Optimizing Talent Pipeline Management for Sustainable Growth

Key takeaways

Talent pipeline management is an effective strategy for identifying qualified individuals for the roles you need to fill presently or in the future.

• Talent pipeline management involves several steps, including screening candidates, advertising, providing upskilling opportunities for your employees, and offering internships.

• Utilizing a candidate relationship management system enables you to automate talent pipeline management tasks.

• You can grow a talent pipeline directly within your organization by upskilling your employees.

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What is talent pipeline management?

Talent pipeline management involves strategically identifying and engaging top talent in your professional field. With evolving demands and competitive hiring, companies may find it harder to identify qualified candidates for positions as they open. As a solution, companies can create “talent pipelines.” 

Talent pipelines are pools of potential candidates with highly desired qualifications. When you create one, your company communicates with candidates, builds rapport, and observes their demonstrated interest in working for your organization. When an opportunity arises within your company, you can quickly identify highly-trained, vetted candidates and begin your interview process.

Components of managing the talent pipeline

Talent pipeline management encompasses several steps, from initial outreach to hiring. While your talent management pipeline can depend on your industry and organization, you may find that managing a talent pipeline includes the following:

• Creating job postings to advertise open positions

• Designing recruitment videos to attract new candidates

• Screening potential candidates

• Advertising employee advancement paths

• Distributing email updates about workforce opportunities

• Creating career pages for your company website

• Promoting upskilling and reskilling opportunities for your employees

• Engaging with students or early-career professionals

• Offering internships or job shadowing

Why is talent pipeline management important?

When you build a talent pipeline, you develop relationships with current and prospective employees, even if you are not currently offering a new position. It creates a personal connection between you and potential candidates, opening the door for later conversations when new needs arise. It also helps you keep track of top talent in your field, so you can avoid reactive hiring when you need to fill a new role in your organization.

For example, consider that you’re part of a software company, and your team has recently decided to explore artificial intelligence. You now need to hire somebody with these skills for a new role on the team. If you have an established talent pipeline, you may have already communicated with several potential candidates with notable artificial intelligence skills over the last few months. You can pull up relevant files to identify these candidates. You also recently launched an artificial intelligence training program, and you know several current employees have completed it. 

Rather than struggling to find new candidates quickly, your talent pipeline has effectively completed the preliminary work on your behalf. You can feel confident starting the candidate search with a few vetted, highly qualified candidates with an established interest in your company.  

How to develop an effective talent pipeline

Developing a talent pipeline that benefits your company involves sourcing the right talent as well as providing training opportunities for your current employees.  Consider these steps to help you get started. 

Source talent strategically.

When building a talent pool, define the skills to prioritize in your potential candidates. To do this, consider your organization's projected short- and long-term needs. You may also want to think about your business priorities and the types of skills that can help your organization meet its goals in the coming years. Consider questions such as:

• How do you see your organization expanding? What types of skills may this require?

• What types of skills does your workforce need to compete against similar organizations?

• What skills do key business outcomes rely on?

• Do you have succession planning in place?

• Are you advertising roles in strategic locations?

Engage with talent.

Engaging with the talent you've sourced involves a personalized approach, building relationships, and having meaningful conversations with candidates about what you are looking for and what you can offer them. You can do this by sending personalized communication through career channels such as LinkedIn, hosting networking events, creating an online community, and developing groups where identified talent can be the first to see new announcements or open roles.

Build a talent database.

Once you have an established system for finding and engaging with talent, create a database to store information about potential candidates. When it comes time to fill an opening, this system can provide a clear, easy way to identify professionals with the relevant skills for the role. You may want to include pertinent metrics in your database, such as candidate skills, location, expertise, preferred roles, and experience levels.

Upskill and reskill current employees.

Not only does upskilling and reskilling your employees improve employee satisfaction, but it also helps build a talent pool within your organization. While you may be tempted to focus on a specific team or employee subset, consider employees across your entire organization when building your talent database and offering development opportunities. While an employee may currently hold a specific role, they may also possess a separate, underutilized skill set that’s an asset to your business.

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Examples of industries using the talent pipeline management model

Many industries already use talent pipeline management to bring high-quality talent into their workforce. Areas with notable talent pipelines include manufacturing, health care, and construction.

Manufacturing

Technology in the manufacturing industry is rapidly changing, so workers often need to upskill quickly to meet new demands and pivot to different job responsibilities. For example, many food processing companies partner with local colleges to help current employees build expertise to fill internal roles and facilitate apprenticeships and training programs for machine operators and maintenance technicians.

Health care

As more advanced diagnostic equipment and medical practices become mainstream, health care providers need to leverage the latest technologies to deliver the best patient care. While the demand for skill development and continual learning continues across medical sectors, notable talent pipelines exist for emergency medical services (EMS) providers, mental health providers, and long-term care professionals. 

Construction

In construction, talent pipelines facilitate current workers transitioning to similar positions by expanding existing skills to new materials and processes. Existing talent pipelines take current foremen and invest time into more technical training, such as carpentry or brasswork, as well as management training to have them take more active roles in overseeing projects. 

How to manage a talent pipeline

To get the most from your talent pipeline, you can implement strategies such as reviewing current talent, incorporating flexibility, and adopting automation tools. Learn more about how you can use these strategies to your benefit. 

Review your current talent

When implementing employee upskilling and reskilling programs, you may first want to identify candidates likely to succeed in these efforts. Consider reviewing current job performance and potential levels to determine which employees are ready to expand their skill sets and take on more advanced roles. Doing this creates a tangible representation of employees’ performance and offers a clear view of your workforce's productivity. 

For the employee review, the first metric to identify is the employee's performance level, which measures what the employee does and how they do it. You can develop your own classification system, but it can be as simple as classifying employee performance as weak, solid, or strong. 

Next, consider the employee's potential level. This factor encompasses employee skill, motivation, and commitment. Their potential level indicates whether the current role is at the edge of their ability, whether they have the potential to move up a level, or whether they are likely to thrive if promoted beyond just one level. 

Lastly, determine how quickly these upward movements are likely to take place. Is the employee currently ready? Or might it take a year or several years of training? Determining these employee measures helps identify candidates for internal development efforts, building a strong talent pool for your company.  

Offer flexible scheduling

Some working professionals may find it difficult to add training programs to their current schedules. To provide effective training programs, consider implementing education that fits around employee schedules and locations. If you can, bringing in professionals to work one-on-one with employees to design a program schedule suited for them can create a more collaborative process with a higher chance of success.

Use a CRM

A candidate relationship management (CRM) system can automate several steps of the recruitment and engagement process. Traditionally, talent pipeline management was exclusively manual, meaning hiring teams searched through candidate information and resumes to identify top prospects. Now, CRM systems automate processes that help you find and reach out to qualified professionals. 

CRM systems also track metrics, helping you clearly see what works. However, while these systems are helpful, they are not a replacement for personal relationships made throughout the hiring process. For best results, implement a combination of CRM and personal outreach strategies to manage your talent pipeline effectively.

Read more: What Is Corporate Training? Your Guide

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