Dr John Sullivan Talent Management Thought Leadership
Offer non-jobseekers who already admire your company a way to gradually learn more about it.
A Talent Pipeline Group Allows You To Build The Interest Of Those Who Already Admire Your Company
Yes, it’s common for top-performing employees, after they read or hear about other highly desirable corporations, to mentally decide, “Someday, I might want to work there.”
Unfortunately, few of these admired companies provide an opportunity for those who admire a company as a potential future employer to join a company-sponsored group in order to gradually learn more about the company and what it’s like to work there. The company can embrace those who already admire it by developing what I call a “Someday Group.“
The admired company uses an online communications channel to educate the group members about all aspects of the company. Obviously, the admired company also benefits because it gains a new sourcing channel/talent pipeline that is filled with individuals committed to “working at your company someday.” The building of this talent pipeline and prospect communications channel allows your recruiting function to avoid the “panic sourcing” many corporations face. And because few other corporations are currently putting together one of these groups, adding it will allow your company to gain a recruiting competitive advantage in your industry.
The Design Of This “Someday Group” Approach Is Based On The Customer Loyalty Model
A “someday group” (SG) is recruiting’s version of the highly successful customer loyalty program operated by corporate marketing. The program’s goal is to slowly build future recruiting prospects’ interest, loyalty, and engagement so that this group eventually becomes a primary recruiting source for most of your hard-to-fill jobs.
To remain homogeneous, membership in the group is limited to those who have initially decided to put your company on their top five career stops list. Then, at least monthly, the members of this pipeline group are sent positive information designed to educate them about your company in order to build their interest, trust, and loyalty.
And within a few months after they have joined the group, recruiters and hiring managers go through the backgrounds of recently added members. With their permission, this process allows recruiters to identify the pipeline members who are the best fit for their upcoming open jobs. These targeted members can then be sent a handful of open jobs they might be interested in.
| You’ll be surprised to learn – Nestlé Purina PetCare once used their talent pipeline of over 1 million prospects to completely fill 100% of their new plant’s jobs well before a single job officially opened. |
The Advantages Provided By The “Someday Group” Approach
Today, when most recruiting leaders are focused on AI and technology apps, many in recruiting have unfortunately drifted away from the critical role of relationship building. That means it is now becoming a competitive advantage for a corporation to provide mechanisms that allow it to build trust relationships with future potential recruits. The top advantages of this someday group program are listed below, with the most impactful ones appearing early on the list.
It attracts the best candidates who are almost always future-focused – in a rapidly changing world. The most desirable employees in every field are those who are continually thinking about and planning for the future. This means that future-focused people will also likely be putting together a list of their top five most admired companies. So that they will be more likely to sign up for and participate in your someday group.
It attracts the most desirable candidates who want to be part of a strong employer brand – this SG effort is obviously a sourcing tool. Yet, fortunately, it can also be a tool for building your company’s employer brand. Strengthening your employer brand is critical when recruiting top performers and innovators. They have shown a desire to work at a company with a strong employer brand. Because that strong brand and being widely admired will mean their work will be more widely seen and recognized. Incidentally, because so many more individuals will be learning about and then informally spreading what makes your company admired, you can anticipate that your SG effort will also improve your company’s ratings on employer comment sites like Glassdoor.com.
Your SG will minimize the need for “panic sourcing” – one of the leading causes of weak hires is what I label as panic sourcing, where recruiters are in a rush to fill candidates’ slates. There is simply not enough time to identify and thoroughly vet the best candidates. Fortunately, much of that rush sourcing isn’t needed with SG sourcing. Your recruiters will already know the members of the pipeline group.
It provides the time to build a trusting relationship with future prospects – because top talent has multiple job choices. They almost always require a relationship of trust before they talk to an outside corporate recruiter. Fortunately, under this someday approach, each of the group’s members will have numerous opportunities to learn from and begin to trust your best employees.
Your messages to potential candidates will be more believable – because standard recruiting messages are written by PR people and dulled down by lawyers. These recruiting messages tend to be rated as less authentic by potential candidates. However, the messages sent to members of the Someday Group are usually completely unscreened. They are normally considered to be quite authentic. And that authenticity will increase the believability, credibility, and impact of your SG messages.
This SG approach will help group members minimize the appearance of an active job search – because all of the members of the SG will be currently employed and not currently in job search mode. These individuals run the risk of being accused of disloyalty should their colleagues assume that they are in job search mode. Fortunately, that accusation can be easily minimized by revealing that nothing in this group is about recruiting for current job openings. It can also be labeled accurately as a learning group because the group will receive information about your company’s best practices.
Group members will also likely become better customers – if your corporation sells mostly to consumers. When part of the educational content focuses on the unique products and services you offer consumers, it may provide your company with the added side benefit of an increase in product sales.
The SG approach allows you to create narrower subgroups – because the learning interests of the members of the group may vary significantly across all members. Some recruiting leaders at larger companies may find it desirable to create subgroups. These subgroups can focus on individual business units, product groups, job families, or regions. By creating these micro-groups, you will likely see an increase in the engagement level across all members.
Attracting group members may be easier than you think – because potential group members aren’t looking for a job. Most of your standard recruiting messages won’t have any effect on them. So, in order to attract those who already admire your company. The description of the group, how to sign up, and what you will learn will need to appear on the main corporate landing page and each of your primary social media landing pages. Announcements about this group should also occur during your company’s podcasts. As well as other information pieces that cover the future of your company.
Recommended Action
Today, almost everything in recruiting is designed to happen fast in order to reduce your time to fill (TTF). An extended TTF will mean that you will routinely lose almost all top candidates to your competitors who were faster in providing their offers. Unfortunately, there are still numerous cases where you won’t ever be able to land a high-value prospect without the use of a talent pipeline. This approach stands out among all sourcing and recruiting strategies because it is the only one that allows your company to take its time when attempting to recruit high-value prospects.
For example, you will find that fully employed high-value targets that have yet to enter job search mode simply can’t be rushed. So, the recruiter and the hiring manager may literally have to wait six months or longer before a prospect moves into job search mode. Likewise, high-value targets are especially reluctant to formally complete an application (because applying makes them feel disloyal to their current colleagues). It may take weeks before they will commit to formally applying. Of course, all high-value prospects require the establishment of a strong trust relationship with the recruiter and the hiring manager. They may need months of relationship building before they will even agree to be interviewed.
So, my final action recommendation is that in order to maximize your recruiting effectiveness, you will need two different sourcing/recruiting channels that operate at different speeds. The standard one that moves fast so that your offer is one of the first that a top candidate will receive, and “a slow as you go” pipeline sourcing/recruiting channel. This second channel provides more time for critical sourcing and recruiting steps, including prospect assessment, relationship building, and convincing reluctant candidates to apply.
Notes for the reader
This is the latest article from Dr. Sullivan, who was called “the Michael Jordan of Hiring” by Fast Company.
Also, please take the time either to follow Dr. Sullivan or to request a connection with him on LinkedIn.
