Punith Suvarna
Senior Director, Talent Acquisition & Global Leader
Companies are growing multifold and each company has its own vision, mission, purpose and goals. It is important to align talent strategy with the business strategy and be able to attract the right talent. Today, everyone wants to hire the best talent while at the same time every company tries to retain their best talent by providing them a clear career growth by understanding their aspirations.
Most of the talent org's leverage tools to understand the total addressable market and get market insights in order to come up with their strategy to attract talent. The talent team puts in a lot of effort to make one hire, but if the offer is not accepted or if the candidate is not right for the role, the overall business deliverables is impacted. To attract talent, most of the companies are adopting the concept of "Everyone is a Recruiter" where every member in the org is accountable to attract right talent to the organization. Building a Talent community through proactive talent engagement especially for passive hard to find and niche skills will help us better utilize the resources and talent we have already invested in.
How to build a Talent Community: It's an investment to attract the best and right talent to the company. We can create a Talent
Community based on skills and have a strategy to engage with future talent. The below steps can be followed to build a Talent Community.
1. Clearly define Employer Value Proposition: There are numerous talent communities. Members can opt for any based on their interest. So, it is important that we clearly define our value proposition, vision and strategy around Identifying, Engaging, Nurturing and Converting talent and also clearly define how we are different from other talent communities in the market.
2. Choose a Platform: Determine how to engage talent and which platform would be better. There are a few platforms which are free, but if the company has a budget to invest in a CRM tool, it will help scale and integrate with Applicant Tracking system.
3. Identify Moderators: It is important to identify moderators (with clearly defined roles and responsibilities) who can engage with talent on a periodic basis. For Tech Talent community, it is always good to identify 2 or 3 Technical moderators as they can connect with the Tech community better, while the Talent team can play the role of "Gate-Keepers" by identifying the right talent to the community and sharing the right information about the company.
4. Identify Target Community Members: Determine a set of criteria that will help identify priority talent community members. These criteria need not be necessarily specific to a role, but can be more broadly focused on the individual's potential and the skills and experience they will bring to the company.
5. Sourcing Methodology: There are ways you can source prospective candidates for the Talent Community. Prioritize the people who you have invested the most time and money in to - passive applicants, 1st degree connections, members engaged through hosted events etc. These people are the best as you have already reviewed their credentials and know them in person.
6. Create Content Calendar: Create a content calendar based on Talent Community. The Talent Community is not the place to do any job postings. Create content that is relevant and interesting to the audience.
7. Success Measures: Once the Talent community is launched, it is important to define success measures like Open & Click through Rate, engagement, conversion etc., and measure it on a quarterly basis.
1. Clearly define Employer Value Proposition: There are numerous talent communities. Members can opt for any based on their interest. So, it is important that we clearly define our value proposition, vision and strategy around Identifying, Engaging, Nurturing and Converting talent and also clearly define how we are different from other talent communities in the market.
2. Choose a Platform: Determine how to engage talent and which platform would be better. There are a few platforms which are free, but if the company has a budget to invest in a CRM tool, it will help scale and integrate with Applicant Tracking system.
3. Identify Moderators: It is important to identify moderators (with clearly defined roles and responsibilities) who can engage with talent on a periodic basis. For Tech Talent community, it is always good to identify 2 or 3 Technical moderators as they can connect with the Tech community better, while the Talent team can play the role of "Gate-Keepers" by identifying the right talent to the community and sharing the right information about the company.
4. Identify Target Community Members: Determine a set of criteria that will help identify priority talent community members. These criteria need not be necessarily specific to a role, but can be more broadly focused on the individual's potential and the skills and experience they will bring to the company.
Most of the talent org's leverage tools to understand the total addressable market and get market insights in order to come up with their strategy to attract talent
5. Sourcing Methodology: There are ways you can source prospective candidates for the Talent Community. Prioritize the people who you have invested the most time and money in to - passive applicants, 1st degree connections, members engaged through hosted events etc. These people are the best as you have already reviewed their credentials and know them in person.
6. Create Content Calendar: Create a content calendar based on Talent Community. The Talent Community is not the place to do any job postings. Create content that is relevant and interesting to the audience.
7. Success Measures: Once the Talent community is launched, it is important to define success measures like Open & Click through Rate, engagement, conversion etc., and measure it on a quarterly basis.
