Volatilities in both the job (demand) and labor (supply) markets, exacerbated by recruiter role reductions, are creating challenges: companies are hiring fewer workers, facing increased turnover, and, as a result, need to be prepared for more rapid replacement and new critical skill hiring. Given time-to-fill (TTF) rates averaging roughly 45 days (and varying significantly by industry and job level), and SHRM’s finding that 56% of recruiting executives report talent shortages as their greatest challenge, having a ready supply of job candidates for any given role has become essential. 20% of talent acquisition (TA) leaders cite it as their organization's greatest macroeconomic obstacle, and when added to the costs of turnover and replacement recruitment as business expenses, the need to create more robust, cost-effective approaches is more timely than ever. Developing and managing sustainable talent pools of pre-qualified, well-skilled individuals who are proactively evaluated and continuously “wooed” for future consideration is a critical capability.

Understanding the nature of talent pools

Talent pools are curated databases of pre-vetted, qualified candidates (internal or external employees) who are considered future potential hires, transfers, or promotions. Their deployment represents a proactive approach to staffing and recruitment, focused on identifying and developing relationships with potential candidates for future roles who fit into a skills/experience category of interest. The critical elements of building talent pools lie in the size of the groups and the timeframes for their hiring, which differ significantly from those when developing candidate slates for individual job openings. They are used as a ready-to-go source for hiring rather than starting from scratch each time a role opens, allowing companies to quickly fill positions with proven talent and maintain relationships with promising individuals. 

Talent pools are developed with an eye toward maintaining a sufficiently sized group of similarly skilled individuals whose readiness to consider a move will naturally vary over months or years. The goal is to nurture them as potential candidates who can be convinced to be included on an interview slate at some point in the future. That longer-term focus can be leveraged to gradually build their awareness of the company, its culture, and its employer value proposition (EVP). 

These rely on a foundation of relationship building that can set companies apart by a more personalized, human-centric experience that differs from what many perceive as an over-reliance on automation and AI. It has proven to attract passive candidates by developing and nurturing mutual interest over time in a more authentic, low-pressure manner. The unique and key characteristics of talent pools include:

• Targeted membership: Talent pools are populated by external candidates who have shown interest by visiting the company's career site, applying for previously open jobs, as well as passive candidates identified by recruiters or sourcers. These are also used to engage and evaluate internal candidates for future roles, such as high-potentials or any employee included in a skills-based talent marketplace or profile database.
• Future-focused: Talent pools are designed to meet future needs rather than current or immediate job openings. The timeframes can range from 6 months to 2+ years, or longer for those at more senior levels or with more specialized and desirable skill sets.
• Segmented and curated: Talent pools are broken into subgroups based on skill sets, career level, accomplishments, location, or readiness to move to a new company. They can be further segmented by aspirations, development path, or other factors that become known.
• Nurtured: Pool members are actively engaged in ongoing awareness and relationship-building, focused on building rapport and comfort with the organization and its culture. Specifically tailored information and interactions are distributed based on the talent pool’s demographics and interests, designed to “warm” the individual up to accepting direct contact from a recruiter or hiring manager when a matching opportunity arises.
  
  

The value and purpose of establishing talent pools

Talent pools are used to generate and prepare a sufficient number of “ready-now” candidates for specific future job openings. That requires the collection and curation of a larger group of similarly skilled people from whom to select for consideration at any given point in time, as people’s interests and availability ebb and flow with economic circumstances, job markets, and individual motivations. Their primary value lies in the ability they give recruiters to quickly assemble a slate of candidates who are already pre-screened and primed for the opportunities presented to them.

Talent pools can be favorably compared to an old-style “courting” process as a long-form of candidate attraction. The idea is to allow their awareness of a company’s mission, environment, and career opportunities to develop gradually, creating anticipation and building trust. Those can foster greater openness to discovering what makes the organization more attractive to talent than its competitors. 

