Finding the right talent is often challenging, and as many as 75% of companies struggle to recruit effectively.

Whatever industry you're in, sourcing talent when you need it is vital. Every business relies on the skills and dedication of its employees, so you want to make sure you have a team that's going to help guide your company toward success.

There are all kinds of candidate-sourcing methods that different businesses have implemented over the years, and some are more effective than others. You want to have an understanding of the ones that work best and how you can implement them.

In this guide, we'll go over some of the most effective talent acquisition strategies that you could use for your business. Let's get started.

Create an Ideal Candidate Persona

Before you even start looking for new talent, you should determine what you're after. An ideal candidate persona is perfect for this.

Create a profile that details the specific skills, qualifications, and characteristics that you need. This will help you find the most relevant candidates.

When you create any job listings, you can base them around this persona. When candidates are looking at the listing, they'll have a much clearer idea of whether or not they fit the role.

Revisit Former Candidates

The average corporate role receives about 250 applications, and you could easily get more than this. You'll only interview a handful of these; then just one will get the job. This means that there were 249 people who felt like they fit the role but weren't successful.

When another position comes up, one of these 249 applicants could be perfect for it. It can be a good idea to review these candidates and engage with the ones who seem to fit the ideal candidate persona you created.

You should already have their data, which most businesses save in a recruitment management system (RMS), applicant tracking system (ATS), or another database. This can help you go through these candidates effectively.

In some cases, you won't even need to advertise the position at all. You may be able to find the perfect person out of your previous candidates, helping streamline the recruitment process.

Create and Maintain a Sourcing Pipeline

With a suitable RMS, you can use data from previous candidates to create and maintain a sourcing pipeline. You can build the foundation from this data, and you could also consider adding passive candidates to the pipeline. These are candidates who aren't currently seeking new opportunities but may be in the future.

If you prefer, however, you could create a separate pipeline for passive candidates. This may help keep things more organized as these ones won't have been through the same vetting process yet.

You can categorize candidates within this pipeline based on skills, qualifications, and experience. This will help you better match them to future job openings.

Analyze the qualifications and skills of past candidates and compare them to the future hiring needs of your organization. Look for any skill gaps so you can determine which areas may need a stronger talent pool.

Keep your active and passive candidates separate within the RMS data. Having separate segments will make sure your outreach and engagement go to the right candidates.

Use your sourcing pipeline to regularly communicate with candidates. You can implement a nurturing strategy including elements like company updates and relevant job alerts to keep them in the loop.

‍

Read full article here