Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto. "The ongoing struggle to find the right worker for the right role continues."
The Benefits of a Talent Pipeline
You’ll be in a much better position to combat this ongoing challenge and find qualified candidates quickly and efficiently if you have a robust talent pipeline to draw from at any moment. A talent pipeline enables employers to proactively develop relationships with a network of talented candidates potentially looking for a job right now or interested and available for hire in the future. A great talent pipeline provides you with a pool of available candidates at the ready who align with your skill and qualification needs.
A talent pipeline is beneficial in many types of situations:
Time-sensitive projects:Having a pool of available candidates ready to start at a moment’s notice is essential when you need to hire for critical projects that just popped up (and are already behind schedule).
Sudden vacancies:When you experience a sudden employee vacancy, you don’t have to start from scratch: You’ll have access to candidates with whom you have an existing and trusting relationship. You’ll already understand their employment status, current skillsets, and what they’re seeking, saving a lot of discovery time during the hiring process.
New and emerging roles:Identify high-potential candidates for new and emerging skill gaps, and continue to engage them and strengthen relationships as you forecast future skill needs.
Passive job seekers:Find candidates who may not actively or publicly be looking for a job but who are open to talking with a trusted staffing partner about their needs and seizing on the right opportunity when presented to them.
Talent Pipelines: The Reality
Developing long-term relationships with candidates takes time, and skillfully and efficiently building a successful candidate pipeline often takes a lot of work upfront. For many companies, investing the amount of time required for success isn’t possible. Many companies wait until someone resigns or retires to fill a role, leading to a dizzying array of reactive outreach efforts to find suitable candidates. Companies may ask for employee referrals, post a job online, reach out to online networks, or attend a job fair — but with staff already spread so thin, these efforts aren’t always born out of a strategic plan.
The need to fill a position is often immediate, but if the talent pipeline either isn’t robust or doesn’t exist in the first place, it creates a scramble to find the right person and results in lost costs. What is the alternative?
A Better Way to Find the Right Candidates
Creating a network of talented candidates is a highly effective and proactive approach — but it doesn’t happen overnight. Attempting to create one on your own can take an immense amount of time, energy, and effort. Finding a trusted partner to guide you and manage your candidate relationships can make all the difference between a smooth, efficient hiring process and a drawn-out, frustrating marathon.
Signature Consultants has focused on building relationships for nearly 25 years. Over the months and years, we have built up a talent network full of the best tech consultants. We take these relationships seriously, spending time getting to know our candidates inside and out. So, when a company’s hiring need arises, we can quickly identify the best people to recruit for the position. We effectively take the pipelining work out of our clients’ hands so they can focus on their business and their people.
How does our talent pipeline work?
Friends first:Finding great people to join your team should be anything but transactional. After our dedicated team helps you determine your current skillset needs and anticipate future ones, we source, screen, and get to know candidates with a friends-first approach. Next, we develop a steady pipeline of proven consultants ready when you need them, providing hiring managers with resumes of pre-qualified candidates within a few days (or sometimes hours) of a new hiring need.
Industry expertise:Long before our clients have a need, our team connects with industry leaders to stay on top of the latest technology, hiring, and industry trends. Signature's insider’s view of the industry gives us a jump on the skills most likely to be in demand, so when a client needs someone fast, we don’t have to go out and find the right candidate. Chances are, we already know someone perfect for the job, and we’ve built up a relationship with that candidate over time.
End-to-end approach: Our service management team handles all screening, interviewing, selection, onboarding, and training of consultants, setting both parties up for success by ensuring a skill fit with the project and a culture fit with the organization.
Ongoing engagement:The relationship doesn’t end with a candidate engagement—often, it’s just beginning. We keep consultants engaged post-hire, creating a solid foundation for future success and retention. By communicating with our consultants openly and often, we can stay ahead of your hiring needs while keeping a pulse on our consultants’ current employment status and specific fit for your role.
We are dedicated to finding the best-fit candidates for the clients we partner with — so that they will have a pool of talented and trusted candidates ready to dive in at a moment’s notice. Find out more: Reach out to us today.