RPO and Talent Management Blog by Ochre House | Ochre Talk

Great Expectations

Not since Pip left Jo Gargery’s forge have there been expectations as great as those that abound the notion of communities and talent pools in finding and engaging talent. Well OK that’s not strictly true – decisive Eurozone action and England’s Football #feartheball team may shade it – but when it comes to resourcing and talent management today, there’s an increasing tendency to view communities as a silver bullet to today’s challenges.

We’re all agreed that the candidate market place is very different to just a few years ago – at a macro level economic volatility, uncertainty, globalisation and fast moving consumer trends. At a local level a rapid shift in the workplace – mobility, transparency and the need for reputation management, ease of access and communications, a new way of thinking characterised by engagement and participation rather than just awareness.

Net effect is talent shortages, key skills gaps and an increasingly sophisticated and passive candidate market that can be generalised as premium at the leadership and specialist end, congested in the middle and increasingly transient everywhere else.

So what do we mean by communities and why are there such great expectations? It logically follows that in order to reach and convince hard to find or sceptical great talent, we need to develop broader, deeper and richer relationships – much as the consumer world sets out to achieve in building brand or product loyalty through multifaceted marketing that encourages participation.

Just consider the currency value of a Facebook “like”.

For many, developing a ‘talent community’ is the answer of the day, based on an assumption that these hard to reach candidates will flock to you, eager to consume your career content because it is presented through more channels than just your corporate website and has some pictures.

However whilst people may drink coffee every day, obsessively follow a football club or monitor a company’s performance or news as an analyst, looking for a job is fleeting and occasional. The reality is most people don’t necessarily want to be part of a defined “talent community” unless it is useful, relevant and personalised. And even then, it needs to be connected to or embedded within their existing world.

So are they must haves or just a pipe dream for Talent Acquisition and Management? Tune into the Ochre House Webinar at 4.00 PM BST on Thursday 26th July to find out. We’ll talk through what can be achieved along with what you need to focus on and to avoid including a case study from GE Energy.

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