If you’re a regular WorkPuzzle reader, you know that I occasionally share some insight from Peter Weddle. Peter recently authored a book called WorkStrong: Your Personal Career Fitness System, and writes a blog (also called WorkStrong) to support his publishing effort. 
While these are great resources, I still seem to gain the most insight from his “old-fashioned email newsletter” that he publishes twice a month. While the delivery method of this publication may seem a little “old-school,” the ideas he presents are often way ahead of their time.
This is exactly the case for his most recent newsletter regarding the future of recruiting pipelines. Here is some of what Peter had to say:
“What's the number one problem with today's talent pipelines? Attrition. According to research, the number of people bailing out of recruiter-built networks typically reaches forty percent or more each year. Given the time and effort required to load a pipeline, that's a huge loss for any organization.
Unfortunately, for many organizations, a talent pipeline is simply a resume database redux. Oh sure, today's pipelines are built on social media sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, but there's very little social activity actually going on. In fact, if there's any communications at all with the people in the pipeline, it's either repurposed job postings or hard sell promotions designed to drive traffic to the organization's website.”
Peter goes on to ask an important question: What is the ideal purpose of a talent pipeline?
If the goal is to just provide a passageway for candidates to move from a passive to an active candidate state, then the results will always be mediocre. But, if the goal is to provide skilled agents from competitive companies a way of experiencing your organization, then your talent pipeline could become the best tool in your recruiting toolbox.
Peter explains why this small distinction makes such a significant difference:
“[Talented individuals] are almost always employed, so to recruit them, you must get them to do the one thing we humans most hate to do: change. You have to get them to leave their current employer, turn down offers from other employers and accept a position you're trying to fill for your employer.
That outcome simply will not occur with repurposed job postings and hard sell promotions. In fact, research indicates that the single best trigger for motivating change among passive, high caliber candidates isn't requirements and responsibilities, but reality – a reality they have the time to recognize and appreciate.
The best talent wants to know what it's like to work in your organization. Before they will even consider a job, they need to have a sense of what their employment experience will be like. To put it more bluntly, they must be assured that their personality and principles are aligned with the organization's culture and values so they will be comfortable in its work environment and, able to continue their career success by performing at their peak.”
Read the first sentence of that last paragraph again…"The best talent wants to know what it’s like to work in your organization.”
Providing this experience is the ideal purpose of a talent pipeline.
In our next discussion, we’ll learn how most companies make some common mistakes in trying to make this happen, and how you can avoid them as you start to use this important tool in your recruiting efforts.
Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.
