9 Tips for Building a Talent Pipeline to Support Business Growth in 2023

Many companies aren’t too interested in hiring additional people right now, but even if you don’t need to hire anyone, you need to focus on keeping employees on the side and ensure you build up a talent pipeline.

Each company might have hard-to-fill positions, so having to search for the right fit isn’t all that easy. Also, let’s not forget how time-consuming it may be, so having a reserved talent pipeline is always something good. 

To help you optimize your pipeline efforts, it’s best to make the most use of your time by following some tips that’ll support your business growth in 2023. Let’s dive deeper into this article. 

1. Create a performance improvement plan (PIP) 

A performance improvement plan (PIP) is also known as a performance review and is a formal document that lists all performance issues associated with productivity issues. Performance improvement plans can be successful from anything that involves extra training to regular check-ins with a manager that strongly depends on the goals and situation of the company. 

PIPs are usually designed for all employees who have some deficit. Considering that, the case might be that employees don’t have adequate training or experience, or even, they may not use the proper employee engagement tools. It’s always important to identify the problem your employees are facing and address them as soon as possible. 

When ideal performance levels aren’t met, sometimes it can be because of the following issues: 

• Lack of appreciation

• Office cultural shifts 

• Shifts in employee well-being and more 

As a part of your performance improvement plan, you can consider incorporating an employee benefits program. Employee benefit plans include life and health insurance, free health checkups and more. This is a great way to show appreciation towards your employees and for increasing their satisfaction in your company. 

2. Manage your hiring process 

Managing your hiring process is an important trait in your business. As a popular option, many will consider using HackerRank to optimize their hiring process, but the issue here is that it doesn’t work well at all times. Some of the most common issues associated with HackerRank are: 

• Cheating possibilities 
• Doesn’t have a one-way video interview 
• Lack of candidate management 
• Unintuitive interface 
• Lack of cognitive ability testing 

However, don’t worry because there are some alternatives to HackerRank available that you can use to optimize the hiring process. Here are the ones we recommend: 

• TestGorilla 

• CodeSignal 

• eSkill

• DoSelect 

• WeCP

• Skillspace 

3. Connect with hiring managers and leaders that align with your goals

Building a talent pipeline involves connecting with the right people, and you can only do this if you connect with the right leaders and hiring managers. The correct first step in hiring the right candidate is to make sure they are aligned with your goals in the company. If your candidates aren’t on the same page, you’ll encounter more issues further in the process. 

You should always be clear with your team on whether they should source candidates for their future roles or not and how much time they should spend doing so. This gives your team more time on strengthening their diversity and building relationships with the communities you want to communicate with the most. 

4. Prioritize your hard to fill in positions 

Many positions are harder to fill compared to others, especially some that require a certain skill set or many years of experience. It’s always important to be aware of positions that are hardest to fill in, and always aim to fill your talent pipeline with candidates that have the necessary qualifications for taking on these roles. 

After all, filling in your talent pipeline is easier done in the earlier stages. Even if their skillset isn’t at your required level, you can try to train them earlier on, so they can build up the required skills and competencies to a level that is necessary for the role. 

5. Use social media channels 

Social media can have a huge impact on brand interactions among all generations (X, Y, Z). Therefore, finding talent on social media and building up your employer brand should be considered your priority. 

For instance, LinkedIn is a B2B social media platform that can be used for finding top talents. Other social media channels are also excellent for finding the right talents. 

However, LinkedIn is strictly dedicated to this and allows you to scan through candidates' profiles to learn more about their work experience and what kind of goals and objectives they have. Let’s not also forget that 87% of recruiters are using LinkedIn as their primary source of recruiting.

6. Consider referral programs 

An employee referral program provides you with a structured way of managing and accepting referrals from employees. Providing referrals will encourage employees to recommend high-quality candidates. 78% of B2B marketers claim that referral programs are an excellent way of generating leads. 

In other words, referred candidates will be an excellent fit and might be more excited compared to passive candidates. 

7. Reach out to people 

You don’t get it if you don’t ask. Even if you are a business owner, manager, or any other high position in the hierarchy, it’s never a bad idea to reach out to candidates directly. 

You can do this through email, social media, or any other form of communication you find fit. 

Talent communities bring passive and active job candidates together based on their interests. These communities include both related interests and opportunities for building up your network and creating more opportunities. 

8. Simplify your candidate journey 

Candidates are in high demand currently, and unemployment and inflation levels are hitting people hard. The market will balance out soon, but here are a few things numerous people don’t want to go through: 

• Spend too much time on an application 

• Waste time on companies that don’t give them an answer 

• Go through multiscreen applications 

• Wasting too much time on career sites 

• Sending out their resume to multiple job applications 

When we say people are tired, we mean it. There are so many people applying to different positions, and it gets exhausting over time. Therefore, simplifying the hiring process can make a difference. To do this, you can include chatbots for answering your questions about salary and benefits, quick start dates, and more. Don’t make your candidates wait, give them an instant reply. After all, everyone has a busy schedule, so this matters a lot. 

Simplify the candidate journey, and it’ll be easier for passive candidates to apply. Making someone wait for long periods of time isn’t a smart idea and can only increase candidates leaving. Many of those candidates might be talented people, so pay special attention to this and reduce their time consumption as much as you can. 

9. Hire an agency 

There are plenty of recruitment agencies you can hire to do the work for you. Recruitment agencies firmly focus on hiring talents and the best part about it is that you can directly contact the candidate without having to search for them. This is a huge advantage of having to search for the candidates yourself and reduces time consumption. 

Something to take into consideration when hiring a recruitment agency is that you’ll need to pay them on a monthly or yearly basis. However, keep in mind that prolonging hiring times will result in more additional costs, so it’s never a wrong idea to hire a recruitment agency. After all, you want to pay for quality and not quantity. 

If you’re looking for a proper recruitment agency to hire, you can consider the following options: 

• Toptal

• DHR Global 

• Manpower 

• Hays 

• Atrium and more 

Always carefully choose when hiring a recruitment agency because they all differ from each other. Make sure that the recruitment agency you are using is considering top talents in their talent pipeline. Numerous recruitment agencies gather up the wrong candidates, and this isn’t good practice. 

The final breakdown 

Building your talent pipeline matters a lot in a business, and it’s the backbone of supporting your business growth. With inflation being so high and the economy having a few challenges this year, it’s crucial to hire the right candidates. 

Nobody wants you to waste their time, and neither do you want the same to happen to you. Therefore, it’s highly important to give it enough attention to make sure you are hiring the right people.