The use of these supports a higher quality of hire (QOH) by enabling earlier identification and targeting of skill group members, the ability to pre-vet and validate their skills and capabilities, and the selection of candidates who are better educated about the company. It can reduce time-to-fill (TTF) by reducing the time spent weeding out less suitable candidates. It can also drive a lower cost-per-hire (CPH) because previously sourced pool members receive further consideration, leading to fewer subsequent paid postings, external recruiters, and less time-consuming searches. 

A U.K. industry study found that among companies actively using strategic talent pools for future hiring needs, a full 20% of total hires came from those pools. In addition, 60% of respondents ranked time to hire, 57% quality of hire, and 54% candidate engagement as the primary benefits they have received from using talent pools. Talent pools represent a rapport- and trust-building process that can be conducted with large groups of targeted individuals effectively as a precursor to, and driver of, more successful selection and hiring decisions.

Commonplace challenges and issues with talent pools

Talent pools offer tremendous value to recruiters and line managers when properly managed, yet too often suffer from a lack of attention, under-resourcing, and untimely use. Given that these pools of potential hires have a longer time horizon and uncertain interest that requires a relatively continuous investment of time and effort to sustain motivation, a lack of urgency and focus is often observed. That, unfortunately, drives the most common shortcomings, as the talent acquisition (TA) team's priorities focus on meeting current staffing needs. The factors that limit the effectiveness of talent pools and most commonly need to be addressed include:

Unclear ownership, accountability, and oversight

The question of who on the TA team is responsible for the ongoing health and viability of one or more of the talent pool(s) is an all-too-frequent shortcoming. Many organizations leave that to individual recruiters whose focus remains on sourcing, screening, and managing candidates for approved requisitions. Their goals and performance standards focus on the speed and volume of filling open jobs, not on managing longer-term marketing and relationship-building with potential candidates who may or may not be interested in applying, let alone accepting a job in the future.

Lack of screening protocols

Individuals included in talent pools are selected based on a preliminary screening that, at a surface level, confirms they have an appropriate combination of skills and experience that qualifies them for inclusion. Strategic talent pools are meant to be actively curated, down-selected, and updated. That means that people opting in for inclusion are reviewed and sorted or segmented by their education, experience, job level, industry, stated level of interest, or other criteria. Lacking any expert review or intervention, the value of pools is substantially diminished.

Not identified or flagged for readiness

When a new requisition is approved, recruiters can take the path of least resistance and effort by starting fresh sourcing activities. The reason is a combination of timeliness and availability: too often, people in talent pools or communities are not screened as ready for a career move, while those responding to a specific posting are clearly motivated. Without ongoing readiness evaluations (and tagging them for availability timeframes in the database), the likelihood of their agreeing to apply is lowered.

Suboptimized or under-utilized technology

A standalone ATS database of applicants is neither designed nor intended to operate as a talent pool repository. Even though numerous recruitment management technology vendors offer embedded (and stand-alone) candidate relationship management (CRM) capabilities, having such a data repository by itself does not automatically translate into the presence of legitimate talent pools. That requires human intervention to screen, sort, and categorize pool members, and then to create engagement plans, content, and cadences tailored to the interests and information preferences of subgroups. Collecting people without active, regular communication that will interest and engage some is nothing more than a database.

Under and over-communicating

A lack of proactivity in creating and distributing informative, appealing content that interests and engages talent pool members limits the effectiveness and undermines longer-term investments in talent pools. At the same time, too many postings and messages to individuals with lower interest and motivations can be experienced as a nuisance and have a similarly negative effect.

Treating a talent pool as a candidate slate

Timing is critical, and the people in talent pools are there because they do not necessarily fit a current or recent job opening. When recruiters use these for candidate slates, they ignore their value proposition as long-term attraction and sourcing activities. Furthermore, there is a substantial risk that the highest-value targets for future roles (e.g., those in high-demand skill sets) are more likely to be solicited by different recruiters for related roles, turning them off to considering any of them. The previously cited U.K. study found that while 73% of surveyed companies reported using talent pools, 29% reported a “poor” job of leveraging them due to staffing, time, and technology constraints.

