Your employees are your most valuable asset in the financial sector, just like in many industries. Financial companies rely on highly skilled staff to innovate, adapt to the changing market, and succeed. However, sourcing the talent you need in this landscape can be complex.
In an ideal world, whenever a new role opens up in your business, you’d instantly have access to a range of active candidates ready to apply for the job. However, the reality is that in a skills-short market, sourcing and screening candidates can take a lot of time and money.
Fortunately, there is a solution: talent pooling.
Creating a talent pool filled with pre-vetted, skilled candidates ready to join your team can make your hiring process more efficient while minimising costs and frustrations. Here’s everything you need to know to create a powerful talent pool for your financial company.
The Importance of Filling Your Talent Pool
Talent pooling is the art of collecting information and contact details from qualified candidates for potential positions that may open up in your company.
Developing a talent pool ensures you can prepare to rapidly fill the gaps in your team when employees leave your business, minimising the risk of lost productivity and team engagement. It also ensures you can begin searching for talent for new and emerging roles in your company as the financial market evolves and businesses search for new skill sets.
Currently, nearly 9 out of 10 financial executives say they’re struggling to find skilled professionals in their industry as talent shortages continue to evolve. Waiting until you have gaps in your team before planning your recruitment strategy could mean you spend months trying to source new employees, increasing the risk of overwhelm and burnout among existing team members.
On the other hand, creating a talent pool ensures you can jump straight into the hiring process with a pre-built list of qualified professionals to sort through.
How to Fill Your Talent Pool: Working with a Recruiter
The best way to fill a talent pool quickly and effectively is to work with an experienced financial recruiter. Financial recruitment agencies have years of experience building talent pools in your chosen industry. They can offer immediate access to a wide network of potential candidates, making it easier for you to find the skills you need quickly.
Financial recruiters can also open the door to a broader range of candidates, thanks to existing relationships with passive job seekers and different, diverse groups. What’s more, a financial recruitment team will understand your company’s needs and culture, helping you pinpoint candidates that best fit your business.
These teams can even work with business leaders to screen candidates in the financial sector and determine their value for certain roles.
Defining the Ideal Candidate Profile
Even when working with a recruiter to attract the top financial talent to your company, defining the ideal candidate profile is crucial. Taking the time to determine what skill gaps you need to fill in your team, both now and in the future, will help you understand what kind of candidates you should be prioritising.
Start by collaborating with hiring teams to define specific skill gaps and requirements in your business. Identify the core competencies you will look for in all your hires, regardless of role, and determine how you’ll assess a candidate’s “cultural fit” for your business. You can create candidate profiles that outline the following:
- Crucial technical skills and competencies for your business
- Core characteristics and soft skills
- Essential talent requirements for both now and in the future
Building and Leveraging Employer Branding
Your recruiter can help connect your company with great candidates in your industry, but it’s still up to you to convince professionals to work with you. A strong employer branding strategy ensures you can highlight the core benefits of working with your company to talent in your field, boosting your chances of building a full talent pipeline.
Establishing a strong online presence with an informative website, stories about employee experiences, and social media posts is a good way to attract candidates to your business. You can use your online content to showcase your company values and culture. Encouraging employees to write reviews and testimonials about your business is helpful too.
It’s also worth finding as many places to showcase your brand as possible. Aside from promoting your values on your website, build a social media presence, interact with candidates at events and job fairs, and consider hosting videos and webinars online.
Proactive Candidate Sourcing Strategies
A good employer branding strategy will help attract candidates to your business, but you’ll also need to find ways of actively sourcing candidates. Fortunately, there are numerous ways to track down active and passive candidates in today’s financial landscape.
Using job boards and career websites specific to the financial industry can be a great way to find new, engaged, and active professionals ready to join your team. However, it’s also worth experimenting with more diverse sourcing ideas, such as:
- Attending career fairs, trade fairs, and financial events
- Tapping into professional networks and industry associations
- Interacting with candidates and job seekers on LinkedIn
- Asking employees to recommend potential candidates
- Connecting with former employees and business leaders
Screening and Assessing Candidates
Once you’ve found a variety of landscapes where you can potentially source candidates for your talent pool, the next step is screening every new addition. The purpose of a talent pool isn’t just to provide you with dozens of applications the next time you have a job opening.
The right talent pipeline will be filled with pre-qualified and vetted candidates, ensuring you can decide based on what you already know about each applicant. Start by developing a structured interview process for screening each candidate, with a complete list of assessment criteria, based on the soft and technical skills you need.
Work with your financial recruitment team to conduct initial phone or video screenings, where you can gather more information about each potential candidate to add to their talent pool profile. You can also consider skill tests for promising candidates to assess their technical proficiency and abilities.
Establishing Effective Onboarding Programs
Building an effective talent pooling strategy can accelerate your hiring process and make it easier to inseminate new team members into your business as quickly as possible. Developing a strong onboarding process for the finance hires you to decide to hire will ensure you can embed them into your business and culture as quickly as possible.
Consider preparing each new employee to thrive in your company with the right resources, training, and tools from day one. Plan mentorship and training strategies designed to get new hires up to date quickly, and ask for feedback from your candidates about the onboarding process so that you can improve and optimise it over time.
Continuous Talent Engagement and Relationship Building
Building a talent pool is the first step in optimising your hiring process. Once you start filling your pipeline with qualified candidates, you must keep them engaged and interested in your company so they’re willing to consider job offers when they arise.
Don’t just add candidates to your pipeline and forget about them; create a strategy for keeping in touch with passive and active candidates. Consider how you’ll contact them with regular updates about your business and new opportunities.
Focus on keeping the lines of communication open so your pool of candidates doesn’t lose interest in your organisation before a new position becomes available.
Build and Nurture Your Talent Pool
In a skills-short financial marketplace, taking a strategic approach to the hiring process has never been more important. Developing a talent pool filled with qualified candidates is one of the best ways to ensure you always have access to the skilled candidates you need.
An experienced financial recruiter will be able to assist you with all of the steps involved in developing your talent pipeline, from sourcing candidates to making sure you can screen each application effectively. Reach out to us today to discuss how we can transform your hiring process with a comprehensive talent pooling strategy.
Thanks,
Rachel
About Rebus Financial Recruitment
Rebus Financial Recruitment provides a specialist and focused recruitment service to its customers, ranging from various organisations, including SMEs, to large PLCs.
We strive to offer both the client and candidate a seamless recruitment experience. Using our expertise, we get to the heart of employer and employee needs, and, in doing so, we match the two perfectly.
To learn more, contact one of our team today, or call us at 01282 930930.
