If your company or the customers your company works with don’t have the bandwidth to implement teleworking policies or virtual onboarding, maybe your hiring has come to a halt. If this is the case, or if programs are not expanding/being awarded, make your focus networking and pipelining for the next few months. Talk with your project managers about potential contract awards or proposals your company might be bidding on. When a surge finally hits after COVID-19, you’ll have a warm candidate list to reach out to!
Regardless of whether you are staffing 50 fully funded opening or if your company has one billet to fill, spending some time on pipelining moves your recruiting team from reactive to proactive. When a requirement finally hits the recruiter’s desk, the customer’s mission typically needed the role filled yesterday. Anticipating future needs will build a pipeline of potential candidates, reducing time to hire.
You need to create a cleared talent management strategy that includes a system to keep candidates ‘warm’ and ready. Build a talent pool of vetted candidates who are driven to move quickly through the hiring process. Pipelining is about having casual conversations, so shift the focus away from your current openings and move toward open-ended discussions about their career goals or motivating factors when they evaluate offers. After the connection is made, ask how often they’d like to touch base and re-visit their job search status, then set reminders for yourself to reconnect.
If you are an intelligence recruiter, it’s completely acceptable to reach out to intelligence resumes you come across on ClearanceJobs, even if it says they don’t transition until 2021 or further out. Let them know that you are networking and would love the opportunity to tell them about your company.
Pipelines will reduce the need for cold calling when the need is now.
Your pipeline doesn’t just have to be made up of candidates. Considering existing employees for open roles can help you fill difficult requisitions quicker, all while helping employees grow their careers at your company or obtaining a referral bonus. Recruiters are so busy constantly chasing after secret squirrels that they forget to network with other recruiters in the industry! You can share a laugh about an odd story that a non-recruiter might not understand, and maybe pick up a candidate they just passed on and didn’t have a slot for. If your talent pipeline is void of a certain skill, check around with your fellow recruiters either inside the organization, or even with partners. Chances are, someone has some leads for you. At some point, you will have an opportunity to return the favor.
Luckily, the ClearanceJobs platform makes candidate pipelining easy and organized. After sourcing resumes utilizing Intellisearch, Boolean, or both, tag candidates within the platform so you have an easily built out list of qualified candidates for your programs. Tags are completely customizable. You can have a list geared toward active duty candidates, candidate based on location, lists based on skillset, and much more.
