Staffing agencies

Why Staffing Agencies in Southeast Asia Need Talent Pipelines

With clients across Southeast Asia expecting more from their recruiting partners, it might be time to rethink how talent is being sourced. A talent pipeline may be your ‘silver bullet’ to ensure more efficient and cost-effective talent sourcing.

Getting your talent pipeline started

An increasingly competitive recruitment landscape has seen recruiters work hard to get ahead. In LinkedIn’s 2015 Southeast Asia Staffing Trends Report, 29% of respondents said “building strong talent pools or pipelines” is the one thing their competitors have done or may plan on doing that would make them nervous.

Pipelining talent has been proven to not only save on time to hire, but can also lead to better-quality candidates. Here are four tips to get you started.

  1. Know where your pipeline lies: Focus on skills your business recruits for repeatedly and roles that are hard to fill. This will increase your chances of filling these roles quickly, reducing cost per hire and time to fill.
  1. Use your social networking skills to your advantage: Engage with prospects smartly – use LinkedIn status updates and Twitter to demonstrate your industry knowledge, personalize your messages and build your own personal brand. Remember to always engage people on a meaningful, useful level – leave the sales pitch behind.
  1. Get client buy-in: Successful pipelines obtain hiring-manager commitment. Ensure you ‘sell’ the benefits of pipelining in terms that are meaningful to the hiring manager. Instead of talking “time to hire” use metrics such as “getting ‘x’ people to sales productivity ‘y’ weeks earlier”.
  1. Measure progress: Different channels – job applications, employee referral programs and direct sourcing – might require different trackers of success. Measure which channel produces the most hires over time.

What else is trending?

Recruiting has evolved, client expectations have changed and there’s a growing belief that traditional approaches to sourcing and recruiting top talent no longer work.  

Southeast-Asia-Staffing-Trends-2015

It’s time for staffing agencies to take stock. Results from LinkedIn’s 2015 Southeast Asia Staffing Trends Report highlighted three distinct but interrelated trends that will shape the industry in the coming year.

  1. Sourcing: The rise of social professional networks has revolutionized how employers and professional recruiters are sourcing and engaging with talent. Some 66% of surveyed recruiters listed “social professional networks” as the most valuable source for finding talent. Online job boards, employee referral programs and ATS have slipped down the list.
  1. Brand: 77% of surveyed respondents recognise that their brand has a significant impact on their ability to engage great talent, and a significant 78% acknowledge their brand has a significant impact on their ability to grow their business.
  1. Passive candidates: Recruiters are concerned about their ability to source passive candidates. 62% selected this as a long-lasting trend in recruiting for professional roles. Related to this is the fact that 32% of recruiters have a desire to improve their sourcing techniques.

 

The time is now

If you're still not convinced it’s time for a talent sourcing shake-up, consider this sobering thought: a huge 76% of Southeast Asian staffing leaders project that their hiring volumes for full-time employees will increase this year. Can you afford an ad-hoc, unplanned talent sourcing approach?

To discover more about staffing priorities for the next 12 months, download our free 2015 Southeast Asia Staffing Trends Report.

SAE-trends-ebook

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