5 Steps To Unlock Your Hiring Potential With Alternative Talent Pools
As the war for talent rages, learn how to find and use alternative talent pools to attract the right talent.
The war for quality talent continues as we near the end of 2022. But sticking to traditional hiring strategies will not help companies attract the right talent. As such, it may be time for companies to expand their talent pools. Check out these five steps to find alternative talent pools and use them to attract the right talent.
Think back, for a second, to spring 2020. The world’s economy collapsed under the weight of the then-new COVID-19 pandemic. According to studies, unemployment rates in the U.S. surpassed 14%. The word “pivot” became a favorite buzzword as entire industries struggled to figure out how to adapt to “the new normal,” yet another phrase on repeat.
Now jump to today. Employment numbers have done a 180. In June 2022— the most recent data available — there were 0.6 unemployed people for every job opening, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Other than a few months this past spring, this ratio is the tightest we’ve seen in this century.
Today’s employment numbers are far from the record-setting numbers at the pandemic’s peak, yet low unemployment poses a significant challenge in its own right. With more companies competing for a limited number of job searchers, sticking to the same hiring strategies may not be enough to enable your company to hire the right people. It may be time to expand your sourcing strategy to help your company grow with a new approach: alternative sourcing pipelines.
In this article, I’ll share five steps to finding alternative talent pools and using them best.
Let’s start with some necessary work mindset to find the best candidates.
Rethink Your Idea of Who’s a Good Fit
It used to be that gaps in a resume or a later-in-life career change sent up red flags for HR professionals. If the pandemic, and its effects on the HR field, taught us anything, it’s this: life happens, and we all could use a little grace.
So while you might have had an original idea of an ideal candidate (like a certain number of years of experience, a particular educational background, or a straight line in their career trajectory), that image could limit your ability to find the right candidate. You never know: someone with experience in various industries could bring the fresh perspective you need in a stellar employee. Or someone with fewer years of experience might be closer in age to your target customer and, therefore, more in tune with what motivates their purchasing decision.
Keeping an open mind and changing job requirements to preferences can go a long way to finding great candidates in more places.
Partner With Alternative Workforce Organizations
Turning to organizations that develop alternative talent is like standing on the shoulders of giants. They do a lot of the work in identifying potential, teaching skills, and getting people ready for a new career.
Your company can find eager, passionate applicants who will work hard to prove they’re more than worth an offer. The people who have come up through the alternative workforce organization get a chance to channel their talent and enthusiasm into a job well done when other employers might have disqualified them due to restrictive qualification filters.
When you develop a relationship with alternative workforce organizations, you can rely on their connections to find suitable candidates more quickly. You can explain the technical and professional skills you’re looking for so the organization can suggest potential applicants.
Not sure where to look? Turn to reskilling organizations, online education or training programs, vocational schools, or nonprofits that help veterans or formerly incarcerated persons reenter the workforce.
Make Hiring Goals Achievable With Concrete OKRs
You know that saying, “What gets measured, gets managed”? There’s a good reason this business wisdom gets repeated.
Can you weave hiring and/or retention goals into company-wide OKRs? If your company already does this, can you drill down even further? What about setting a concrete goal of hiring a certain number of people from alternative talent pools this quarter?
This goal can ladder up to your broader workforce strategy. It makes your approach to hiring more sustainable because you’re not combing through the same sources repeatedly. Moreover, seeking potential hires from alternative talent pools can relieve some pressure on compensation inflation.
See More: The Role of OKR Software in Engaging and Retaining Employees
Go Where Your Candidates Hang Out
Yes, every job seeker “hangs out” on LinkedIn and Indeed. In addition to working within these go-to sourcing platforms, go where potential candidates want to hang out.
For example, here at BloomTech, we’ve set transparent goals around the diversity of our staff. We proactively seek out candidates whose varied backgrounds, expertise, and ideas enrich the company and our community. We report on our progress quarterly in company-wide meetings, which is a great motivator.
While it makes business sense for us to turn to these platforms consistently, it will be important for each organization to consider what communities or affinity groups could be a strong fit as alternative talent pools.
Take Advantage of AI-powered Sourcing Tech
As you probably know all too well, passive sourcing alone won’t fill open positions and keep your company thriving. Tossing up job postings and hoping for the best isn’t a viable strategy. That’s why you need to search proactively.
The trouble is, you don’t have time to be everywhere at once. That’s where smart sourcing technology comes in.
I recommend using an AI-powered sourcing tool. You can input requirements for an open role, plus parameters about the kind of talent you’re looking for, and the tool will scrape websites and professional platforms to find candidates.
Looking beyond the usual sources gives you access to talent you may have missed out on. It also provides nontraditional talent a chance to shine when they might be overlooked in typical recruiting circles. Hiring managers and people teams save time while locating a more diverse range of candidates. And companies can thrive when they bring on motivated employees of different backgrounds.
With the right sourcing strategy, everyone benefits.
What steps have you taken to find the right talent for your organization? Share with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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