What is a Talent Pipeline? | Yello Blog

What’s the difference between a talent pipeline and a talent pool?

A talent pipeline consists of candidates who have already been deemed qualified for a particular position, whereas a talent pool is a broader group of candidates that have not been fully vetted to enter a talent pipeline.

Who uses a talent pipeline?

Talent pipelines are primarily used by recruiters and hiring managers to keep candidates organized and engaged for job openings.

How do candidates enter a talent pipeline?

Candidates first enter talent pools from a number of different sources, including job boards, employee referrals, past applicants, career fairs, talent communities, and recruiter sourcing searches through applicant tracking systems, resume databases and the internet. With these candidates, recruiters build active and passive talent pipelines to determine the best candidates for the role.

What is the difference between an active pipeline and a passive pipeline?  

An active talent pipeline consists of applicants currently applying or interviewing for positions. A passive talent pipeline is made up of candidates who are not actively searching for new positions n, but have previously expressed interest in working with your company as a prior applicant, former employee, or having made contact through a hiring event, talent community or employee referral network.

How does a talent pipeline work?

Recruiters fill talent pipelines by recruiting proactively. Rather than scouring for a qualified candidate as soon as a new position opens up, a talent pipeline allows a recruiter to choose from a list of candidates who are already qualified for the role.

To fill talent pipelines, recruiters should first identify positions they know they will be hiring for several  years down the line. This often includes high turnover positions, roles with ongoing hiring needs due to growth or positions requiring a high degree of specialization.

Next, using candidate relationship management (CRM) software, recruiters begin sorting candidates using tags, folders and auto-categorizing to narrow down the best possibilities for a specific role. CRM software enables recruiters to create any number of talent pipelines to keep qualified candidates ready for the next open position.

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What are the benefits of building a talent pipeline?

Talent pipelines help companies save time, money and energy by streamlining the recruiting process in the following ways:

• Identifying top talent.

  Talent pipelines allow recruiters to find and build relationships with talent over time, spotting the best potential hires before the competition.

• Faster fills.

  Building talent pipelines help recruiters adopt a proactive recruitment approach reducing time-to-hire by engaging a group of candidates at a moment’s notice.

• Lower cost-per-hire.

  Drawing from a talent pipeline cuts back on ongoing recruitment costs by minimizing the amount of time spent engaging unqualified candidates, reducing the need for advertising on external job boards, and shrinking the overall amount of time it takes to source candidates.

• Better interviews.

  Engaging with candidates who have an established relationship with your company helps personalize the job interview process, creating personalized candidate experiences with well-informed recruiters.

• Less disruption.

  Talent communities enable recruiters to plan for open roles in advance and tap a pool of qualified candidates in the case of an unexpected opening, keeping operations running smoothly.