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Let’s be ready – make me a pipeline! Not so long ago I received a hiring manager’s call, blaming a recruiter of my team for not doing his work: “I told him, that I expect at least three CVs bi-weekly in order to have an ongoing flow of candidates granted for the foreseeable growth in my department in the next three months.” I took a deep breath – actually a very, very deep one - and asked him to tell me a bit more about this foreseeable needs. It turned out that there was a – yet not confirmed - new project, a maternity leave and some rumors about one or two people intending to leave the company. Having some people somehow "stocked" in a status, "ready for hire" appeared the best solution for him. Here it was again, the standard misconception of “Candidate Pipeline”. As most of you might be aware, the issue with people is, that they in general show a certain disagreement,

once you try to put them into a shelf and tell them to wait until you need them. Funny enough, this was exactly what my recruiter had been asked to do, to source, screen and present people, for a probable, but not yet defined hire. Besides the question of recruitment department resources blocked away from current openings, this kind of approach is also questionable as it simply harms the company’s and the recruiter’s reputation on the market. What would you think about someone, running through the streets of your town shouting “fire, fire, fire” and

once you come to help, he finish his phrase with “…not yet”? I think you got the idea. But does this mean that there is no such thing as “candidate pipelining”? It is, once you have defined, what actually is meant with a candidate pipeline: “Pipeline” is not meant as a stock where you simply can go to and acquire what you need, but a list of people you would like to come back to. They either could be a hit for an opening or they can support you in sourcing the right person, needed to do the job. Think about it as a network made for you supporting people to get a job and people supporting you to fill your positions. (read more on “ere recruitment blog”: http://goo.gl/09Blj1)

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This leads to the basic conditions for having a candidate pipeline built:

Profiling - The requested profile can be defined through some agreed basic requirements

Need -Frequent need of similar profiles and / or a foreseeable request of a particular profile

Urge - Shortage of the requested profile If these conditions are fulfilled, just put your target group into focus:

Who are key influencer in the target community? Who might be already a contact in your company? Where do you find them? What is of interest for them?

I must admit, that the two last questions are the trickiest, but also the most important ones. The more time invested in this, the better your outcome will be. If you manage to establish a good two-way communication you will - step by step - become a recognized member of the community, gain a reputation and will be heard, once you ask for support with the filling of your career opportunity. You can achieve this in latest six to 12 months. It is work, it takes a while and it will pay out – for you and your network – because remember: There is no win in staffing without a win-win. And by the way: The Hiring Manger didn’t get his bi-weekly CVs but a class A maternity leave backup. We still wait for the new project and the two guys on risk are still with that company. Just some Recruiter’s thought. See more on G+ blog: http://goo.gl/DXXkEq