Step #5—Maintain a Talent Inventory

Create a Pool of People Ready to Hire

Imagine a warehouse stocked with talented people. When you need an administrative assistant, a controller, or a COO, you pick one from the right shelf. They immediately get to work, keeping business moving along.

A people-as-products approach bears a conceptual resemblance to the methods used by retail establishments. Stores plan for demand, stockpile products, manage sales, and refresh their inventories to keep them from becoming depleted.

Stockpiling the talent your company will need is easier than running a store. There are no buildings to erect or expensive inventories to maintain. You won’t have to fabricate a product or manage a complex delivery system. Creating a Talent Inventory is a straightforward proposition: You line up people who are ready to hire the moment they’re needed.

The Inventory Advantage

For years, I’ve preferred buying from a locally owned shop. I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to get to know a store’s owner and staff, and support a business right in my backyard. Unfortunately, my desire to shop locally hasn’t always worked as I’ve intended.

Take, for example, the small hardware store six blocks from my home. The products are reasonably priced and the staff is helpful. Do I buy exclusively from this nearby store? No, in fact, when I need something for a project, I’m more apt to drive a mile to the home improvement superstore. Why? My neighborhood store frequently hasn’t had what I’ve needed. My contradictory behavior is a conditioned response: Even though I prefer shopping small, I often buy big, knowing that the superstore will have what I need now.

I’m not alone in how I shop. Companies that can meet our demands immediately prosper. Big-box stores, such as Home Depot, IKEA, and Walmart, attract our business by providing on-the-spot access to thousands of items. On-demand vendors continue to increase their market share as they quickly connect us with their products, such as downloadable music, or services like a ride to the airport the moment we need it.

Companies with immediately accessible inventories keep us invested. Being able to buy something instantly draws us to that store or vendor again and again. We’ve learned we can rely on them to have what we need in stock, ready to go.

That’s the inventory advantage—readily accessible inventories provide shared benefits. Buyers benefit from efficiently getting what they need. Sellers are rewarded for providing value. Other involved parties, such as product manufacturers, artists whose music is downloaded, and drivers for Uber, are paid for what they do.

A ready-to-hire inventory of prospective employees—a Talent Inventory—also provides benefits to everyone involved. Your company has people ready to hire, when they’re needed. You’re able to focus on doing work instead of being distracted by empty seats. Prospective employees get to line up a better job.

Talent Inventories also provide a strategic benefit. Quality employees are necessary to implement your strategies and serve customers. Organizations without enough talented people are limited on how quickly they can innovate and grow. That’s why CEOs are frequently the most fervent advocates of lining up future hires before they’re required.

It’s been said that knowledge is power. In business, real power is about people. Becoming and remaining a competitive local company, dominant national player, or global powerhouse requires that you constantly have enough people doing quality work. Talent Inventories ensure your organization will have those people when needed.

The Impact of a Talent Inventory

Your Talent Inventory consists of a roster of people ready to be hired. During experiential interviews, you and each person in your inventory have gotten to know one another. You’ve met them, they’ve met you and your team, and they’ve experienced the kind of work they’d do each day. There’s mutual attraction—everyone would benefit from working together.

When a job opens, you offer them the role. If they accept, that job is filled. In cases where they don’t, you offer it to the next candidate in your inventory. Just like retailers keep shelves stocked to meet buyer needs, you’ll maintain at least several prospective employees in your Talent Inventory at all times.

Maintaining an adequate inventory is a cornerstone of High Velocity Hiring, and why the first four steps of the process are vital. Well-crafted hiring profiles clarify who fits a job and guide you in where to find candidates. A continuous flow of candidates provides talented people for you to interview. Your hiring team is always interviewing and occasionally hiring, keeping your Talent Inventory well stocked and ready to go.

Sounds (relatively) simple, right? It is. And it also gives your company a better return on the effort invested in hiring.

The efficiency of the employee selection process can be measured. One way is to look at your return on recruiting (ROR). ROR measures how many hires result from your efforts. You’ll likely find that maintaining a Talent Inventory at least doubles the number of quality hires made from the time you invest.

