05/16/2016  //  By Deanna kane  //  Talent Acquisition //  Recruitment Marketing
[socialwrap][socialicon name=”linkedin”][socialicon name=”twitter”][/socialwrap]As a recruiter, it’s likely you have experienced heightened pressure to find the perfect candidate, quickly. This requires you to employ creative ways to engage and source this talent. Growing an engaged talent community is a top way to stay in touch and nurture relationships with candidates. Below are seven reasons your talent community’s engagement may be stagnant.

You’re not leveraging current employees

Identify key talent community audiences by finding out where current employees network with their peer groups. Join the online groups, local networking groups, or social networks to which colleagues belong, and engage with passive candidates who meet your search requirements.

You’re not conducting regular job title research

Search for synonyms of your current open positions, to find alternate candidate titles. Many companies use job titles that are unique to their company, which makes it harder to search for their employees. Build Boolean strings around different job synonyms (i.e. engineer AND software developer), and different keywords to identify people who have the right skills for the job.

You’re not leveraging college career fairs

Attend college career fairs to build your network of students. Add freshmen and sophomore students to your talent community to keep them updated on internship opportunities. Make sure you have recruitment software to assess the ROI of every event, so you only attend the events that offer the greatest return. Make it easy for students to visit your website and enter their name, major, expected graduation date and contact details into your talent community.

You’re not targeting passive candidates

Create relevant industry and career focused content to attract passive candidates. Research social media groups and find discussions to which you could lend expert advice. Focus on creating relationships with some of the top candidates in the industry, by inviting them to speak at events, or sending them an invitations to an exclusive company event.

You’re ignoring past employees

Create an alumni network talent community for those who left on good terms (i.e. out-of-town move, left to further their career, relocation due to spouse etc.). Send job updates and content to this group, so they can share with their networks. Use this network to also find potential boomerang employees (someone who returns to work with a former employer).

You’re not building sub-communities

Build sub-communities within your talent community to identify people with similar backgrounds and career levels. Creating smaller communities will help you to target your communication with this group to maximize its reach and impact.

You’re not using a TRM

Use a talent relationship management (TRM) system to make it easier to identify top candidates. Track a candidate’s information, qualifications, and experience all in one place. Communicate more efficiently with candidates, by automating email and text campaigns. Engage with passive candidates and track your relationship with them until they become available for a new opportunity. Learn who could be a good hire for your company based on how they engage your company.

How do you effectively identify your key audiences in your talent community? Learn how recruiting software can help you identify those people who you want in your talent community.