Who to include in talent pools

Given their focus as a repository of future candidates who require further review and nurturing, talent pools should be populated with a narrower range of individuals who have ideally undergone some level of screening and review. As a result, building talent pools should start with individuals who were: 

• Previously screened and/or interviewed applicants
• Previously invited to interview, but declined due to availability and timing 
• “Silver medalists” who successfully interviewed but were not offered a job
• Offer declines who agreed to “stay in touch” for future opportunities
• Well-qualified employee referrals 
• Alumni whose resignation was considered “regrettable turnover”
• Passive candidates who opted in for updates through the career website.
• Contractors with demonstrated expertise
• Impressive professionals met at conferences, association meetings, or in social or community events

In organizations where internal mobility is valued and promoted, talent pools can be used to capture and track employees using technology platforms such as a talent marketplace, HRIS, or skills database. They can include employees identified in succession plans, high-potential (HiPo) lists, critical skills and experience groups, or, more broadly, all employees in a standard skills-and-capabilities database.

Data to collect and leverage

Talent pools are most effectively developed and maintained with data that can be used to parse, categorize, aggregate, and search for combinations that compare and contrast individuals within those pools. The information included in resumes, CVs, or online application forms serves as a starting point only; it is the data that is added to an individual’s record that makes talent pools most useful and robust. As these require periodic (including previous) interactions, added insights from prescreening, interviewing, or direct contact can be used to refine the grouping of individuals and identify when and under what circumstances they might be ready to consider new employment.

Skills: These are capabilities learned or acquired, the range and frequency of their application and practice, and the levels of proficiency achieved in each. Any proof of skills or proficiency levels related to certifications, educational, or professional credentials has especially high value.

Experiences: The work performed using the skills above. Focus on work and tasks performed in previous roles, as well as any responsibilities that might seem unrelated but could be useful in the future, such as project leadership roles by non-managers, which can predict management capabilities. Consider the range and progression of roles successfully performed as a sign of future potential.

Contexts: The breadth and depth of work experiences and environments. Data related to years of experience, industries in which capabilities were applied, uniqueness and variety of challenges, and business or operational circumstances faced and managed successfully. Candidacy readiness timeframes should also be included here.

Relevant technologies and applications for capture and collection

A variety of common HR systems are available to most talent acquisition teams and serve as a solid starting point, while others can be leveraged to expand the range and types of insights and build a more comprehensive understanding of the size and quality across multiple talent pools. Some core HR (HRIS, HRMS, HCMS) and ATS systems offer opt-in talent pool capabilities to support self-selection on their career site web pages. Otherwise, the most prominent technologies for building and managing talent pools include:

• ATS. This serves as an initial capture device and repository for interested applicants, their skills and experiences, and, when augmented by AI technologies, can enhance recruiters’ sourcing efforts.
• CRM. Whether embedded in or integrated with an ATS, this supports additional data collection, longer-term relationship management, tailored communications (individual or group), and direct, structured interactions that further qualify, engage, or better understand individuals worth targeting. 
• Skills management. These platforms are used to identify, develop, manage, and leverage the skills of candidates and employees. Many offer skill libraries or ontologies to support standardization. They enable the capture, validation, and reporting of individual capabilities and proficiency levels in a structured way. Talent marketplaces, most commonly used for internal purposes, are based on skills and can help identify candidates to include in talent pools. 
• Talent intelligence (TIPS) and Labor Market Insights platforms (LMIs). Platforms in this category offer great potential for sourcing passive candidates. They can be used to conduct supply-and-demand workforce planning exercises to identify where and who employ candidates with specified skill sets for targeting purposes. Some are also useful for individual candidate sourcing due to their use of intelligent (AI) web-crawling capabilities.
  
  

How to establish and build effective talent pools

1. Create or review strategic workforce plans and talent strategies 

Use strategic workforce planning in combination with talent strategy approaches to identify the roles projected for the greatest growth, the highest turnover risk, where they will be located, how many will be required, and in what timeframe. Solicit inputs from business leaders and HRBPs about future (6-24 months out) openings and requirements.

