Unfilled vacancies and hasty hiring that compromises on quality can prove costly for any organization. Effective talent pipeline management helps your organization access qualified talent quickly and efficiently whenever needed, reducing time-to-hire and recruitment costs. This guide explores how to build and manage a strong talent pipeline that facilitates long-term hiring success.

What is Talent Pipeline Management in Recruitment?

Talent pipeline management is a proactive process in which HR managers source, engage, and nurture potential candidates before any post falls vacant. When a role becomes available, they will already have access to promising talent. Candidate pipeline management activities include:

• Planning for future recruitment needs
• Sourcing candidates and creating a strong talent database
• Nurturing candidates so that they remain eager to work with your organization
• Segmenting candidates based on criteria like skills, readiness, and role fit
• Pre-screening candidates to confirm suitability before roles open
• Tracking engagement and updating candidate information regularly
• Maintaining consistent automated or in-person communication
• Measuring pipeline performance and working toward further improvement

Workforce resilience is the ultimate goal. When faced with urgent recruiting needs, your talent management pipeline should offer you immediate access to high-quality candidates.

How to Build a Candidate Pipeline That Works

Identify Talent Pipeline Management Priorities

Strategically important target areas to address when managing your talent pipeline include:

• Skills gaps within your organization
• Scarce skills that are hard to access
• Plans for future business growth
• Succession planning needs
• High-turnover roles
• Emerging skills requirements driven by technology or market changes

Alongside consideration of business needs, talent pipeline management requires a strong understanding of what attracts and enthuses candidates. For example, prospects for advancement, a strong benefits package, and a positive organizational culture motivate candidates to remain within the pipeline. 

Craft Ideal Candidate Profiles  To Screen For Priority Roles

Just as you need to know “who” you are looking for when you actively recruit, recruitment pipeline management is at its most effective when you can proactively match candidates to priority roles. 

An ideal candidate profile is an invaluable tool for identifying matches for specific roles. It should cover the required hard and soft skills, qualifications, experience, and indicators of organizational fit. Your next step is to source and identify talent that matches these requirements. 

Sources of Talent to Fill Your Recruitment Pipeline

Begin by identifying who is in your pipeline. You are likely to have access to more candidates than you may have been aware of. Sources of people to fill the pipeline may be:

Internal candidates:

• Current employees who are ready to take on new responsibilities
• Former employees who may be interested in new opportunities

External candidates:

• Candidates who previously applied for roles or expressed interest in the organization
• Referrals from employees who believe someone they know could be a good fit
• Passive candidates who are not searching for work but may be open to considering a role
• Partnerships with educational institutions that can refer graduates

Apart from identifying who is already in your pipeline and the roles they may be suited to, outreach is part of your recruitment pipeline management process. There are ethical objections to advertising posts you have no immediate intention of filling. However, there are other ways to find promising talent. For example, you can identify potential candidates through professional networking platforms or by establishing connections at industry events.

Pre-Screen and Document

Pre-screen candidates that appear to be suitable candidates for your pipeline against ideal candidate profiles and keep clear records that include:

• When and how you sourced the candidate
• Roles they may be suitable for
• Level of engagement and past interactions
• Any previous notes from recruiters or hiring managers
• Readiness for role (if known)

This context allows you to set priorities, and nurture, engage, or re-engage candidates based on their history with your organization.

Managing the Talent Pipeline: Tools & Best Practices

Once you have identified who is in your talent pipeline, ongoing management helps you to keep it relevant and up to date. Your applicant tracking system (ATS) and ATS-compatible tools can do much of the legwork. This includes:

• Candidate segmentation
• Automated followup
• Engagement tracking
• Nurture campaigns
• Pipeline health reporting 

While oversight remains a requirement, these tools cut through complexity and limit time-consuming manual tasks, giving you access to up-to-date, well-organized information. Meanwhile, implement best practices to ensure effective talent pipeline management. 

Identify Critical Pipeline Segments

Apart from organizing candidates by the roles they might be suitable for, other forms of segmentation will also be helpful. Flag candidates as:

• Active and ready for employment
• Passive and in need of nurturing
• Previously shortlisted
• Niche skill holders

Segmentation helps you identify the type of nurturing each candidate category may need and spot focus areas where additional talent is needed.  

Stay in Touch

Even the most enthusiastic prospective employees will disengage if you fail to communicate. Although you aren’t yet ready to hire, there are many ways to keep candidates engaged. Communications could include:

• Company newsletters
• Invitations to events
• Professional insights
• Updates on hiring plans
• Personalized check-ins

Consistent communication signals genuine interest, helping candidates stay connected to your organization, and building relationships with benefits that may extend beyond recruiting. For example, candidates may ultimately become customers or brand advocates. 

Balance Automation and Human Communication 

Automated communications can build your organization’s reputation as an employer and keep relationships alive. However, human communication is the best way to show that you value candidates as individuals and would love to recruit them in the future. 

Interpersonal communication will be especially helpful in maintaining engagement with candidates you anticipate considering for roles in the near future, and those suited to highly strategic or leadership positions. Carefully consider what they need to hear, and who the message should come from. 

Track Key Metrics

A stagnant talent pool will ultimately degrade, become outdated, and lose relevance. To know where action is required, track important analytics like:

• Talent pool size and growth rate per segment
• Candidate quality based on pre-screening
• Candidate engagement indicators
• Pipeline conversion rate, i.e., hires from pipeline
• Drop-off points where candidates leave the pipeline

Analysis of these metrics helps you identify priority actions, such as additional candidate sourcing, improved pre-screening approaches, and changes to engagement strategies. 

How to Maintain a Strong Recruitment Pipeline Over Time

Effective management keeps your recruitment pipeline energized, relevant, and ready to use as a valuable resource. Implement these practices to keep your talent pipeline fresh and functional. 

Revisit and Update Organizational Needs and Candidate Data

People and their circumstances change, and so do organizational needs. Stay on top of the curve with the following actions:

• Reconfirm availability and interest
• Ask for CV updates if candidates have acquired new skills
• Remove inactive or unsuitable candidates
• Reassess your organization’s future recruitment needs
• Re-screen against new or updated ideal candidate profiles

Build Your Employer Brand

Giving your recruitment pipeline candidates reasons to be excited about your company keeps them in your pipeline for longer. For instance, a jobseeker who has since found alternative employment may remain eager to win a role in your company for personal or professional reasons.

Tell them about exciting advances your organization is developing or launching, share employee stories, celebrate their achievements, and show how your organization’s culture fosters personal development and career growth. 

Encourage Feedback From Hiring Managers

Ask hiring managers to review candidates in your recruitment pipeline, even if they aren’t hiring at the moment. Their input will help you identify and adapt to their changing needs, and you may spot areas where your pipeline needs strengthening. 

Nurture Previous Applicants, Especially Shortlisted Candidates

As an HR professional, you frequently generate recruitment shortlists that represent the very best of a large applicant pool. These “silver-medalists” could be your strongest recruitment pipeline resource. Even candidates who didn’t make a specific shortlist may be well-suited to other roles, or grow into one they previously applied for. Maintain and build these relationships. 

Managing Talent Pipelines With Broadbean and Its Partners

Managing talent pipelines in the future of work will require effective tech tools to help you implement your strategy. From the Bullhorn ATS to job distribution software that integrates data directly to your ATS plus database search and analysis tools, Broadbean enables you to benefit from the latest trends in talent acquisition. 

Set the right strategic priorities for the future, and find out how we can help you build and manage a dynamic talent pipeline that offers you the right candidates for your organization’s future success. Contact us for insights into our tools and their contributions to your recruitment pipeline management.