When social recruitment pioneers advise companies to build and promote the concept of Talent Communities, the thought behind the whole effort is to be able to facilitate the building of a community of talent (read – prospective job applicants), that is engaged enough to voluntarily communicate to show case their knowledge, support other members of the community, to share their thoughts, and offer relevant insights on the community. Thereby enabling the business to be able to identify and tap the right talent at the right time.
This also allows the potential of enabling an employer to promote suitable job openings to select members of the community or to all with a belief that the message reaches the right people, within and outside the community. Talent community as a concept is not just about prospective job applicants but it could also about past & present employees, campus students, hiring consultants etc. We will keep our thoughts restricted to talent community as a platform to engage prospective job applicants.
While the idea is really amazing and relevant – the underlying assumption here is that the participants of the talent community will be ever eager to participate, share their own learning’s, experiences and ideas etc. on an ongoing basis with a belief that one fine day all this effort can help them get the right visibility and get some suitable employment for themselves. Is that what we are talking about when we mention talent communities ?
Job Seekers, visit a platform when they need jobs. They are happy seeing the job postings and if something interests them they apply, else disappear. What they are looking for is a job board and not a talent community. In fact most efforts at creating a talent community have a good possibility of ending up as a job announcement platform. One sided sharing and one sided questions focused on upcoming jobs. On the so called communities, created within the confines of LinkedIn and Facebook – in fact there are not many questions and not many answers even about the work culture, about corporate policies etc.
Most of the job seekers are like seasonal fruits or vegetables. They are busy with their lives and their amazing careers. While they are busy, they don’t have any time or inclination for anything else. They are too special to participate in any community, knowledge sharing etc. Unless their job demands it. They may sign up for a community but then disappear – in such a scenario, how can they stay relevant on the platform to get attention or visibility. One fine day every 2 – 3 years they realize that they don’t like their job anymore and get active on almost all social platforms and company groups, communities etc. Now the thought is, 1. Let me update my profile 2. Let me post some random articles or quotes to get attention 3. Let me place some random likes, comments etc. The problem – this behavior does not really add value to the concept of community creation, and may actually impact the whole intended purpose of the concept of community creation. People who may be a regular at the communities may in most cases be insignificant talent to be considered for any employment opportunity.
The concept of talent community may still be in an exploration stage and it may take time to get to some level of maturity that delivers value. Some recommendation for employers – keep your expectations low, place a consistent effort to build engagement and attract the right targeted people to your community . The efforts have to be well organized and there needs to be a reasonable commitment in terms of funds and efforts. Returns and value addition may take time, don’t expect a miracle. However, the platform can serve one of its key purpose starting from Day 0 – that of supporting you promote the employer branding of your business. Of course you need to have the right pitch in place and the right messages to hit the community members.
Praveen is the Founder & Principal Consultant of KHEdge, a boutique HR & Business Process Advisory firm. Over last 15 years he has advised & worked with promoters, founders, business leaders, HR leaders in areas of - Business Strategy, HR Strategy, Organisation Design etc.