The importance of building talent relationships
We’ve all heard it before, recruiting top talent is hard. That’s because recruiting is a high-priority function that has major impact on the success of a business. If recruiters match candidates to the wrong job opportunity, they could be making a very costly mistake.
In order to attract and retain top talent, talent acquisition teams should take a step back and analyze their recruiting strategy. If your recruiting strategy is reactive, you could be missing out on high-quality candidates. Instead, focus on a more proactive recruiting strategy by building relationships and engaging with candidates.
In order to move from reactive to proactive, you have to understand the entire ‘future’ recruiting function. A recruiter’s role is to connect great candidates with great companies.
To understand the importance of building talent relationships, look back on the positive relationships you’ve had in your life whether they are personal or professional. Many positive relationships you’ve had, specifically professionally, are inspiring and have even led to new experiences and opportunities.
Talent relationships are a very important aspect to the role of a successful recruiter. A successful recruiter builds relationships based on trust with potential candidates, which is important in order to convince attractive candidates that your company is the best fit.
Many recruiters and talent acquisition professionals understand the importance of building talent relationships, but struggle to pull off the process itself. This is because recruiting is not just about the recruiting just as selling is not just about the selling. Rare are the times that you find the perfect candidate and they immediately accept the job. In order to find that perfect match, you must create a talent relationship that is built on successful communication, trust, and engagement.
Instead of sending out mass amounts of emails to potential candidates, you should zoom in on top candidates and focus on capturing their interest with continual engagement tactics. Suggest relevant blogs, videos and other content to keep the candidate engaged and to also help the candidate to envision themselves in a position at your company.
Maintain communication and reach out to potential candidates on a regular basis with personalized communication in order to gage the candidates’ interest in the available position.
Don’t forget to always be patient and to listen for signs that a candidate is interested in the position or company. Also, don’t forget to look for candidates that might fit an alternate position or could be a good fit for the company in the future. Focus more heavily on the aspect of building successful talent relationships than just filling the available position. Having strong talent relationships will propel your ability to recruit top talent for more positions at your company.
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