A talent community is a method of social recruiting, by relying on the collection of social cliques (or talent networks) of people that are part of the job seeking process. These people may be seeking a job themselves, offering career advice to others, recruitment professionals, college campus recruiters, sourcers, and friends seeking jobs or advice. Talent communities operate through two-way interaction between community members. A talent community is not a list of candidates on a web page or in a spreadsheet, it is an environment consisting of people who can share ideas for the purpose of career networking or social recruiting of candidates. Employers can interact and communicate with prospective employees as well as inform candidates about employment opportunities, receive referrals, and handpick qualified individuals from inside the group. A talent community can include prospective candidates, past applicants, current employees, and past employees. Talent communities are managed by recruiters and/or hiring managers.
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Description
A talent community is a network of candidates, employees, alumni, and our social and professional networks allowing productive two-way communication between all permitting and willing connections. A community is engaged in collaborations and the sharing of information. It involves people conversing and working together to solve problems, meet goals, share opinions, and ideas. The social engagement in a real community makes people feel included and compelled to contribute positively to the betterment of the community.
Cross-membership communication within a community encourages groups to form organically according to their similar shared values, interests, and opinions. People within the talent community stay engaged because of the value brought to them by participating in these groups and the content that is generated by open, relevant communication.
The distinguishable features of a talent community have been characterized as collaboration and sharing, feeling included, similar values, openness, and engagement
The benefits have been similarly stated as: qualified candidates at a recruiter's fingertips; less dependence on ineffective job boards (also known as employment websites); less money spent on job advertisements; increased interaction with potential candidates; better quality of applicants to job openings; creation of a talent pipeline for future job openings; and, attraction of passive candidates
Talent Pool vs. Talent Community
A talent pool is a database of everyone that has ever applied to a recruiter's jobs, regardless of relevance. It facilitates one-sided communication.
In a talent community relationships are key. Hiring managers connect to employees, candidates and their friends. Contacts are organized into relevant talent networks. Employee referral programs are enhanced as the focus is on quality, not quantity. Most importantly, they are social. Contacts are engaged through social media rather than just email, telephone and jobs boards.