What is talent scouting?

Talent scouting is a proactive approach to finding the skills and strengths you need on your team. Instead of waiting to fill a position like traditional recruiting, you’re scouting talent before you need it.

You anticipate what skills you’ll need during future rounds of hiring, and you start building relationships with professionals who have those skills now, even if you’re not ready to hire. Scouting for talent gives you more time to look at the overall fit of a candidate, so you don’t just choose the one with the most impressive resume and hope it works out.

Benefits of scouting for talent

Talent scouting can help your organization take charge of hiring. Some of the benefits of using this approach include:

• Proactive instead of reactive: You don’t feel the pressure to make a decision quickly when you’re proactive. Building a talent pool gives you qualified options when you have a vacancy.
• Fills talent gaps: Scouting for talent relies heavily on knowing where your gaps are so you can find new talent to fill them. This can strengthen your organization and expand your capabilities.
• Reaches passive job seekers: Traditional recruiting methods typically reach active job seekers, but using talent scouting strategies can help you pique the interest of people who aren’t actively looking for new jobs. This can expand the depth and quality of your talent pool.
• Shorter time-to-hire: Because you already have relationships with the people you’re scouting, you might be able to shorten the time-to-hire.
• Increased candidate interest: Building relationships and having current employees refer job seekers can increase their interest in your company. They learn more about your organization while they wait for an opening that fits their skills, so they can decide if they want to work for you. By the time they apply, they’re eager to land a job there, so you have enthusiastic candidates ready to fill your openings.

How to start scouting talent

When you’re just starting with scouting talent, it can feel unfamiliar. These steps can help you get started on the transition from traditional hiring to talent scouting.

1. Evaluate your current talent

Looking at the skills, talents and areas of expertise among your current team helps you identify your existing strengths. This gives you a baseline and helps you understand where you excel. It can be helpful to dig deeper rather than focusing only on what your team members currently do.

You could have employees with other skills that they don’t currently use in their positions that might be beneficial to your organization.

2. Identify your talent gaps

No matter how talented your team is, it likely has some holes in it when it comes to skills and expertise. Doing a skills gap analysis is an organized way to see where you have room for growth. You might find that your current staff can fill in some of those gaps. The remaining areas of need can help you focus your efforts for talent scouting.

3. Forecast your future needs

You might not have a crystal ball, but you can look at projections and upcoming plans for your business that could result in hiring needs.

For instance, if you want to introduce a new production process or you’re planning to open a second location, those moves could impact your hiring needs.

You can also look at your current staffing. Are some employees on a management track that would leave positions vacant? These staffing predictions help you identify specific roles and skills you might need in the near future.

4. Identify specific talent

Using all that research, get specific with the types of people you might need to hire soon. Having a staffing plan and listing specific talent you want makes it easier to identify those things when you see them.

You’ll likely scout for multiple roles and talents at once because your company could expand in different directions.

5. Explore ways to find the talent you need

With traditional recruitment, you often rely on strategies like job ads, paid advertising and posts on your career page. Those strategies may still work with a talent scouting method, but adding other talent sourcing methods enhances your ability to find more talent. Some options include:

• Employee referrals
• Reaching out to your current network
• Attending networking events
• Become a trainer or educational leader in your industry to attract motivated job seekers who want to learn more
• Building social media communities

Tips for talent scouting

Scouting for talent is something that gets easier the longer you do it. These tips for scouting talent can help you succeed.

• Build your brand: Having a strong brand helps attract clients to your organization. Your branding should make your company identity and values easy to understand. Brand awareness makes your company recognizable and might interest people in working for you.
• Think about culture add: When scouting for talent, it’s not just about hard skills. Consider your company culture and the makeup of the team. Strong character that aligns with your company’s values is beneficial even if that person doesn’t have all the hard skills you need.
• Train your team: Shifting to a scouting mentality is easier with training for your staff. You might organize an internal training or send your staff to an external training on talent scouting. Ongoing education on the topic helps your scouting team stay at the forefront of the strategy.
• Focus on the candidate experience : The candidate experience shapes how job seekers feel about your company. Regular communication and positive interactions with your team can help improve the experience, which can help keep them interested.
• Look at potential: Scouting for talent requires you to make some predictions about job seekers. Consider their current skills, achievements and potential.
• Revisit your needs often: Your talent scouting efforts might change regularly. Sudden growth, a downturn in the industry or an unexpected opportunity could change your staffing needs. Conduct a new skills gap analysis occasionally and look at changes to your staffing to anticipate new directions you might have to go.
• Consider candidates outside your industry: It’s natural to look for people who are already in your industry, but you could find talent in other fields with transferable skills . They could bring a unique perspective to your organization.

FAQs about scouting for talent

Who are the people who scout talent?

The human resources department typically handles talent scouting much the same way they would traditional recruiting. However, you can get other team members involved in helping you find talent by encouraging employee referrals. You can also turn them into natural talent scouts and cheerleaders by creating a positive work environment and keeping them happy.

What makes a good talent scout?

An effective talent scout needs a clear idea of what you’re looking for. Being friendly and engaging helps them connect with prospects, even if they don’t think they’re looking for new opportunities. Strong networking skills are also beneficial and help to continue meeting new people.

How do you keep talent interested?

With the scouting approach, you’re looking for people before you need them. Communicating with them regularly via email newsletters or social media posts can keep them interested.

You might encourage them to sign up for job notifications so they receive emails if a vacancy matches their skills. Creating a positive experience and keeping in touch regularly can help keep talent interested.