5 Strategies to Build A Sustainable Talent Pool With Outbound Recruiting

Recruiters have to be smart and strategic in today’s candidate-driven market. On top of reviewing resumes and applications, scheduling phone screens, meeting with hiring managers, recruiting tasks can sometimes go haywire without the right strategy. That’s why recruiters need to build a talent pool to streamline the process and build a relationship with candidates to keep them interested throughout the process.

What is a talent pool and why is it important?

A talent pool is a database of candidates interested in working for your organization. It is a hub with a mix of applicants including passive candidates, past applicants, and even former employees. A talent pool is a starting point for every sourcing effort and serves almost as a safety net for backup candidates.

Outbound recruiting and your talent pool

We’ve talked about why inbound recruiting isn’t as feasible today compared to a decade ago and why recruiters need to switch to outbound recruiting to stay ahead of the competition. If you haven’t already, check out some of the best outbound recruiting practices to help recruit, attract and retain candidates in today’s highly competitive market. To build a sustainable talent pool, here are five strategies that can help. 

Strategy 1: Revisit existing data and set new expectations 

The first approach in maximizing your outbound recruiting efforts to build a sustainable talent pool is to review all existing data to evaluate potential problems and take action to set new expectations. 

For example, reviewing existing data metrics allows recruiters to redefine their sourcing efforts and recruiting strategy. This “filtering” process clarifies which channels and strategies are working and what’s not. Based on the data, setting new expectations and goals will allow recruiting teams to leverage a more feasible approach to create a more solid talent pool. 

💡 Pro Tip: Recruiters should also take the current job market and candidate job movement insights into consideration as well to redefine new expectations and goals.

Strategy 2: Integrate your ATS platform and enrich candidate profiles

Recruiters often rely on their Applicant Tracking System (ATS) platform for the hiring and recruiting process. An ATS platform is designed to help recruiters and employers track candidates throughout the recruiting and hiring process. By integrating your ATS platform and enriching your candidate profiles, you can build a more sustainable and manageable talent pool with updated candidate information to source from. 

Learn more about hireEZ’s Integration and integrate your current ATS for updated candidate profiles.

Strategy 3: Only target the candidates who fit the role 

After integrating your ATS platform and discovering updated candidate profiles, it is time to reach out to candidates. However, here’s the trick, to avoid mass emailing candidates or “spamming” unqualified candidates, it is best to target candidates who fit the role. 

Targeting suitable candidates will help improve the quality of your overall talent pool and even improve candidate relationships.

Strategy 4: Quality over quantity

Regarding reaching out to candidates, mass emailing candidates does not increase the quality of candidates sourced, as a matter of fact, the quality of candidates decreases with the wrong targeting. If the quality of the candidates that you find is not up to your needs and expectations, we’re then back to square one. Hence, choosing suitable candidates to reach out to is essential to build a sustainable talent pool.

Strategy 5: Personalize everything

Lastly, keep candidates engaged and make your pitch personal and memorable. Address any exciting information that you found about the candidate. 

For example, have they been out of work for some time but you’re impressed with their past experiences? Or have they been working on a project on an impressive GitHub project that you have come across? Utilize your research and make an effort to craft a memorable message. 

Building a sustainable talent pool requires effort

Here are the five strategies to help you maximize your outbound recruiting efforts to create and manage a sustainable talent pool. To avoid the stress of cleaning up your talent pool in the long run, it is best to start strong with clear expectations for your recruitment approach.

Talk to our sales team today to learn more about how hireEZ can help you streamline your hiring process and recruitment efforts.