2. Identify the most strategically critical talent segments

Establish the highest-priority, strategic talent pools by conducting a critical workforce segmentation (CWS) exercise to identify the most urgent, business-aligned roles to source and fill that are low in availability and in high demand in the market. Create a pool for each of these to house their resumes, profiles, notes, and contact information.

3. Assign ownership and responsibility for pools

Each skill pool should have an individual(s) accountable for soliciting, tracking, communicating, creating content, and interacting with its members, with goals associated with pool growth, data updates, last contact, and hires sourced over time. Responsibilities may be split between staff members for planning and governance, content development, messaging, profile review and updates, and communications cadence.

4. Create individual talent “streams” or ponds

Segment the larger talent pools by job family or critical role segments. Use the community capabilities in a CRM to move people from the ATS or other candidate-collection repositories. Sort viable future candidates by skills, job or expertise levels, target industry, or competitor experience.

5. Generate a deep understanding of targeted talent pools

Conduct periodic surveys or focus groups with internal job holders to identify the critical factors in their initial and ongoing attraction to the organization, function, department, plant, or location. Get insights into what motivates them and adds meaning to their work lives. Ask them for referrals of similarly skilled and situated peers from college, professional associations, and prior employers who can be invited to join a talent pool.

6. Review the employment histories of current employees

Research trends to target and attract high performers into talent pools. Look for prior employers, universities, or industries that produce more hires, top performers, HiPos, and long-tenured employees. Search for company sizes and locations that produce more valued employees, as well as any other demographic or experience trends or insights that separate the highest quality hires from the rest. These become targets for searches and invitations into talent pools.

7. Conduct labor market intelligence assessments

Use external data sources to identify where potential talent pool members are located and concentrated, their availability levels, and the level of competitive demand. Clarify who the major and minor employers are, and research the tenure of their current job holders, how long it's been since a promotion, and whether they are potential targets for invitations to the appropriate talent pools.

8. Activate the pool through targeted outreach and engagement

Invite targeted individuals to join a talent pool (or “community”) on the company's careers page, during the application process, in social media posts, using Q-codes in presentations, and collateral materials. Use AI and web crawlers to identify potential candidates and send invitations to register for the talent pools. Create invitation campaigns that communicate a specific value proposition for them to register, leveraging lessons learned from current high performers (see step 5), such as promoting technology advances, R&D efforts, company culture, development resources, and advancement opportunities.

9. Develop “nurturing” capabilities

Members of talent pools should receive regular communications (e.g., monthly or quarterly) designed to attract and maintain their attention and interest using a variety of formats such as articles, fun skill tests, surveys, and webinar invitations. Choose topics that highlight the value of potential employment related to company culture, new product and service offerings, or marketplace and employee awards. Create interactive opportunities to learn more about promising individuals, and engage with and track them for signs of readiness to make a professional move.

Relevant Practices & Tools

Core Recruiting Strategy and Sourcing Practices to Effectively Identify and Attract the Right Talent. >

Recruiting practices used to fill job positions effectively and efficiently have evolved significantly over the last decade, with several approaches being adopted... more »

Identifying and Nurturing Effective Internal and External Talent Sources. >

The effectiveness and efficiency of the recruiting process will greatly depend on the organization’s ability to identify multiple sources of qualified candidates and nurture those channels on an ongoing basis... more »

Auto-generating Career Opportunities by an AI Technology-driven Talent Marketplace. >

Talent or Opportunity Marketplace systems are Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled software that have varying capabilities, but primarily match employee data to job requirements... more »

Accessing Full Talent Marketplace Ecosystems to Increase Engagement and Career Growth. >

A "talent or opportunity marketplace,"  most recently enabled by the use of AI-powered systems, matches individuals to existing job-related opportunities, including full-time positions, projects, gigs, coaching relationships, and even learning based on their experience, skills, interests, and other traits... more »

The Critical Talent Plan Summary Tool: Generate Estimates for Each Workforce Plan Mitigation Strategy to Manage Future Critical Roles. >

A format for guiding and recording the planning of both employee volumes and strategic actions to be taken to close talent gaps projected to occur in the future population of critical role workers for workforce planning uses... more »