As with anything in recruiting or recruitment marketing, new concepts and tools should not stand alone, but as part of a comprehensive strategy. And talent communities are no different. If you want them to work as an employer branding tool to get candidates talking with your people and interested in your organization, you have to incorporate it as a single component of many.
Talent Communities: Where to Begin
While there is still speculation on the feasibility of a thriving community filled with job seekers and current employees, you have to start somewhere – and that somewhere is internally. Because the approach to developing an internal community is not so different than developing one externally, the transition should be fairly smooth, once you’re up and running.
However – like those externally – internal talent communities don’t just happen. They must be grounded in support from leadership throughout the organization, but given the opportunity to flourish naturally, without a great deal of restriction or control.
Placing Trust in Your Employee Brand Advocates
One of the key issues with talent communities (not including the time commitment and engagement factor) is that many companies find it difficult to pass the reins to employees, rather than just the public relations or marketing team. But the success of a community – whether internal or external – revolves around those who actively participate in it, and this means top performers from all departments, speaking openly about your culture and your brand.
Of course, there should be some general monitoring put in place, but trying to completely purify each and every message will only kill any authenticity that may exist. And while it’s natural to worry about a lack of control once you go public, internal talent communities give you the opportunity for trial and error and to test your processes and policies ahead of time. Remember, there’s always an opportunity for things to go wrong, but you have to see beyond those potential risks to really understand the benefits that talent communities create.
Has your organization taken an internal talent community externally? Tell us about your experience and struggles in the comments.
Image: Saxon/Flickr
Author: Autumn McReynolds
Autumn McReynolds is a master of communication, and with two years in the recruiting industry and over five years of experience in journalism and content creation, she was thrilled to take her career in a new direction as a Blogger and Content Strategist focused on talent acquisition in the digital age. In addition to writing, Autumn spends her time managing social media accounts for business and pleasure. Follow her on Twitter @AutumnMcRey.
[...] early for building “benches” or talent communities to never lose a beat in the workplace. By creating a talent community you are a building a talent pipeline (a team bench) to be called on at any [...]
One of the biggest reservations that we hear about starting an internal talent community, is “How will I get people to join?!” (There’s nothing more lonely than an empty social network…)
But, here’s the reality, if your career site already gets a decent amount of traffic (from recruitment advertising, job boards, homepage driver, etc.) you have nothing to worry about!
Studies show, 9 out of 10 career site visitors are being turned away. You missed out on engaging with them because they weren’t ready to spend 45-minutes applying to a job.
But, if you give them the option to join your talent community (in 60 seconds), then you’ve captured them, and relationship building effects of a talent community can take effect overtime.
Another great TC article, Autumn – thanks!
Lauren
http://www.ascendify.com/10-best-practices-for-building-a-talent-community/