In the new world of work, having a consistently engaged talent pool sets staffing agencies apart from their competitors. It’s never been more important to create a continuous pipeline of talent. But how can you build a talent community in a way that’s personalized and scalable?

Here’s everything you need to know about implementing a Connected Recruiting strategy.

What is Connected Recruiting?

Connected Recruiting is a strategy that recruiters can use to engage talent at every stage of the talent lifecycle. It’s about combining the power of technology with the right engagement strategies and industry best practices to ultimately transform the way your team engages with candidates and clients.

Technology + Teams + Best-in-Class Engagement Strategies

Hover to see the transformation

Choose your own journey with Connected Recruiting

Download the Connected Recruiting Navigator today and explore key Moments and Metrics That Matter throughout your talents’ lifecycle

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Benefits of Connected Recruiting

A more engaged talent pool

Effectively engage talent – from job boards and your database – with the right message at the right time.

Lower talent acquisition cost

Get more out of your job board spend and make more placements from the candidates already in your database with consistent communication from the start.

Higher redeployment rate

Nurture relationships and provide a seamless onboarding experience to increase candidate satisfaction and redeployment opportunities.

Better candidate satisfaction

Meet and exceed candidate demands by fostering strong relationships and providing clients with a consistent talent pool.

Opportunities for improvement

Navigating challenges is a regular occurrence for any staffing business, but what if you could optimize the entire talent lifecycle to overcome common obstacles and ultimately improve the talent and client experience?

With Connected Recruiting best practices, you can avoid these common challenges (and others) throughout the talent lifecycle:

Phases of the talent lifecycle

From attracting candidates and improving database engagement to successfully onboarding talent and increasing your redeployment rate, here are key considerations to transform each step of the talent lifecycle.

Hover over each phase to learn more.



Attract

The first phase of the talent lifecycle is where it’s crucial to efficiently pull talent in through job boards and other sources and follow up immediately to ensure they don’t slip through the cracks. Doing this helps your team get more out of your job board spend, do more with less, and improve the candidate experience from the start.

Key considerations:
  • How is your team currently measuring the success of job boards?
  • How are you currently taking action on and communicating with talent from job boards?
  • Can you automate any of your initial interactions with job board candidates?
  • Have you tried to apply to your own job postings? What does that process look like, and how can it be optimized?

Attract

The first phase of the talent lifecycle is where it’s crucial to efficiently pull talent in through job boards and other sources and follow up immediately to ensure they don’t slip through the cracks. Doing this helps your team get more out of your job board spend, do more with less, and improve the candidate experience from the start.

Key considerations:
  • How is your team currently measuring the success of job boards?
  • How are you currently taking action on and communicating with talent from job boards?
  • Can you automate any of your initial interactions with job board candidates?
  • Have you tried to apply to your own job postings? What does that process look like, and how can it be optimized?

Engage

Engage the talent already in your database – and new candidates – with the right message, at the right time, for the right opportunities. Benefit from an increase in conversion of your existing talent pool, more re-engaged candidates in your ATS, and a lower cost of talent acquisition.

Key considerations:
  • What is your data hygiene plan? Are you manually cleaning records, or is there an opportunity to use automation to clear your database so you can more effectively engage candidates?
  • How regularly is your team contacting candidates already in your database?
  • How is your team choosing which messages or jobs to share with candidates?
  • Do you ever consider submitting a candidate for more than one job?

Nurture

Proactively nurture talent throughout their assignment so you can easily engage them for their next role, increasing your ability to extend their assignment or redeploy them in a new role. Turning active employees into a viable talent pool through omnichannel engagement streams helps create a lasting talent community, more referrals, and happier clients.

Key considerations:
  • Do you send NPS surveys to talent after placement? If so, do you have a plan for identifying referral opportunities?
  • Are you communicating on an ongoing basis with talent after their placement, such as with regular check-ins?
  • Do you send reminder communications when a candidate’s temporary placement is coming to an end?
  • Do you share potential roles with candidates currently on placement?

Onboard

Deliver a seamless and positive experience in the lead-up to the first day and throughout the first weeks on the job. Engaging candidates frequently before their new role and beyond reduces the rate of no-shows and improves the overall client and candidate experience.

Key considerations:
  • How do you manage and stay compliant with I-9 forms and other important documents?
  • How do you prepare talent for their first day?
  • Are you utilizing self-service platforms to enable talent to upload and complete forms independently?
  • Do you have a plan in place to regularly check in with candidates on assignment, particularly after their first day?

Upgrade your entire talent lifecycle with step-by-step playbooks that will set your team up for success.

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Implementing Connected Recruiting

For continued success with Connected Recruiting, you need to implement the right processes, technology, and organizational structure. Add to that a test-and-learn mindset, and your team can effectively build a loyal talent and client community that wants to work with you again and again.

Evaluate your existing processes

Get a pulse on what current processes work for your team and which ones could be improved. Check out our breakdown of key considerations to get started with Connected Recruiting on the right foot.

Build a Connected Recruiting team

Connected Recruiting is an ongoing effort to keep talent engaged, candidate pools full, and clients happy. Learn how to build a team to ensure you meet your Connected Recruiting goals.

Test new strategies

Connected Recruiting is fueled by a test-and-learn approach, and to maximize results, it’s crucial to be agile and try new things. Try testing new strategies throughout the talent lifecycle, like different outreach methods or personalization tactics.

Plan for continued measurement

Creating a plan for continued success and measurement is imperative when transforming your talent engagement process. When building your Connected Recruiting plan, make sure you keep in mind measurement checkpoints for ongoing transformation.

Success stories

We're seeing over 60% of placements coming from our database. It's all about making more placements out of the candidates we have in our database. That's the game.
Brian Cunningham Allen Recruitment
Redeployment was a metric that we hadn't looked at three or four years ago, and now we look at redeployment every week. We now contact talent right before their assignment ends and try to get them redeployed within eight weeks.
Vanessa Fucciani President of Triple Crown
Bullhorn Automation has had an impact on our recruiters’ day-to-day activities because they're not having to set reminders for themselves on scheduling interviews or sending reminders for our candidates.
Dustin Couts Vice President Business Operations, PGS Worldwide

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