Because of the impact and flexibility of Talent Inventories, they’re used in companies of all sizes. How these inventories are built varies, depending on a company’s structure and hiring needs.

If you’re a manager in a small company, your Talent Inventory will probably be maintained by you. Such an inventory may only center around one or two core roles. An HR manager or office administrator can help you maintain a strong flow of candidates, as well as participate in some of the interviewing stages. Each month, you’ll spend a handful of hours making sure you consistently have a few people ready to hire.

If you work in a mid-sized organization, your Talent Inventory will be managed by you and HR. It will likely include all your core roles. The HR team will actively recruit candidates, using all of the eight talent streams. You’ll be asked for help with at least two of the talent streams: networking and referrals. HR will help coordinate experiential interviews, and may be part of your hiring team. A few times a month, you’ll interview candidates to keep your prospective employee roster active.

Large corporations build Talent Inventories beyond their core roles. If you’re a leader in one of these organizations, you’ll have help throughout the hiring process from your HR department or talent acquisition team. They’ll sustain the flow of talent, asking for your ongoing help with referrals. They may play an active role in each step of experiential interviews, and are likely to share a role in keeping your Talent Inventory candidates interested in your company. You’ll meet new candidates monthly, but this will take a fraction of the time compared to the old way of hiring.

Regardless of company size or business type, your Talent Inventory keeps seats filled. If you’re like most leaders engaged in the new way of hiring, you’ll have less stress, easier workdays, and a more satisfying career. You may even sleep better at night, knowing you have enough people to get work done, with others waiting in the wings.

Accidental Instantaneous Hiring

Change is inevitable, driving the need for new business practices and innovations. For New York HR executive, Beth Casey-Bellone, one thing that hasn’t changed for the past 15 years is her use of a Talent Inventory. Casey-Bellone’s career has included stints at a global human capital management company and a boutique luxury residential services firm. She’s found that regardless of her employer’s focus or size, a Talent Inventory has been indispensable in filling jobs quickly.

When I first shared how a Talent Inventory would allow her to fill jobs in an instant, she embraced the concept immediately. “I love having people ready to go,” she said. “We always need good candidates and never have enough.” Doubt then clouded her face: “I’m not sure that’s possible, though. We can’t manufacture people. We certainly can’t store them in a warehouse—that’s called kidnapping!”

She only saw the validity of this approach when I pointed out her team had already done instantaneous hiring, albeit accidentally. “You’re right,” she said. “We’ve filled jobs immediately when we happened to be talking with good candidates. We’ve got to line up more of these good candidates before we need them. What we’re missing is a process to make this happenstance a regular occurrence.”

Together, we implemented the Talent Accelerator Process. The recruiting team leveraged each talent stream. Recruiters managed the first few steps of the interviewing process, passing on qualified candidates to hiring managers for a hands-on interview. Where there was an open job, hires were made immediately. The remaining candidates became part of a talent-packed “storehouse” of people ready to hire. Casey-Bellone’s team shouldered the responsibility for keeping the people in the Talent Inventory engaged until the company could hire them.

Whereas hiring used to take weeks, it quickly dropped to days. Both white- and blue-collar jobs at company sites around the city were filled by high-quality people faster than ever. Before long, many roles were filled the same day, achieving “zero-to-fill,” reducing the time it takes to hire to zero.

A decade and a half later, Casey-Bellone still relies on a Talent Inventory. “I’ve maintained Talent Inventories in each company I’ve worked,” she said. “Having a ready-made group of people available has made my job easier. In my current role, we often need dozens of people with little notice. The only reason we can make that happen is through our Talent Inventory.”

Like Casey-Bellone, you’ve probably experienced accidental, instantaneous hiring. You were in touch with the right person at the right time. Creating a Talent Inventory lets you have these happy “accidents” all the time.

Building Your Talent Inventory

The first four steps of the Talent Accelerator Process feed your Talent Inventory.

The profile you created (Step 1) defines who fits your job and guides you in improving the flow of talent (Step 2). Your hiring team works together to counter hiring blindness (Step 3), conducting interviews (Step 4) to determine if a candidate meets the needs of your company. Candidates that fit are hired immediately or added to your inventory.

