So says Sara Whitman, one of the multitude of talent leaders buying into the persuasive philosophy of continuous recruiting. If it isn’t on your radar yet, here’s why it should be.

The idea of continuous recruiting is aptly named and compellingly simple. Your company should always be hiring, instead of merely waiting for a vacancy to arise before you go out looking. It’s a principle neatly summed up by talent strategist Candice McGlen:

“Talent acquisition is not a reactive function.”

As a continuous recruiter, you’re in active control of the hiring process. With your antennae in perpetual motion, you spend your Quadrant 2 time identifying the best prospects for your key functions and adding them to your talent pool. Informational or exploratory interviews usually have a big part to play.

As a result, when your CMO is poached by a sexy fintech start-up, you don’t fall into the habitual flurry of panic as you frantically fire up your hiring machine to look for the best available replacement. Instead, you’re able to save the day with a couple of calm calls to a top-tier candidate who’s already expressed an interest in talking about the right future role.

It’s such a smart method of recruiting, particularly for larger companies able to forecast their major talent gaps. Think of the revenue you lose, the stress you undergo, and the pressure you put on the employees picking up the slack every time you go through the reactive process described in the last paragraph.

And yet a 2014 CareerBuilder study found that only 38% of employers continuously recruit for potential future openings.

Now more than ever, as a new generation enters the workforce with new priorities and rules of engagement, it’s time for the other 62% to come on board. Generation Z begins interacting with admired brands on social media way before they start thinking about their career. For them, a fulfilling career looks set to be defined more by brand affinity than job titles.

In this context, the importance of a strong employer brand and an always-on approach to candidate interaction is impossible to overstate. Those who remain reactive will find themselves behind the game, or as Michele Markey of Skillpath puts it:

“If you’re only recruiting talent when there are open positions, you’ll end up with the best of the leftovers.”

A sentiment which we, as unstinting experts in talent pipelining, wholeheartedly endorse.

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The post This is Why the Smartest Recruiters Never Stop Recruiting appeared first on EWS.

If the EWS fairy could grant you one hiring wish, what would it be? To make qualified, pre-screened candidates magically appear before your eyes, ready to fill vital vacancies the moment they arise?

Your wish is our command, with no magic wand required. If you can reset your recruiting mindset from whack-a-mole vacancy plugging to proactive planning and relationship building, the benefits of talent pipelining are yours to reap for years to come.

There’s a reason why more and more top global employers are adopting a talent pipelining strategy for their mission-critical roles. Actually there are several reasons and we’ll get onto them shortly. But first of all, let’s be completely clear what we’re talking about.

What is talent pipelining?

The principle of talent pipelines is simple. If you know where your company’s key talent gaps are, it’s a good idea to plan in advance how you fill them, rather than merely responding as and when they arise.

First you identify and reach out to quality passive candidates in your chosen market. You’re not contacting them about a specific job, but forging a relationship, bringing them into your world and immersing them in your uniquely compelling company story.

The aim is to create a talent pool overflowing with these passive but interested candidates. You keep in contact regularly, establishing culture fit, updating them on your plans and staying in touch with theirs. Then, when the right opportunity comes along, your dream candidates are warmed up and ready to dive in – making the process smoother and cleaner for everyone involved.

What are the benefits?

So now, back to the reasons why talent pipelining done well is the path to recruiting nirvana. There are four main virtues.

1. Talent pipelining cuts time to hire

Your talent pipeline is a fast track to relevant, pre-screened warm leads for your most important roles. If it takes some time and resources to set up in the first place, the outlay is more than made up for by your ability to move fast when it matters most to your organisation. If you need any help, we’re here to get things up and running.

2. Talent pipelining cuts cost per hire

You stand to save significant amounts of money in two ways. First, this is a direct sourcing initiative with massive potential to reduce your reliance on expensive agencies. Second, by selecting from a familiar, pre-engaged talent pool, you reduce the chances of making bad hires and incurring all the damaging costs that come with them.

3. Talent pipelining improves candidate quality

When you’re the one making the approach, you’re the one controlling the quality of candidates in your pipeline. The effect is compounded by the argument that passive candidates are better candidates. You’re talking to people not actively looking to move on from their current job, which shows commitment, loyalty and integrity. And when the time does come to make a decision on your future opportunity, they’re more likely to say yes or no for the right reasons.

4. Talent pipelining makes recruitment a strategic driver

The best talent teams are interested in so much more than bums on seats. Strategic talent planning lets you future-proof your organisation by making smart preparations to overcome hiring challenges in the years ahead. Talent pipelining is the centrepiece of any robust talent strategy, as many of our clients will tell you…

We’ve been working with a Tier 1 bank for several years to continually build market knowledge and connections for future vacancies. Today, a significant proportion of the successful approaches we make are to candidates mapped up to three years ago.

We’ve helped another client, a global tech corporation, to build flourishing talent pipelines across sales, account management and systems engineering, throughout EMEA and LatAm. The ability to stockpile talent for hard-to-fill roles in challenging markets is clearly another big plus for talent pipelining.

Planning through turmoil

Crucially, if ever there was a time to start building your talent pipeline, this is it.

We live in an age of global uncertainty that shows no imminent sign of stabilising. For some the response is to cling on and hope to ride out the storm. Others see the opportunity to put in place systems and strategies to prepare for the future business landscape, whatever it looks like.

A well-stocked and nourished talent pool lets organisations plan for their potential hiring needs in any number of possible futures.

Another way of putting it: the only future you really need worry about is the one in which you never get round to developing your talent pipeline.

Those in the know, share. If you think your network would find inspiration in this post, we’ve made it really easy for you to tell them using the LinkedIn Share button below.

The post Talent Pipelining 101: What You Need to Know and Why You Need to Know it Now appeared first on EWS.