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Top 5 things you need to know about ‘talent communities’

One of the hottest topics debated at last week’s Jobsite sponsored TruLondon Social Recruiting unconference was Talent Communities…particularly ‘what are they’ and ‘how do you leverage them’?

We took part in quite a few discussions about this, and were able to talk to some of the sector’s leading practitioners from the UK and US.  It was an honour to get two of the keynote presenters, John Sumser and Lucian Tarnowski, into the Jobsite studio to expand upon their views.

Watch them here:

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5 key points to look out for

  1. A talent community isn’t a database of names, nor a folder of e-mail addresses, but a community of customers and consumers built on peer to peer interaction (4m, 15s)
  2. You need to invest in each member of the community to get the best outcome (6m, 50s) as everyone in the community has to know that they are in it (7m, 45s)
  3. Don’t start with the hiring requirement, you have to build the community ahead of the hiring process (8m, 45s)
  4. Which means that good workforce planning is the key (9m, 45s)
  5. The relationship should be fully interactive, it’s not dialogue but ‘multilogue’(15m, 05s)

Hope you enjoy the chat.

We’ll be bringing you more career and recruitment chat from the Jobsite studio soon.

Related posts:

  1. Are We Really in the Talent Acquisition Business? When we announced Jason Lauritsen as a guest track leader...
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25 February 2011Recruiter news
  • http://www.talentcommunity.net MarvSmith

    I believe that John is incorrect. He says we are just using traditional approaches and calling them by new names. We call email lists and databases–talent communities. I think he is confusing the methods of engagement with the goals and objectives of the communities. I do not believe that it means we are not building community if we used text or emails to enage people. What makes communities different is that it is more that just another annoucement about a job; it is building a relationship around a common affinity such as a profession. In fact, there is a community that is built around talent community development (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=1148747). It is co-managed by industry thought leaders that are actually building talent communities.

    • http://twitter.com/jeremyrobertshr Jeremy Roberts

      Great info Marv! Thanks for sharing.

  • http://twitter.com/jeremyrobertshr Jeremy Roberts

    we need an unconference in TX

  • http://twitter.com/Alconcalcia Alasdair Murray

    I question the whole concept of talent communities here. http://www.recruitingblogs.com/profiles/blogs/what-is-a-talent-community Yes, there will be forums on the web, there always have been, but as far as individual employers building communities of budding would be employees I think that’s pie in the sky thinking. a) people are generally private about their career aspirations. They don;t eant to reveal there interest to strangers, particularly if their current employer or a colleague might be tuning in and b) good people don’t have the time or inclination to pfaff around with such nonsense. You want me, call me. You’ll find out a hell of a lot more in far less time.

    • Mervyn Dinnen

      Thanks for your comment Alasdair. The two speakers were passionate in their beliefs and clearly have a strong feel for the subject. I suspect there will be a wide range of views, though from recent conferences we’ve been to there do seem to be a lot of companies that are seeking to create the type of community that John and Lucian refer to.
      Your point that jobseekers may want to keep their interest private is a good one, though it may be more natural to those who already use open social media platforms to connect.
      Would be good to get some other views on this…anyone wnat to chip in?

  • Printyprinty

    Talent community…pfft..don’t make me laugh…This is just good old recruitment consultant practices by a new name. Recruiters trying to squeeze/add value in an over saturated Recruitment market.
    Bring back decent HR departments, the recruitment sector is the most worthless part of our weak service led economy.
    We try to compete with the U.S and Germans with new practices and buzz words but we have no ‘industry’, just new services squeezing other service creating value and deflating wages…Talent Management..its so Hollywood you couldn’t make it up.

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