Layer into that the fact that while 90% of professionals are interested in hearing about new opportunities, only a third of these will actively seek them out. (Source: LinkedIn). And if they are looking, you need to first figure out where they scan – is it social media, job boards, company hiring pages???
The value of a talent pool becomes apparent when you take away the need for the candidate to be looking, and have the recruiter take on that responsibility. Here is a verbatim phone call overheard in our office this afternoon:
“Hi, this is Melissa from Marberg Staffing, and you submitted a resume to us last year as a project manager with SAP implementation experience. We have a client currently looking for someone with your experience, would you be interested in this?”
When the answer is “yes”, this position won’t get posted on job boards or social media. The talent pool is always the first point of reference, because these candidates have been personally interviewed, and short-listed. We’ll ensure that their resume and references are up to date, but the guess-work is already done.
Developing a talent pool is difficult unless you see a lot of applicants, and can categorize them effectively. It also helps if you can specialize in a particular sector or market. Tech recruiters understand this, and Marberg focuses only on office positions. Corporations typically can’t compete with a specialized staffer when it comes to diving into the deep end of the talent pool.