By Kieran Scally, VP Resourcing Solutions, Ochre House
With 90% of APAC organisations not effectively pipelining talent what can you do to ensure you get the right talent at the right time?
What will drive the future success of your organisation in APAC? Aggressive growth? Entering new markets? Launching the next must-have product perhaps?
It may be all three. However, no matter what future course your business has plotted, its success will rely on flawless execution.
In turn, flawless execution will increasingly depend on your organisation’s ability to attract, engage, develop and retain the best possible talent available in the region today, in order to achieve a better tomorrow.
Talent pipelining is the identification of individuals who are qualified and interested in your brand and who your organisation may want consider hiring in the future.
There are three key reasons why as a HR professional you should devote time and effort to such an exercise even before you have live roles to fill:
It may be all three. However, no matter what future course your business has plotted, its success will rely on flawless execution.
In turn, flawless execution will increasingly depend on your organisation’s ability to attract, engage, develop and retain the best possible talent available in the region today, in order to achieve a better tomorrow.
Talent pipelining is the identification of individuals who are qualified and interested in your brand and who your organisation may want consider hiring in the future.
There are three key reasons why as a HR professional you should devote time and effort to such an exercise even before you have live roles to fill:
1. Reduced time-to-hire
If you’ve identified qualified individuals who want to work for you, it means you’re not sourcing a candidate from scratch each time a new role is released.
2. Reduced cost-of-hire
If you’ve identified qualified individuals who want to work for you, it means you’re not sourcing a candidate from scratch each time a new role is released.
2. Reduced cost-of-hire
If you’ve built a talent pool, you will be in dialogue with candidates before agency recruiters are—therefore saving yourself from an unnecessary agency fee.
3. Access to better quality talent
3. Access to better quality talent
Pipelining allows you to build relationships with ‘passive’ individuals i.e. those not actively looking for a new role right now—which research suggests are better performers. You cannot do this if you’re only ‘grabbing from the market’ each time a role is released.
Whilst all of the organisations surveyed in a recent study by Ochre House agreed it made sense to pipeline, 90% of APAC organisations are still not doing so. If it makes sense, why not do it? In fairness, talent pipelining is not an easy thing to do, especially in APAC. This can be attributed to a number of reasons ranging from lack of internal resources to lack of in-house understanding of where to find and how best to connect with candidates.
The survey found that it was widely accepted by companies that job boards were not the best way to find candidates in APAC, but rather that personal networks were much more effective.
Surprisingly, many of the organisations involved in the research said that they felt their in-house resourcing team was purely reactive. When the internal team is not pipelining effectively, many organisations turn to third party recruitment agencies for help. The problem with this is that it may be in the interests of traditional recruitment agencies to push HR to make a hiring decision as quickly as possible. For many old-school recruitment agencies: decision = invoice = commission.
Consequently, few traditional recruitment agencies will help organisations to pipeline, because by doing so they never know when they will be able to get their fee. That sought-after candidate on their database will get your agency recruiter their commission payment much quicker than if they were sold to the highest and fastest bidder—which in APAC, is likely to be your direct competitor. From the research, we see that organisations in APAC appear to be doing one of two things:
little or nothing in terms of pipelining—carrying the substantial risk of losing talent to their competitors; or
relying on their third party recruitment agencies to deliver the talent they need—paying a premium for the privilege.
In real terms, organisations are either standing still or writing a blank cheque. Are these two options really acceptable to your business and what is the solution? Well, organisations have to start pipelining—some way, somehow. Do not worry, there are some really simple things that you and your team can do to make a good start.
Personal and social networks
As mentioned previously, it is widely accepted in APAC that job boards are not as effective in this region as they are in other parts of the world, but social networks are booming in Asia—it is all about who you know! How many of your recruitment team have professional profiles on networking sites like Linkedin, Weibo or Ushi for example?
You are not right for us at
the moment
Maybe not, but what about in six months? What does your team do with candidates who apply speculatively? Are their details really kept for future roles or are they ‘lost in space’? Keep a hold of their details somewhere, even if it is only on a basic spreadsheet, you do not need an elaborate recruitment system to save a MS Word document and a telephone number. If you do not, that candidate you lost could be the next GM of your competitor.
Get your team out there
Do any members of your team actively participate in networking events? They should be. In-house recruiters should be ‘talent attractors’ and ambassadors for your brand. If they never get the opportunity to meet people, how can they tell anyone what a great employer their organisation is to work for? Not everyone is comfortable in a networking situation—but some team members might be really good at it.
These are just three simple, inexpensive examples of how to get started with building your talent pool—there are, of course, many more—but at least you are on your way. If you try one or two of the suggestions in this paper, you will be one crucial step closer to finding the individuals you are looking for.
Whilst all of the organisations surveyed in a recent study by Ochre House agreed it made sense to pipeline, 90% of APAC organisations are still not doing so. If it makes sense, why not do it? In fairness, talent pipelining is not an easy thing to do, especially in APAC. This can be attributed to a number of reasons ranging from lack of internal resources to lack of in-house understanding of where to find and how best to connect with candidates.
The survey found that it was widely accepted by companies that job boards were not the best way to find candidates in APAC, but rather that personal networks were much more effective.
Surprisingly, many of the organisations involved in the research said that they felt their in-house resourcing team was purely reactive. When the internal team is not pipelining effectively, many organisations turn to third party recruitment agencies for help. The problem with this is that it may be in the interests of traditional recruitment agencies to push HR to make a hiring decision as quickly as possible. For many old-school recruitment agencies: decision = invoice = commission.
Consequently, few traditional recruitment agencies will help organisations to pipeline, because by doing so they never know when they will be able to get their fee. That sought-after candidate on their database will get your agency recruiter their commission payment much quicker than if they were sold to the highest and fastest bidder—which in APAC, is likely to be your direct competitor. From the research, we see that organisations in APAC appear to be doing one of two things:
little or nothing in terms of pipelining—carrying the substantial risk of losing talent to their competitors; or
relying on their third party recruitment agencies to deliver the talent they need—paying a premium for the privilege.
In real terms, organisations are either standing still or writing a blank cheque. Are these two options really acceptable to your business and what is the solution? Well, organisations have to start pipelining—some way, somehow. Do not worry, there are some really simple things that you and your team can do to make a good start.
Personal and social networks
As mentioned previously, it is widely accepted in APAC that job boards are not as effective in this region as they are in other parts of the world, but social networks are booming in Asia—it is all about who you know! How many of your recruitment team have professional profiles on networking sites like Linkedin, Weibo or Ushi for example?
You are not right for us at
the moment
Maybe not, but what about in six months? What does your team do with candidates who apply speculatively? Are their details really kept for future roles or are they ‘lost in space’? Keep a hold of their details somewhere, even if it is only on a basic spreadsheet, you do not need an elaborate recruitment system to save a MS Word document and a telephone number. If you do not, that candidate you lost could be the next GM of your competitor.
Get your team out there
Do any members of your team actively participate in networking events? They should be. In-house recruiters should be ‘talent attractors’ and ambassadors for your brand. If they never get the opportunity to meet people, how can they tell anyone what a great employer their organisation is to work for? Not everyone is comfortable in a networking situation—but some team members might be really good at it.
These are just three simple, inexpensive examples of how to get started with building your talent pool—there are, of course, many more—but at least you are on your way. If you try one or two of the suggestions in this paper, you will be one crucial step closer to finding the individuals you are looking for.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
