In these post covid times, everything that we knew about our talent is changing. It can be said that every organization as well as every individual has gone through a reset mode and are looking at everything with a fresh pair of eyes. What does it mean to us as Recruitment professionals? It means the game is on! The war for talent has come to our doorstep and we should be ready for it. 

The pandemic has caused an unprecedented wave of tech adoption for businesses across all industries – as companies learned to work remotely and connect with customers virtually, they essentially crammed a decade’s worth of tech adoption and digital transformation into a single whirlwind year.

Companies across the globe are looking at unprecedented growth! They are looking to hire more and more talent across roles and geographies. So, every individual is getting more opportunities to choose from. In addition to that, more than 60% of companies have opened their option to “work from anywhere”. Which means one can stay in his hometown but for an organization which doesn’t even have their presence in that state! This hybrid model is going to revolutionize the hiring philosophy – where an employee lives will be less tied to where their employer is located than ever before.

So, what can one do to ensure they are able to safeguard their current employees from getting lured into this balckhole of opportunities and ensure they are able to attract more and more talent from the external market? 

One of the possible outcomes of this Talent war for a recruiter can be “Talent communities” which basically means to engage with external talent on a regular basis. 

A talent community is a sourcing strategy that is an ongoing, multifaceted approach to candidate engagement that creates employment brand ambassadors and a talent pool that begins to feed itself. It is a process rather than an event and takes continual effort to maintain.

Why is it necessary?

This pandemic has surely changed the way we recruit, and we are still evolving. So how does one get out of this as a winner!!Building your talent communities for key and specific tech stack can be helpful. 

Finding talent is getting tougher and tougher. It is truly a candidate driven market with business growing quarter on quarter. Strong tech candidates are being reached out to by multiple recruiters at any given point. So, it becomes imperative that the right messaging is being done with them. The right information about your organization, your culture is being shared across. 

There is also a big disruption in where the right talent can be found. Now with the hybrid model of office and work from home options. Candidates have access to more opportunities across the world. This basically implies that organizations are no longer tied to source candidates from a region closer to office, and this in my opinion is a game changer. This means your talent communities or pools can surely be bigger and heavier.

So while this is not a new way to recruit or even source. It surely will be a step forward in building something critical for your organization in the long run. 

How do we build a talent community?

Talent community is a pool of talent that you as a recruiter believe will be a good fit in your organization. Now, it is not necessary that one needs to have an open role for them. These are specific individuals that you have sourced, connected, met at an event and you believe that they would be a good fit for your organization soon. (They are sorted by criteria such as Educational background, Companies they have worked for, Technology etc.). Any candidate might not be looking out immediately but still follows your organization on a social media page. These are the ones that can be kept engaged and informed with your talent community. 

Few points that are crucial for any successful talent community is –

• Target group 
• Goal setting 
• Engagement strategy 
• Tools

One generally asks this question as to “who” should be part of the community? Should it be your general audience, or should there be a more specific approach? The answer is simple- It is up to you! As a recruiter you get to decide which skill of yours requires to be built into a talent community. Should it be a niche skill or role or should it be a repeating skill. 

The race for top talent requires a deep understanding by the recruiter on what a candidate wants in their next role. While the question does not have one common answer, however there are few ways in which you can tilt them towards your organization. Talent communities is a multiyear project. One should invest time to build and nurture it. Once you have clarity on which direction your TC should be moving, that is when you start seeding the community. They are not a good strategy for reactive recruitment but an effective tool for proactive recruitment.

As it is rightly said, companies are successful if you have the right people by your side at the right time. Invest in the right tools and on the right talent. One can surely be on the right side of the big talent war.