Part 2: The vital role of Curators in the Talent Community – High-quality talent curation

If hiring is a battle, then Curators are a company’s boots on the ground. 

Talent is an essential commodity, and top workers often have multiple options when looking for their next opportunities. This is why talent curation strategies no longer focus on short-term hiring. Instead, Curators are changing the way they communicate with talent and working to improve the overall candidate process in order to build a long-term talent acquisition strategy. Many companies, for example, are embracing passive hiring and engaging with candidates who are currently employed but could be open to new opportunities. 

In part 2 of our 3 part series on creating reliable talent communities, we explore how the curator’s role has changed and why candidate experience has become a key component of successful talent acquisition. 

A new hiring landscape – how talent curation is changing

Talent curation is no longer about filling immediate open positions. Experts in the field must now help companies grow solid talent communities with dependable candidate pipelines that support long-term hiring. 

Both businesses and candidates are dealing with a potential recession and sky-high inflation, causing workers to look for financial stability and job security.

Even with the turbulent financial landscape, candidates will no longer accept lackluster hiring experiences. 63% of recruiters admitted their biggest hurdle is the global talent shortage, while 76% of hiring managers say finding the right job candidates is their biggest issue. It doesn’t help that the best talent is usually off the market in about 10 days. 

Many companies are turning to passive hiring to fill their talent communities. According to LinkedIn, passive talent makes up about 70% of the world’s workforce. Engaging with candidates who are already employed is an effective way of finding skilled, capable employees.

In this new age of talent acquisition, curators need to think about the big-picture and must be able to form relationships and networks they can pull from in the future. 

Laying the groundwork

To create a talent community, companies need to play the long game. Building the right foundation is essential when preparing a functioning pipeline. Curators play an important role at this stage. At the beginning of this process, curators should:

  • Cultivate a network. Social media is a great place to start, as are industry events and conferences, online forums and industry-specific communities. It’s important to build relationships and let those in your network know about open positions and long-term hiring needs. This will help infuse your talent pipeline with new candidates from respectable sources.
  • Focus on niche skills. Identify roles that are difficult to find candidates for. These usually include tech or engineering jobs, senior leadership positions and other roles that require specialized high-value skill sets. Make these roles a priority, as they can take up to 6 months, or longer, to fill. 
  • Organize your pipeline. Talent acquisition software, like TalentNet, can help curators organize top talent, quickly engage with them and tag community members who may not have been successful in the short-term, but are likely to do well in other roles. 
  • Build a brand. Talent communities are only as powerful as a company’s brand. Brand-building should be part of all talent curation efforts, including social media campaigns, networking events, and even one-on-one meetings with potential hires. It’s important that all curators are integrated into the company’s brand, which includes LinkedIn personas, company emails, and use of company resources.
  • Create diverse, inclusive environments. Diversity in the workplace is an essential metric and many organizations have started monitoring. Diverse candidates lead to new ideas, important conversations and increased skill sets. Some talent acquisition platforms, such as TalentNet, include voluntary, anonymous Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) surveys during the application process,which allow companies to better understand DEI metrics.

Communicating your way to a better candidate experience

Successful curators go above and beyond their roles and genuinely take an interest in the hiring process. 

Accepting an offer is a huge risk to any candidate. It’s the curator’s job to convince top talent they’ll be happy in their new role. This is why creating a positive candidate experience is essential. 

Open communication plays a key part here. 89% of potential hires admitted being contacted by their curator encouraged them to say yes to a job offer faster. 

This is why It’s vital to stay connected to candidates at every step of the way – from initial contact to final hiring decision. Impersonal, automated emails from do not reply email addresses don’t foster positive experiences. Instead, ensure candidates are able to reach you with any questions or concerns. 

It takes a community – working together for a better talent pool

No curator is an island. Work with your entire company to find high quality candidates that may not have otherwise been available to you. 

Current employees know what the company is looking for and often have talented contacts who may be looking for another opportunity. Direct Sourcing strategies can help you grow your candidate pool. Employment referral programs, for example, are a great way to find qualified new hires and expand your talent pipeline. 

Talent curation without the hassle

From creating a network and engaging with talent to leveraging brands and enhancing the candidate experience, curators are vital to the talent community. 

TalentNet’s AI-powered talent acquisition platform helps curators find and engage with top talent quickly and efficiently. 

Currently, TalentNet uses a machine learning framework called BERT, which stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. This framework makes use of Natural Language Processing and allows our platform to match candidates with open positions based on their experience and skill sets. TalentNet’s latest integration will include GPT-3.5, an AI model that will enhance our job matching feature and allow curators to optimize job descriptions through an AI-enabled Job Description Optimization feature. 

Learn more by booking your demo.

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