Are there no applicants? — Why you should invest in sustainable talent relationship management now!

The reasons for the need to fill a new position can be varied. ‍

The company is growing and new jobs are being created. An employee resigns, an employee retires.

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The apparent solution:

The circuit of a job ad in a career portal of choice. Afterwards, it is usually necessary to sit back and wait until the desired High Potentials be interested and apply for the position.

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The problem:‍

This seemingly simple solution to the problem will no longer be successful in times of the War for Talents and the increasing shift towards an employee market (vacancies > high potentials).

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The result:‍

HR managers wait in vain for the desired applications; key positions are not filled with talents whose competencies meet the previously defined requirement profile for the position to be filled.

The final consequence:

‍Companies are losing their competitiveness in the market by squandering the most important resource in today's knowledge-intensive working environment: talent. The young talent of tomorrow, who are decisive for the future success of the company, is missing.

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But what to do when situational and reactive recruiting and personnel marketing activities are no longer sufficient to meet the constantly increasing demand for personnel?

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The answer:

‍It is high time to set up a strategic and sustainable talent relationship management to invest.

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How can this be achieved? We'll tell you the five most important success factors

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1. Talent relationship management is target group-oriented and not vacant-oriented

In contrast to traditional recruitment approaches, TRM does not focus on the vacancy to be filled, but on the talent to be recruited (see Figure 1).

The most important first step in TRM is therefore to clearly define the relevant target group and develop a good understanding of them. Who is the target group for the positions to be filled can be identified by a empirical requirement analysis determine.

However, once the requirements analysis has been completed and the target group has been identified, the focus is no longer on the requirements of the position, but on the needs of the talents. Important questions that you should ask yourself now include:

• What does my target group think?
• Which work area features are particularly attractive from the point of view of my target group?
• Where can I reach my target group?

These questions and the answers to them ultimately determine the language chosen (e.g. use of you or she) and argumentation structure in HR marketing (e.g. highlighting self-development opportunities or salary options), which includes the channels chosen to address talents (for example, I carry out campaigns via social media or rely on contacts at career fairs).

The most important guideline: Which measures are best suited to ensure the success of your TRM depends on the needs of the target group: The bait must be good for the fish - not the angler.

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2. TRM focuses on filling key positions

Talent management is different from Candidate Relationship Management by focusing talent management measures on selected, hard-to-reach and specifically defined target groups are aligned. It involves filling key positions, i.e. positions that are crucial to the success of the company.

It is important that these can be present not only at the top management level, but also at lower levels of the hierarchy. For example, filling new trainees in an apprenticeship or talent in sales can be just as important for a company's long-term competitiveness as filling a management position.

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3. Talent relationship management starts before actual demand and focuses on long-term commitment.

Well-designed talent relationship management is characterized by the fact that it starts even before the acute need to fill a position (see Figure 1).

Possible measures for this are Active sourcing measures (i.e. actively searching for and addressing candidates directly). If the defined target group consists of pupils and students, it is primarily advisable to actively invest in strategic university marketing. Promising measures in this area include offering workshops and practical lectures at universities or promoting particularly talented students through scholarship programs or sponsoring prizes (e.g. for the best master's thesis).

Does something sound old school and very complex? Not necessarily, because It's also digital! Today, there are numerous methods to address exactly your target group online and thus significantly more cost-effectively and efficiently. One example of this is the use of career apps such as Aivy. For example, Aivy offers a tool in which you can automatically contact suitable applicants for your position and get them excited about your company. By determining a minimum fit of candidates to the established requirement profile the body (e.g. certain performance indicators in psychometric mini-games) make sure that you address exactly the applicants who actually suit your position.

This saves time and money: by avoiding cost-intensive vacancy and non-appointments as well as faster filling of vacancies. This is because all TRM measures therefore have a common goal: to establish such an intensive relationship with potentially attractive candidates in advance of a vacancy that they can be activated directly if necessary.

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As a reminder:

TRM is about building a long-term commitment and not just about filling a position. TRM therefore consists of Building a relationship to applicants before they apply for a job (e.g. through active sourcing via LinkedIn or a career app), when applying (e.g. through a pleasant candidate experience through game-based assessments), after they have applied or have conducted the interview (e.g. through regular feedback and transparency about the status of the application process) and after they have accepted the position (e.g. by sending important information and creating contact points to get to know future team members). The more individual the measures to build a relationship with talent are, the better.

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4. Talent relationship management doesn't end when the position is filled

The employment contract has been signed and the position is filled. For many companies, this marks a successful TRM and the process appears to have been completed. However, companies are wasting important potential here.

Retaining talent should not only focus on external candidates, but also on employees working in the company. This is all the more true as employment contracts are increasingly turning into relationship agreements based on trust and appreciation. If this is missing and the commitment to the company or department is low, the talents will leave the company as soon as more attractive options arise externally. This not only results in costs for filling the position, but also valuable knowledge and experience is lost. A fact that companies can barely afford in view of the current shortage of skilled workers.

In order not to risk losing high potentials, it is also worthwhile to invest in the development of internal tools to promote internal mobility (e.g. internal career marketplaces, apps to identify development potential and suitable internal positions) in order to develop employees internally.

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5. Talent relationship management is integrated into the overall HR strategy.

Good talent relationship management is characterized by aligning all activities within the framework of the defined and documented HR strategy. This also includes strategic and system-side integration and interfaces with existing talent management software (e.g. interfaces to the applicant management system).

The options offered by such interfaces are varied: For example, you can set up talent pools according to specially defined criteria (e.g. performance indicators in psychometric mini-games), regularly inform applicants by e-mail (e.g. about news in the company, tips for applying and career development) and thus continuously motivate them to keep their own data in the system up to date. Because this is the only way to achieve TRM's long-term goal: to create a relationship that is profitable for both you and the talent in the long term.

But care should be taken: under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you must delete candidates' data after 6 months, unless other consent has been given. For this reason, it is advisable to work with providers who have the appropriate consent of the talents to be contacted again by potential employers while at the same time Data protection compliance Assure.

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sources

• Heyse V, Ortmann S (2008) Talent management in practice. A guide with worksheets, checklists, software solutions. Waxmann, Münster
• Trost, A. (2014). Introduction. In: Talent Relationship Management. Management for professionals. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54557-3_1
• Classen, M., & Timm, E. (2011). Talent management — the art lies in implementation. In A. Ritz & N. Thom (eds.), Talent Management: Identifying Talents, Developing Competencies, Maintaining Top Performers (2nd ed., pp. 97—110). Wiesbaden: Gabler.