Nearly 28% of executives believe that the lack of availability of certain key skills seriously threatens their company’s performance. This is the figure conveyed by the 24ᵉ edition of the Global CEO Survey conducted by PwC. Consequence: in a job market where skills are increasingly scarce and courted, it is crucial for recruiters to innovate – sometimes taking inspiration from certain marketing strategies. What is talent nurturing? We tell you everything in this article!
What is talent nurturing?
Talent nurturing is nothing more than lead nurturing, applied to the world of recruitment. As a reminder, lead nurturing is a key principle of digital marketing, aimed at turning Internet users into customers (by “nurturing” we mean “maintaining” or “nurturing” a relationship).
According to the same principle, the objective of talent nurturing is to transform Internet users into potential candidates (or even future ambassadors for the company). How do you do this? By paying attention to them throughout their application process. The goal is to retain as much talent as possible and make them want to go through the recruitment process.
👉 This method has all the makings of a marketing strategy (and in fact fits perfectly into an inbound recruiting strategy to obtain “candidate leads”).
Many types of talent are eligible for talent nurturing:
- First, there are the Internet users who have started to apply to your company, but have stopped along the way – without completing the application questionnaire, for example
- The candidates who make up your CV library (from your previous shortlists) are all potential talents that you need to retain. A pool of candidates is completely useless without talent nurturing!
- In general, all regular visitors to your career page or LinkedIn page!
- Once recruited, your talent needs to be nurtured (with, for example, a proper induction program). This is also a form of talent nurturing!
💡 Talent nurturing is for anyone who has ever expressed any interest in your company.
📌 To remember
It is rare that a candidate applies to only one offer when he/she is looking for a job… It is therefore in a company’s interest to stand out and engage the candidate in the hiring process.
What are the benefits of talent nurturing?
Like lead nurturing, talent nurturing has many advantages!
- It engages candidates and makes them want to go through with the recruitment process.
- Talent nurturing improves the candidate experience, since it means being more transparent with applicants. For example, a company that uses talent nurturing will regularly inform candidates about the progress of the recruitment process (e.g. by providing them with a report after each interview), and will detail the hiring process and its various stages from the outset…
- This HR strategy also makes it possible to recruit talent more quickly by reactivating/fidelizing an existing pool of candidates.
- Finally, talent nurturing allows you to maintain a link with the candidates you meet during an interview, or even with the visitors of your career page… and to make them want to follow the company’s news (which is the same as taking care of your employer brand).
👆 Good to know
Talent nurturing is particularly important when it comes to recruiting for penurious jobs with volatile candidates.
Talent nurturing in practice
Simply put, talent nurturing encompasses all the techniques that enable a company to maintain its relationship with its candidates or potential candidates. It is largely a matter of mobilizing certain means of communication such as :
- sending newsletters
- writing blog articles or publications on social networks. These can be about the company’s news or its sector, sharing advice to candidates…
- invitations to professional events (webinars and conferences, trade shows, job dating, etc.)
- To go further, it is also possible to automate talent nurturing (similar to lead nurturing). A typical example: send a reminder by email to a candidate who has consulted one of your job offers on LinkedIn, underlining that the offer is still available…
- Finally, when it is pleasant and perfectly optimized, the candidate experience is a typical example of talent nurturing. Offering a clear and transparent hiring process to candidates remains the best way to engage them!
Talent nurturing: what are we talking about, in conclusion
As we have seen, talent nurturing is an HR technique strongly inspired by marketing. This technique is perfectly applicable to the world of recruitment. By building a long-term relationship with your candidates or potential candidates, you reduce your recruitment time (without impacting their quality) and improve your employer brand… A real virtuous circle is created.
👆 Of course, there is no point in adopting talent nurturing, if a real talent management policy is not in place in the company. Talent nurturing requires first and foremost taking care of your employees.
