Talent Pool: How to Create and Optimize Your Candidate Pool?

The candidate pool is a key strategic recruitment tool for recruiters, offering them a database of qualified talent from which they can draw according to the company's needs and save a lot of time.

Indeed, it's never possible to recruit all qualified candidates for a single position. In a context of an increasingly tight job market, creating a talent pool is ideal for filling an urgent need or anticipating future recruitment with the best profiles.

Do you want to facilitate your recruitment processes? Intuition Software explains what a candidate pool is, its benefits, how to create an effective pool, and how to maintain this professional pool:

The Candidate Pool in Summary

• The candidate pool is a talent reserve held by the company to meet its recruitment needs.
• It can contain candidates who have already applied or not to the company or former employees.
• The professional pool ensures faster, more efficient, more qualified, and cheaper recruitment.
• Using an ATS like JobAffinity is the best way to create an effective candidate pool.

What is a Candidate Pool?

A candidate pool, also called talent pool or professional pool, is a database containing promising candidate profiles (having already applied or not to the company's offers). This reserve is ideal for recruiters, allowing them to find qualified talent more easily and quickly when a recruitment need arises.

These candidates can come from several sources:

• Spontaneous application
• Candidates not selected during a previous recruitment (via an ad or the career site)
• Public online candidate pools
• Social networks (LinkedIn, etc.)
• Professional events, fairs, job dating
• Former employees (employees, interns, apprentices, freelancers, etc.)
• Internal mobility
• Referred candidates

Why Create a Candidate Pool?

The professional pool is an essential tool in HR strategy, offering many advantages to recruiters, particularly in case of urgent recruitment.

Main Benefits

• Save time on the recruitment process: quick access to a base of already qualified profiles.
• Have better quality candidates: profiles already examined, often better suited to the position.
• Reduction of recruitment costs: savings on ad distribution and promotion.
• Improvement of company brand: responding to candidates not selected and maintaining the relationship strengthens the employer image.

How to Create a Quality Talent Pool?

To obtain an effective pool, several best practices should be followed:

• Choose the right tool
• Collect applications
• Retain candidates not selected
• Sort selected profiles
• Organize the pool
• Update data
• Ensure GDPR compliance

Choose the Right Tool

To create and maintain a high-performing pool, it's essential to use ATS software. A tool like JobAffinity allows you to save time, centralize applications, and automate pool management.

With JobAffinity, you can:

• Centralize and manage your applications in a single space.
• Customize your pools according to your needs (by skills, sourcing origin, etc.).
• Easily filter and sort profiles via specific criteria.
• Quickly evaluate resumes and share them with the team.
• Ensure GDPR compliance.

Collect Applications

Study and keep qualified profiles, even if they don't match current needs. Vary your sources: online applications, professional fairs, referrals, former employees...

Retain Candidates Not Selected

Add all promising profiles not selected to the pool. Maintain contact to follow their evolution and preserve the relationship.

Organize the Candidate Pool

Classify profiles according to criteria (job, location, skills, etc.) Use a tag system to facilitate future search.

Update the Talent Pool

Regularly update information (contact details, experience, skills). Remove obsolete profiles and add new talent.

Ensure Compliant Data Confidentiality

Your pool contains sensitive personal data: comply with GDPR obligations. Inform candidates about the collection and retention of their data. Declare your pool to the CNIL.

How to Maintain a Candidate Pool?

Maintaining your pool allows you to stay present in candidates' minds and strengthen your employer brand. Possible actions:

• Respond to applications not selected.
• Send personalized emails or newsletters.
• Follow talent on social networks.
• Publish informative articles.

The goal: stay visible, maintain the relationship, and attract the right profiles at the right time.