Talent Communities are all around us.
Tech meetups, marketing associations, young professional groups and volunteer organizations are all examples of natural talent communities that were started by actual members of the community – not recruiters or HR professionals.
These communities were not created with a goal of recruitment – but often, these are the spaces where active and passive job seeking occurs.
We have to change our thinking in how we engage talent.
Recruitment is very often a reactive, short-term practice. A job is posted online, you wait for responses, and handle applications once they come in. A career fair is hosted, and you wait for candidates to come talk to you at your booth. The interaction takes place on your terms, in your environment.
In contrast, the development of a talent community is a proactive, long-term strategy. A tech startup hosts a series of meetups on a new software. A manufacturing company sponsors a series of talks in the community about diversity, equity and inclusion, and highlights their employees’ unique perspectives. Candidates interact with the employer brand on their own terms, in their own environments.
To asset map existing Talent Communities, take a moment to think about your goals.
Who are you building your community for? (And sorry, your answer can’t be “everyone!”)
Is it for a professional affinity group? Software developers? Healthcare workers? Financial managers?
Is it around an issue or interest? Do you want your company to be known for its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion? Do you want to be known as a leader in the fight against climate change?
Once you know who you are building your Talent Community for, you can start to map where those individuals already are.
Let’s take the example from above of Software Developers and map out potential existing talent communities:
- Meetup groups (ie. MilwaukeeJS)
- University programs (ie. MATC)
- Civic organizations (ie. Code for Milwaukee)
- Internal organizations (ie. ERGs)
- City initiatives (ie. MKE Tech Hub Coalition)
- K12 programs (ie. Project Lead the Way)
Additionally, you could think about uniting existing talent communities. Connect multiple young professional groups in your region. Bring together multiple meetup groups. Build a coalition of key leaders from across multiple organizations.
With this information, you have a stronger idea of who your Talent Community is for and existing audiences you can tap into.
In our next blog, we’ll go a step further and talk about making your Talent Community personal, unique and engaging.
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