Building a Consistent Candidate Pipeline
By Andrew Hammer

I was thinking back the other day about my first car, actually a pickup truck, which I bought when I was 16 years old. It was a retired service vehicle from a large trucking firm and like many first vehicles it had its very own set of issues. Because it was a stick shift with about 200,000 miles on it, and the clutch was shot, at any given time the truck might stall from having too much clutch or the engine would rev as the clutch slipped creating a cloud of white smoke. Overall, the ride was rough and herky-jerky; start, stop, stall, start again, brakes, stall, etc.

By now you are probably wondering what the memory of my first vehicle has to do with finding, recruiting, or retaining candidates. As I thought about my first truck, it occurred to me that the herky-jerky start and stop ride that my truck provided, was a lot like my early recruiting practices and a lot like the candidate acquisition efforts of many employers. Start, stop, backup, start again, rev up, stall, start . . .well, you get the picture.

Here at CareerMarketplace we talk with hundreds of great employers who all have their own unique methods of finding and recruiting talented employees. From those conversations, what I came to realize was that the most successful recruiting organizations never experience the herky-jerky process but have instead worked hard to replace it with a finely tuned and smooth running process that is much more like a BMW than my old truck. The engine is always running and a smooth acceleration to increased hiring is almost effortless, similarly, when these organizations are fully staffed the engine idles along waiting for the next round of hiring.

So, exactly how do you build that fine running recruiting machine? The answer will be different for each organization, but there is one common element for every employer seeking a smooth and consistent hiring process: A constant and consistent candidate pipeline.

Your candidate pipeline is the fundamental building block for successfully recruiting the employees you need. And, while it may seem incredibly oversimplified, if you never stop filling the pipe (recruiting) your process will automatically get smoother. Let me say that again, never stop recruiting (even when you aren’t hiring) and your process will get smoother.

Benefits of Continuous Recruiting
There are many benefits to this constant method of recruiting, some of which are outlined below.

	A drawer full of qualified candidates – Perhaps the biggest benefit to continuous recruiting is accumulating that draw full of good candidates. These are candidates that you have already spoken with, interviewed, and in some cases already performed pre-employment testing on. In short, these are candidates that you could hire and start within two weeks time.
	Avoid emergency hiring – As HR professionals you have all been faced with an emergency hiring situation. If you haven’t yet, you will. You know how it goes; your operations manager walks into your office on Friday afternoon and announces their departure from the company…next week. The typical response would be to run classified ads, call staffing firms or recruiters, and scurry around the office trying to figure out who is going to fill in until you can find the new manager. When you recruit continuously, you will always have a few pre-qualified candidates in your desk draw ready to fill those emergency openings.
	Save time and money – In most cases, it is more expensive to start and stop and restart your recruiting process that it is to keep it in motion. Emergency hiring is always more expensive than a typical hire because of the urgency inherent to the process. Constant recruiting allows you to plan and budget both your time and recruiting dollars.
	Ramp up hiring smoothly when needed – When you are constantly recruiting, it is very easy to accelerate the process when you need to hire more people faster. Instead of recruiting from a dead stop, your process is already in motion gathering candidates before you need them.
	Recruit the best talent – when you continuously recruit, you always have your eyes on the best talent. For instance, you may find that the cashier at your local grocery store provides excellent customer service and is always smiling. Why not leave your business card with them, ask them to call you for a brief telephone interview, and learn if they might not be your next customer service representative.
	Top Grade – When you continuously recruit, you continuously see the best talent in the market. You may find new employees to join your organization that will outperform some of your existing staff. Having a constant stream of new applicants allows you to top grade your workforce if you so desire.

These are just a few of the obvious benefits on continuous recruiting. You may find that the process had completely different benefits for your organization once you start.

There are a few draw backs to constantly recruiting including the additional logging and tracking of the increased number of applicants. And, while it is true that you may have more paperwork associated with more applicants, your end-results will be much improved. The biggest objection to continuous recruiting that we hear goes something like this, “I don’t like to recruit when I don’t have openings because it gives job seekers the wrong impression.” This is a valid point, especially if your organization does not communicate well with your applicants. I am of the opinion; however, that recruiting when you don’t have any openings creates the exact perception among candidates that you want them to have, but only with proper communication. If you communicate the following three things clearly to your new recruits you can enforce the public opinion that your company is a great place to work and not everyone can get a job with your company.

1. I have chosen to speak with you because I believe you have talents and skills that could benefit my company.
2. We only hire the best and brightest employees.
3. We don’t currently have any openings, but I want to learn about your skills, wants, and desires as an employee now so I can better understand what role you could play in our company when we do have positions available.

When you communicate these three things successfully, not only do you overcome any negative impression of recruiting when you don’t have open positions, you brand your company as an employer of choice and create the desire for people to work there.

How do you build a consistent candidate flow?
So, we’ve talked a little bit about the benefits of creating consistent candidate flow as well as how to overcome any negative perception associated with constant recruiting. Next month we will focus on the nuts and bolts of how to build your own candidate pipeline.

If you have thoughts, ideas, or experience creating and managing your candidate pipeline, I welcome your comments and suggestions. Email them to me at: ahammer@CareerMarketplace.com.

Until next month…