Earlier in the book, I asked you to decide how many roles you’ll fill instantly. Now’s a good time to revisit that decision (or make it if you’ve not already done so).

I suggested grouping your jobs into these three categories: Core roles, essential roles, and supportive roles.

Core Roles

An open seat creates an immediate and significant negative impact. The nature or amount of work in this role makes it hard to delegate. Filling the job, because of market demand, tends to be difficult.

Essential Roles

A job opening has a negative impact, but is less severe than a core role. The nature or amount of work isn’t as hard to delegate, but is still vital to the company. Filling an essential role is challenging, but tends to take no more than a few weeks.

Supportive Roles

Supportive jobs are important; however, openings for these roles have less impact when compared to core and essential jobs. Work is easier to delegate or cover while a replacement is found. Finding qualified candidates to interview for these roles usually takes a matter of days.

Now that you know more about the Talent Accelerator Process, you may want to change which roles fall under each category. For example, you originally could’ve thought that the role of supervisor was an essential role. Now, you realize that staff can temporarily cover that job for a short time. You move that role to the supportive category.

Once you’ve categorized your positions, pick a core role. This could be a job for which you currently have no openings, or a position with open seats that need filling. If you elect a job with open seats, you’ll initially use the Talent Accelerator Process to fill that job. Then, you’ll harness your flow of candidates to build a storehouse of people.

Creating a Talent Inventory for a role happens in three phases (Figure 7.1).

FIGURE 7.1 Creating a Talent Inventory

Phase #1: Build

You’ll fill your Talent Inventory with candidates you’d like to hire. You’ll identify these candidates through experiential interviews.

Phase #2: Maintain

How many candidates will you keep on hand? At least two. Usually more. Because you’re always interviewing, it’s likely that you’ll have several candidates to select from at any one time. Managing your relationship with each person will keep some candidates actively available for months.

Phase #3: Fill

When a job opens, you offer it to the person most qualified. If, for any reason, they decline the offer, you reach out to the next best available candidate. Sustaining ongoing interviews refills your hiring pool, ensuring you have people to choose from.

If you want to build a Talent Inventory for additional roles, do so carefully. It’s best to wait until you’ve reached the “Fill” phase before expanding further. As you add roles, you’ll likely need help in managing this efficiently. Your hiring team, an assistant, and employees who report to you, along with your HR or talent acquisition department, can help you maintain your Talent Inventory.

Your goal will forever be the same—being able to hire a talented person the moment a job opens. Your Talent Inventory provides you with a pool of ready-to-hire prospective employees, as long as you do your part in keeping it stocked.

Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to ten common questions will help you implement your Talent Inventory.

FAQ #1: How many candidates should I have in my Talent Inventory?

You’ll need at least two people for each type of job. Often, you’ll have more than two ready to hire at all times. The practice of always interviewing, occasionally hiring will create a growing number of candidate relationships. Some of these relationships will span months. It’s common that job offers are made to people whom you’ve courted for years.

Circumstances at your company will dictate the precise inventory levels you’ll need for each role. Periods of rapid growth or high turnover can require that extra candidates for each role be maintained in your inventory.

FAQ #2: How do I get people interested in being part of my Talent Inventory?

People like special treatment. Picture an exclusive nightclub. Outside there are two admission lines—the long line and the shorter one for VIPs. That’s the one blocked off by the red velvet rope. Considering someone for your inventory is a red velvet rope experience.

The Talent Accelerator Process allows you to give talented people special treatment. Special access to your company makes people feel important. Experiential interviews are a premium experience, giving the candidate a unique opportunity to experience the job. Collaborative sales conversations will continue the experience, distinguishing you from other companies.

FAQ #3: We don’t have any current openings, and I’m not going to lie and say we do. Why, then, would a busy and talented candidate speak with us?

The very fact that you don’t have openings is in your favor. There are lots of companies that are always hiring. Their constant churn of people creates the need to fill open seats. Is that where talented people want to work? No. They look for better jobs, and are willing to wait for them.

Cultivating candidates and waiting for the right jobs to open up make your company desirable. It demonstrates that your company is a better place to work, one that’s worth waiting for.

