What is a Talent Pool?
A talent pool is a database of professionals who have either expressed an interest in working for you or been identified by your team as someone possessing the experience, qualifications, or skills that are typically in demand at your organisation. Your talent pool could include:
- Current employees
- Former employees
- Employee referrals
- Unsuccessful candidates
- Previously sourced candidates
- Students and future graduates
- Passive jobseekers
- Active jobseekers, and more
Building and maintaining a high-quality talent pool is a proactive way of streamlining your hiring process, as it ensures you’re continuously nurturing top talent even when you’re not actively hiring, ultimately supporting your long-term recruitment strategy. When done successfully, it can also help you to stay ahead of your competition, as you’ll be building long-term relationships with passive as well as active talent, staying ahead of your organisation’s hiring needs.
In this article, we look at the key benefits of actively growing your pool of Life Science talent and provide practical advice on how to achieve this.
What are the Benefits of Growing Your Life Science Talent Pool?
Having a pool of high-quality talent at your disposal can ultimately reduce the costs and time spent by your team on the hiring process. Although it will take time initially to start building your pool, as well as time to keep those in your pool engaged with your organisation, you won’t be starting your candidate search from scratch each time you post a role. Having a pool of talent who already possess the skills or experience that you’re looking for also means you’ll be focusing more of your time on the most relevant candidates whose suitability has already been validated.
Given that you have a system in place to continuously replenish your talent pool along with changing organisational needs, and you’re keeping those in your pool engaged, you’ll be able to create a reserve of top talent to help you stay ahead of your hiring needs. Regardless of how you decide to collect and store contact information in your talent pool, ensure you’re following the relevant data protection regulations in your region, and that you’re taking steps to prevent unconscious bias creeping into your talent pool.
Who Should You Include in Your Talent Pool?
Who you include in your talent pool and how you segment it will depend on your organisation’s hiring goals and your existing methods of candidate attraction. You may want to include:
Current Employees
Don’t overlook your existing employees, as these are the people who really know what it’s like to work for your organisation and are (hopefully) already thriving there! Having an internal mobility strategy in place will support employees looking to move roles either vertically or laterally within your organisation, helping you to improve your retention rates and reduce some of the costs associated with hiring.
Former Employees
If a former employee left your organisation on good terms and expressed an interest in returning in the future, then there’s no reason they should be left out of your talent pool. 40% of employees said they would consider ‘boomeranging’ back to a company where they had previously worked, with Millennials being the group the most likely to do so. To make sure you don’t miss out on bringing top talent back to your organisation, refine your offboarding process to maintain positive relationships with employees who leave.
Employee Referrals
Having an employee referral strategy in place is a cost-effective way of bringing talent to your organisation, with referrals reportedly costing 41% less than non-referral hires. Referral programs can also improve time-to-hire and quality-of-hire, as referrals are vetted by your employees who know both them and your organisation. Even if a referral doesn’t work out, continue to encourage your employees to look out for top talent in their professional networks, and keep that talent in your pool for future roles.
Unsuccessful Candidates
If a candidate applies for one of your roles and isn’t successful despite being well qualified and a good cultural fit, include them in your talent pool too. Ensure you’re offering an excellent candidate experience throughout the entire hiring process, from the initial email confirming their application, to the rejection email and beyond. Do this by:
- Personalising your communication
- Being clear about next steps and timeframes, and adhering to these
- Answering questions clearly and promptly
- Being honest about both your company culture and the role requirements
- Sharing constructive feedback
- Expressing interest in keeping in touch and encouraging candidates to apply for future opportunities
Previously Sourced Candidates
You could also include potential candidates you have communicated with in the past, but who you didn’t have a suitable role for at the time. You may also want to include candidates who you have previously sourced but didn’t have the resources to contact and nurture. These people could already have expressed an interest in working for you or have registered with an agency or job board to signal their interest in a new role.
Students and Future Graduates
Students and upcoming graduates are worth feeding into your talent pool as you’ll be able to give them their first taste of the business world. You’ll be providing them with invaluable experience whilst also getting the opportunity to identify standout candidates who could join you in the future. Investing in early talent can contribute to long-term growth for your company, as long as you can demonstrate your commitment to continually developing this talent throughout their careers.
Active Jobseekers
If jobseekers have signed up to an agency or job board, or have enabled their #OpenToWork feature on LinkedIn, they’re not only flagging themselves as an active jobseeker to you, but also to your competitors. This is why it’s so important to be proactively searching for and engaging active jobseekers, rather than hoping that they find you.
Using a niche job board such as PharmiWeb.Jobs can help you to reach this talent, with features designed to make hiring within the Life Sciences as seamless and cost-effective as possible. Whether you opt for a targeted email campaign to send your vacancies straight to your target audience, or an employer branded careers hub to present your organisation as an employer of choice, we’ll work with you to help you reach some of the best candidates in your field and stay ahead of the competition.
Passive Jobseekers
You need to be attracting people to your organisation before, during, and after you have recruitment needs, and this means capturing the attention of people who aren’t actively jobseeking (and not just by sending them a cold LinkedIn inMail!). Proactively grow your network with people in the industry you think would be a good fit for your organisation.
Rather than focusing solely on what you could gain from having them in your network, think about the value you can add by being in their professional circle too. Do you have interesting or original content you can share with them? Are there any upcoming events you can invite them to? Whatever your approach, make sure it’s personalised and focused on starting a long-term professional relationship, rather than just growing your contacts list.
