From Engagement to Conversion: How to Master Talent Community Building

Key Takeaways:

• Talent communities improve the candidate experience by allowing potential applicants to familiarize themselves with the company culture and hiring process before applying.
• A well-built talent community becomes a consistent source of potential hires, reducing time-to-hire and overall hiring costs.
• Segmenting the talent community into groups reflecting different ideal candidate personas maximizes engagement and content relevance.
• Engaging with community members through personalized messages, exclusive content, and event invitations helps nurture relationships and keep candidates interested.

One of the best ways to create buzz around a company’s employment opportunities is through a talent community. A talent community is a group of people who have opted to receive career-related communications from a brand. These communications can include open positions, company news, and interview tips. According to Content Stadium, 96% of recruiters and hiring professionals use social media to form talent communities.

Creating a talent community gives hiring managers access to individuals interested in working for a company. That’s important, as Zippia statistics show that 72% of companies have difficulty finding employees with suitable skill sets. Rather than relying exclusively on job advertisements or recruiters when they have an open role, organizations can turn to their talent community, which has already opted in to receive such communications.?

This article will discuss creating a talent community and how doing so benefits companies.

Understanding the Benefits of a Talent Community

Why is a talent community so advantageous to hiring managers? There are several reasons.

Talent communities help improve the candidate experience and engagement . Potential applicants can become familiar with the organization before submitting their resumes for consideration. They learn what it’s like to work for the company and what to expect during the hiring process.?

According to a CareerBuilder survey, nearly 80% of applicants believe the candidate experience during the hiring process reflects how an organization values its team members. Hiring professionals who take the time to create an influential talent community will see satisfied applicants.?

Another benefit of talent communities is enhanced employer branding and reputation. Hiring professionals can use various types of content to promote their company to potential candidates. For instance, videos showing the organization’s offices and team members can motivate people interested in working there. As more individuals learn of the advantages of working for the company, it will naturally attract a larger following.

Having a talent community can save tremendous time and cost for organizations seeking to hire qualified applicants. Instead of paying to post jobs through online job boards and collaborating with professional recruiters, the company can share the open position with its followers.?

Once the company builds a sizable talent community, hiring managers can continually turn to that group when it has an open role to fill. The talent community becomes an ongoing source of new employees, reducing time-to-hire and lowering the overall cost of a new hire.

Identifying the Target Audience

Organizations will need to define their ideal candidate persona . A candidate persona refers to the characteristics that make a person suitable for the company. Some traits include work experience, skill set, location, and education. For instance, a New Jersey financial services company might try to form a talent community of people living in Newark with accounting or finance degrees.

Most companies will require multiple candidate personas. Since a company usually needs to fill a variety of roles, each persona it creates should reflect the talent it will require now or in the future.

Another vital aspect to consider is data and analytics . To make the most out of a talent community, hiring professionals can use tools that identify the people with the highest potential. Recruiters can then cater to those people and encourage them to apply rather than lose them to a competitor.

Tip: Recruitics offers a comprehensive talent engagement platform that helps hiring professionals drive, capture, nurture, and convert candidates. Known as Fusion , this platform provides an all-in-one, complete solution to improve applicant engagement and identify top-tier talent.?

Crafting Compelling Employer Branding Content

Hiring professionals should strive for authentic and engaging content that captures the interest of their followers. Instead of treating their content like a commercial intended to “sell” their audience, they should showcase the reality of working for the company. They can ask existing team members to talk about their experiences and share footage of executives discussing the company’s mission and values .

Segmenting the talent community into various groups is a good idea to maximize engagement . Each group should reflect the persona of an ideal candidate, and hiring professionals should mix up the content shared to reach different audience segments. For instance, sending emails discussing their software engineering opportunities would benefit people with a tech background, but creative professionals would appreciate content geared toward marketing or advertising .?

