Two people meet on the street.
“Hi, how are you today?”
“I’m great thanks. And you?”
“Great.
Repeat this thousands of times per day as we move along our own separate ways, whether we’re really great or not, and what do we have?
Lots of insincere transactions. And we live with them, although that doesn’t make for tight-knit community. It makes for a polite one, but not one that’s necessarily a collaborative or problem-solving one.
Businesses today need collaborative, problem-solvers across all positions, from management to front-line. If you’re sourcing and recruiting them the old school way, via job boards and cold calls, or even the new pseudo-two-way transactional play, via social recruiting, which includes creating talent communities, otherwise known as talent pools – there are choices to make.
But applicants aren’t applicants unless they apply, and transactions aren’t meaningful for applicants that aren’t applicants unless they’re of authentic quality, not of faux frequency.
There are two things that differentiate true talent communities from talent pipelines and resume databases of old. The quality of interactions, not the quantity, make the community. And members are members, not applicants, at least until they apply for a job.
I shared some of this yesterday, and after last night’s #TChat Radio Show, it certainly rang truer with our amazing panel of “talent community” experts:
- Marvin Smith, Senior Research Recruiter, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Anthony Knierim, Web & Emerging Technologies Global Leader, Aon by day / RadMatter by night
- KC Donovan, CEO, Upwardly Me
- Maren Hogan, Head of Marketing, US, BraveNewTalent
- Harpaul Sambhi, CEO, Careerify
And one thing that was resoundingly agreed on was the fact that the talent pipeline days of old don’t make for talent communities; they make for resume databases. Sending relevant (not always unfortunately) employment brand and job information to your database of semi-warm bodies may be enough for the small percentage of potential applicants who want to apply for a job or two and get out quick, isn’t enough for the rest of the folks who need a little more small-group authentic interaction.
Imagine if certain key employees were seeded appropriately and spread that authentic interaction throughout, as well as your 2-way communication and lots of other types of “engagement” activities and assessments…
Imagine how much these quality interactions will help those in hiring get to know the talent in community, inside and out.
Imagine that.
Read Matt Charney’s precap here as well as the questions. The #TChat Twitter chat and #TChat Radio are created and hosted by @MeghanMBiro @KevinWGrossman and powered by our friends and partners @TalentCulture @Monster_WORKS @MonsterCareers @HRmarketer and of course @Focus.
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