Did you have a favorite superhero growing up? What was the special power that made them unstoppable against evildoers? Maybe you loved Superman’s super strength and X-ray vision or perhaps Spiderman with his spidey senses and killer agility navigating the rooftops of New York with his webstrings. Just like a superhero’s special power, a streamlined recruitment process’s special power of applicant pooling enhances talent acquisition efforts across many companies.
Imagine that your recruitment team is like a modern-day superhero with the power of qualified candidates ready to leap into open requisitions. This strategic approach allows businesses to tackle various challenges head-on much like Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth unveils her enemies’ true motives. Let’s learn more about applicant pooling, its benefits, and how to build a strong effective applicant pool for future hiring campaigns.
What is Applicant Pooling?
Applicant pooling is the practice of gathering qualified candidates who are ready to be considered for open positions as the time comes. This recruitment practice works for general talent acquisition and high-volume hiring efforts. Practicing applicant pooling is most effective when your company has evergreen job postings that regularly build the talent pool throughout the year.
Generating power of applicant pooling for recruitment streamlines the hiring process by having qualified candidates ready for outreach efforts. This reduces extra time spent waiting for candidates to apply to sponsored job posts when the requisition first opens.
The Power of Applicant Pooling in Recruitment
Applicant pooling is pivotal for reducing the time and effort spent on screening and sourcing candidates when a requisition opens. Hence, the recruitment team can identify candidates who are a cultural and technical fit for the requisitions quickly rather than beginning the hiring process from scratch.
An applicant pool helps organizations to craft a robust, high-quality talent pipeline with easy accessibility. As open requisitions occur, the recruitment team can analyze their current talent pool of qualified candidates to begin onboarding immediately. This strategic approach restores peak operational efficiency as quickly as possible. Hence, there’s less time spent on onboarding as the recruitment team evaluates cultural and technical fit amongst the candidates already in the talent pool.
Benefits of Applicant Pooling
Integrating applicant pooling into general or high-volume recruitment has many benefits. Faster time-to-hire, reduced recruitment costs, improved candidate quality, and developing a talent pipeline for future hiring are the top perks.
Faster Time-to-Hire
Pooling candidates for faster hiring is essential for restoring operational efficiency for the company so there are no open requisitions in the company for a long time. Maintaining a quality applicant pool ensures that the recruitment team can quickly identify suitable candidates for open roles while keeping recruitment costs low.
Reduced Recruitment Costs
Candidate pooling is a vital tactic for lowering hiring expenditures. Posting sponsored job posts to quickly hire candidates (if your talent pool is low) can become costly over time. Instead, institute evergreen job postings on your website, social media platforms, and job boards for a steady flow of candidates into your company’s talent pool.
Improved Candidate Quality
Candidate quality can increase with a larger talent pool at your disposal. Having access to a group of pre-screened, qualified applicants can ensure you are only working with the best-qualified candidates for open roles in your company. This reduces bad hires while increasing candidate retention rates.
Talent Pipeline for Future Hiring
An applicant pool is for current and future hiring needs within your organization. This readily gives you access to active and passive candidates. The passive candidates may be open to other opportunities if they present themselves, but they are not in the market for a new job at the moment. However, reaching out to these passive candidates can increase the likelihood of them changing companies if your company provides better compensation and benefits.
Ultimately, an applicant pool allows the recruitment team to keep in touch with qualified candidates over time. Recruitment personnel can reach out to these qualified candidates in the future to see if any of the organization’s open roles suit their career interests.
How To Build an Effective Talent Pool
Unwrapping the power of applicant pooling takes strategy, effort, and upkeep efforts as you build one. Take each necessary step to unlock your company’s applicant pool to its fullest potential.
Create Strong Employer Branding
Attracting the best candidates in your industry involves building a strong employer brand. Answer this question to interested candidates: What makes your company unique and a great place to work? Integrate your company’s mission and vision statements on your organization’s career page so candidates can learn more before and after applying for an open requisition.
Engage with potential candidates on social media postings about these open requisitions. Answer their questions promptly within at least 24 hours of them posting their comment. Even if they do not have a question, respond to a person’s comment within that same time frame to show your company is responsive and desiring to engage with candidates and customers.
Use Technology To Your Advantage
Technology is your best friend with applicant pooling. An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a state-of-the-art hiring technology that centralizes the hiring process on one platform. Applicant pooling is possible with this technology because it utilizes AI-driven resume parsing and application screening to separate candidates into different talent pools based on their past job experience and educational background. The AI screening can also select specific keywords from candidates’ resumes to showcase which applicants are of higher quality.
Engage With Candidates
Engaging with candidates is essential for keeping their interest, even if their application is a part of the future talent pipeline. Send updates on company news and newsletters to candidates’ emails so they don’t forget about their original interest in your company. Don’t forget to send job alerts. You never know if a candidate who was originally interested in one position may want to apply for a more recently opened requisition.
Diversify Your Sourcing Channels
Candidate sourcing is important for continued success in applicant pooling. Find the best job board and highest-performing social media platform where the best candidates have come from in prior hiring campaigns. Utilize these channels to your advantage to increase your talent pool. Instituting an employee referral program could enhance your talent acquisition efforts better than general methods. The Erin app reports that about 84% of businesses utilize employee referral programs and that employees onboarded from these programs have a 40% higher likelihood of staying with the company than traditional new hires.