Keep in mind that content doesn’t need to focus entirely on job prospects within the organization. Other articles, like career advice, company news, lifestyle, and technical guidance, will continue to attract readers. Furthermore, consider varying the content across videos , blog posts, whitepapers, and case studies. The goal is to ensure the right content gets in front of the right people at the right time.

Finally, social media is one of the best ways to get the word out about a company. Hiring professionals can use the organization’s social media accounts to share the content they create, including videos and blog posts. Over time, they’ll attract more followers to their talent community.

Tip: To build a talent community quickly, promote it as much as possible. Social media is a good start, but hiring professionals should utilize the company’s main website , career boards, and affiliate marketing. All are good ways to spread the word and encourage more signups.

Remember, if the audience doesn't know the company’s talent community exists, they can’t be a part of it!

Building and Nurturing Relationships

Hiring professionals should ensure it’s not a one-direction conversation. Instead, try to engage with the people who comment on posts and send messages to the company.

Ideally, the organization’s talent community will be among the first to hear of open roles and upcoming events . When candidates know they’ll receive exclusive content and opportunities through the talent community, they’ll be more likely to join it. They won’t want to miss out on their chance to gain insights, network, or obtain a job.

Personalized messages can help the organization build relationships with its audience. For instance, if the company has an upcoming event in Charleston, South Carolina, it might send a personalized invite to followers within a 50-mile radius of the city. The company could tailor the invitation to include the person’s name and why they should participate.?

When it comes to the method of choice for nurturing relationships, email marketing campaigns are ideal for stoking interest and conversation among a talent community. It’s one of the best ways to form stronger, more personalized relationships with an audience. Monitoring open rates, clicks, and unsubscribes can help hiring managers consistently evaluate and improve their content’s performance. If they make a point to use regular surveys to garner feedback and better tailor content to an audience, hiring professionals can ensure that email will continue to be one of their strongest mediums for creating meaningful and impactful candidate experiences. It also provides a positive candidate experience and works towards fostering a strong relationship with the company.

Engaging With Passive Candidates

While job postings will mainly only reach active job seekers, a talent community has the potential to reach passive job seekers and candidates who previously applied for roles at an organization. These candidates are often willing to consider employment at a particular company given the right circumstances – a talent community unlocks the potential to reach these passive candidates and show them what a brand has to offer.

One inexpensive way to grow the talent community is through referral programs and employee advocacy. If someone decides to apply for a job with the company and lands the role, the referrer receives a bonus. This is especially powerful because people trust the recommendations of others. In fact, Hubspot found that 90% of individuals will listen to a friend or family’s endorsement of a company. Similarly, they’re more likely to take action on an open role if someone they’re friends with tells them about it and explains what it’s like to work for the company.

Another way to attract passive candidates is through virtual events. A virtual event like an online job fair or happy hour allows potential candidates to conveniently meet, network, and build relationships with hiring managers and employers. This helps companies showcase their expertise, value, services, etc. to candidates – which can entice them to either want to learn more or be interested in applying to a role.

Talent Communities Help Companies Attract Qualified Candidates

One of the most challenging jobs in recruiting is finding qualified people to join the organization. A talent community eases the workload and helps hiring professionals build an audience of people interested in employment with the company. As a talent community grows, hiring professionals will find it easier to attract employees with the skills they seek.

Building and nurturing a talent community can seem daunting, but partnering with the right platform can help ! The team at Recruitics has dedicated engagement specialists and talent advisors who are skilled in maintaining a steady flow of pre-qualified candidates. Let us help you with your candidate engagement & hiring needs and drive, capture, nurture, and convert candidate leads into full applications.

Olivia Yongue is a Senior Vice President at Recruitics, overseeing the client service Enterprise division. Her passion lies in enabling organizations to achieve their hiring goals through data-driven and customer-centric approaches. She specializes in crafting tailored recruitment marketing and tech strategies, empowering companies to scale their talent acquisition with efficiency. Outside of work, she is a devoted wife and parent to her son, a lively preschooler, whom she adores raising and experiencing the joys of life with.