does your recruitment partner have access to a niche talent pool?

Hiring niche talent is tougher than ever in today’s highly competitive candidate-driven hiring market. 68% of companies today are worried about the growing skills gap, 48% are already experiencing extended vacancies, and the overall phenomenon is costing companies upwards of USD 1 million annually. Given this, collaborating with a recruiting partner who has access to an engaged and active niche talent pool can put businesses in the driver’s seat. Here are four questions to ask your potential recruitment partner:

1. Do you have an eye on the future?

Does your recruiting partner acknowledge the changing face of talent and have a fair idea of how niche talent in your space will look like, say five years down the line? Future-ready recruitment firms not only have a pulse on the emerging workforce and workplace trends, but can also distinguish fads from sustainable trends. Another important aspect to look for is whether your recruiting partner has a dedicated sourcing team with expertise in the relevant domain as it can greatly impact the quality and speed of hiring.

2. Are you equipped to leverage predictive analytics?

Hiring for niche roles no longer depends on your recruiting partner’s past hiring experience. Predictive analytics - the next wave of transformation in recruitment is changing how companies source niche talent. By leveraging analytics techniques such as data mining, statistical modelling, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, forward-looking recruiters can identify trends and patters, fine tune strategies, and develop roadmaps to source, attract, hire, and retain niche talent. Other benefits of leveraging predictive analytics include improving quality and speed of hiring, in turn, driving competitive advantage. Google’s data-driven HR function is testimony to the fact – the tech giant uses people analytics to hire and engage talent and is seeing phenomenal results. On average, each Google employee generates nearly USD 1 million in revenue and USD 200,000 in profit each year. What’s more – they fit extremely well into the company culture right from day one and feel valued by their employer.

3. Can you access best practices from across the world?

Talent acquisition has become increasingly social as well as global in today’s world, which means best practices that apply in one industry or area can easily cross-pollinate to yours. Leveraging social and mobile technologies, crowd sourcing, and engaging in two-way discussions online using video and voice interviews, are emerging as the new methods of talent acquisition across the world. ‘Going global’ while looking for niche talent is no longer a choice – it is a must for organisations as well as recruiters.

4. Do you have in-house capabilities for technical assessment?

Tools, platforms, techniques, and algorithms abound when it comes to sourcing talent today. What matters is whether your recruiting partner knows which one is right for you and has the in-house capabilities to use the same. Gone are the days when recruiters could use a few keywords on job sites or in their existing databases and hope to find the right candidates, let alone niche talent. Today’s tech-savvy recruiters know when and where to network, the right social media platforms where niche talent resides, and what motivates these workers. So the next time you see your niche talent pipeline dwindling, it’s probably time to recalibrate expectations with your recruiting partner.