Recruiters: time to launch your candidate community!

The number one objective of a recruiter, or Talent Acquisition Manager, is to find new candidates for his company. Even more than that, their mission is to hire real "talents" with more or less rare skills and more or less atypical backgrounds.

This is a complex task when you consider that 2022 is a record year for the need for talent... This has increased by 12% compared to 2021, bringing the number of offers to over 3 million in France.

So how do we overcome these famous shortages of candidates when the need is growing?

You start by creating your own pool...

What exactly is a fishpond?

It is a database that lists all the profiles of potential candidates who can respond to recruitment problems.

It will serve as a database through which you can request certain profiles that you may not have selected. Because we all know: a profile that was not selected may be selected again!

But before you create one or even several, you must first answer this question: what are your recruitment challenges for the coming year?

Once you have found the answer, you will need to refine it:

• What types of recruitment? PERMANENT? FIXED-TERM CONTRACT? Internship? Work experience? Freelance ?
• Are there any maternity leaves to anticipate?
• Will there be periods of challenge when you will need reinforcements?
• Are there any one-off assignments?

All these questions meet the main objective of saving time. And moreover, to anticipate needs.

Once you have done this, you can consider the next step: should I create a single pool or several?

There are no right answers here, it is your vision of recruitment that will prevail!

However, the advantage of having several pools is qualitative. This means that you will find it much easier to qualify a profile by addressing it in a personalised manner.

For example, you may decide to create pools per team:

• 1 pool for the marketing team.
• 1 pool for the product team.
• 1 pool for the sales team, etc.

By separating your pools in this way, you can refine your search by choosing the specificity you want. Whether it is related to the job or to the geographical area (very useful for regional teams, for example), the type of position, availability, etc., you will be able to find the right person for the job.

The fish tank is above all a tool. So you can think of it and create it as you wish, from a simple Excel spreadsheet to the use of some dedicated tools like Welcome To The Jungle or Huntool.

...and then turn it into a real community!

You will probably ask the question: why create a pool AND a community?

Quite simply because all this stored data must be optimised. The creation of a community then makes sense for these multiple reasons:

• Refocusing the individual at the heart of HR concerns.
• Create and maintain a link to develop a feeling of loyalty and belonging to the brand.
• To bring value to the daily lives of these candidates.
• Save time in qualifying profiles, etc.

This notion of a community of candidates is simply born out of the notion of business development.

In marketing, there are two techniques for finding a prospect:

1. Outbound marketing = we go and find the prospect.
2. Inbound Marketing = we bring the prospect to us.

By applying this diagram to your HR needs, you will quickly realise the need to think with these 2 tools: the pool and the community.

To manage this community, you can create a private Facebook or LinkedIn group or even create your own platform for interaction.

This will require you to work on animation, which will require, first and foremost, hard-hitting content:

• articles related to the jobs of your candidates.
• publications on the life of your company (seminars, staff portraits, anniversaries, etc.).
• advice to help potential candidates in their daily lives (e.g. training offered by accredited organisations).
• interviews with professionals in the sector.
• testimonials from your internal talent.
• infographics/key figures, etc.

The more impactful and relevant content you publish, the more you will engage them and make them want to join your journey.

The logic is similar to brands selling a product and their prospects.

They understood that relevant content published with recurrent frequency created a lasting link over time. It also helps them stand out from the competition.

Your employer brand can be applied in the same way.

By thinking of your database as a real community, you will gain in confidence and proximity so that you no longer have to recruit a talent in no time!