How to maximise your pipeline with less effort

According to a recent report, the global talent shortage is at a 16-year high. Three out of four employers report difficulty in finding the talent they need.

Companies need new hires when they grow, have new goals, or when existing employees leave. Given the shortage of talent, a modern recruiter cannot just sit around and wait for one of these things to happen before they start recruiting candidates. This is where a talent pipeline comes in.

What is a Talent Pipeline?

Simply put, a talent pipeline is a pool of qualified talent a company may want to hire into existing or future positions. A pipeline filled with candidates helps recruiters hire better workers, reduce time to hire, and improve candidate experience.

Without a talent pipeline, you need to start from scratch every time a position needs to be filled. It takes most companies from one to four months to process a new hire. It is an awful waste of time and a talent pipeline can prevent it.

How Can You Optimise Your Pipeline with Less Effort?

Big companies such as Deloitte can hire hundreds of recruiters and hold major recruiting events. They can reach deeper into the talent pipeline through initiatives like the Deloitte University, where they run apprenticeship programs involving thousands of students.

Large enterprises have a lot of effort to spend on building deep and wide talent pipelines. But can an average recruitment company also avail the benefits of a talent pipeline?

The answer is yes, absolutely. Take the following steps:

1. Analyse your clients strategic goals.

Is your client’s company planning to expand significantly over the next one to five years? Work with their hiring managers to identify their long-term talent needs and the skills that your company needs to acquire as well as the timings of acquisition.

2. Create a candidate sourcing strategy.

After you have understood your clients needs, develop a strategy to actively search for candidates rather than waiting for them to apply. Common candidate sourcing methods include social sourcing through LinkedIn and other social networks, referrals, networking events, and candidate databases.

3. Reach out to new candidates.

This is where outreach apps like SuperReach enter the picture. SuperReach helps you find, contact and follow up on candidates using machine-learning optimised email sequences that you can automate and scale. The tool works on LinkedIn, with Facebook and other channels coming soon.

4. Refine your pipeline.

You have a pipeline full of candidates, but are they the best fit for your client’s company? You won’t know until you assess the candidates and determine if their skills align with your company’s culture and goals. Assess candidates based on the new skills they add to your company and the future challenges they are equipped to overcome.

Using tools like SuperReach frees up hours of time per recruiter per day, meaning that the assessment period can be prioritised as outreach is working for you in the background.

5. Nurture the candidates.

Nurture the candidates in your pipeline by sending them regular messages without irritating them. Candidate nurturing is essential to make sure that the best candidates will be available and excited to work for your company when you need them.

Whilst SuperReach is focused on providing recruitment and sales companies the tools they need to scale outreach, our sequences can be set-up to nurture candidates to ensure you’re keeping contact with them throughout their notice periods, ensuring they remain on track to start at your client when they’re supposed to!

We hope that by following the above steps you’ll be able to create and maximise your pipeline without breaking the bank or burning your midnight oil. Let us know what you think in your comments below.