FAQ #4: What if our company doesn’t have a good reputation? How can we attract top talent for our Talent Inventory?

Organizations are a reflection of their people. A poor reputation happens as a result of the work being done by some of those people. Improving the image of an organization requires upgrading your workers.

High Velocity Hiring builds better companies. How? By hiring your way to a better company. You can use the Talent Accelerator Process to incrementally hire better people. Each round of hiring allows you to fill a job with a better person than the last one.

FAQ #5: What if I don’t have HR or talent acquisition staff to help me?

You get to choose the size and scope of your Talent Inventory. Only have time to maintain one role? That’s fine. Have time for more? That works too. Talent Inventories are flexible.

In the next chapter, you’ll learn methods for keeping your Talent Accelerator Process flowing.

FAQ #6: How do I keep good candidates interested over the long term?

The relationship with each person in your Talent Inventory is a courtship. You’re nurturing the growing rapport. The most important thing to remember is it’s your job to keep the relationship going.

A simple rule of thumb is to connect with each candidate in your Talent Inventory at least monthly. In a matter of minutes, you can facilitate a meaningful conversation. These conversations maintain the relationship, deepening the candidate’s interest in working for your organization.

FAQ #7: I’m an HR or talent acquisition professional. What’s my responsibility in maintaining a Talent Inventory?

Often, you and your departmental colleagues will be responsible for harnessing talent through improved candidate gravity. It’s also common that you’ll coordinate interviews. In some cases, you’ll have full responsibility for choosing candidates for hands-on interviews and conducting reference and background checks.

FAQ #8: What if someone in my Talent Inventory turns down a job offer?

It’s not if, but when candidates turn your offers down. The best candidates will have other options.

When someone turns down an offer, you move on to the next best person in your inventory. That’s why you’re always interviewing, occasionally hiring. Stay in touch at least quarterly with every good candidate who turns your offer down. Things change. You’ll want to be there when they do.

FAQ #9: This all sounds very time-consuming. How do I fit this into my schedule?

Doing something different, such as maintaining a Talent Inventory, can seem overwhelming. However, experiential interviews take less time than conventional methods. Staying in touch with the people in your inventory takes minutes. You’re likely to find that the total amount of time you spend on hiring is cut at least in half.

Best of all, you’re in control. You get to decide how many different roles are in your inventory.

FAQ #10: I’m really busy. Do you really expect me to manage my own Talent Inventory?

Yes. Faster hiring is a strategic imperative. Maintaining an inventory will allow you to fill seats the moment they open. You’ll also hire better people and save time while doing it.

Managing a Talent Inventory means different things in different companies. One thing remains the same: Leaders play a vital role in ensuring they have their next hire ready to go.

Talent Inventory Examples

How will you build your Talent Inventory? Who, if anyone, will help you maintain it? How have companies chosen to tackle these tasks? Following are five examples.

Everyone Participates

A global hotelier chose to build an inventory for all their jobs. Managing this inventory became everyone’s responsibility. From the top down, every employee has tasks. Executives in the C-Suite facilitate hands-on interviews and personally call each candidate in their inventory each month. Managers in every department do the same, adding phone interviews to their responsibilities. Staff members participate in hands-on interviews, completing scorecards for each candidate. The HR team is responsible for maintaining strong candidate gravity and scheduling interviews.

Everyone in the company has a common, shared responsibility—feeding the referral and networking talent streams.

Divide and Conquer

The CEO of a growing energy company saw one obstacle to future success—people. Numerous departments within the company were struggling to find good people. Anticipated growth was only going to make matters worse. The chief human resource officer was tasked with ensuring the company could fill all jobs the instant they opened.

She divided the talent acquisition team into two groups. The legacy group was responsible for maintaining the Talent Inventory for existing roles. The emergent group built pools of prospective employees for new openings. Both groups worked directly with hiring managers to coordinate the steps of experiential interviews.

Always Elevating

Promoting from within was considered a cultural value of a nonprofit organization. To achieve this, the organization had developed a leadership development program. However, they often lacked people to replace staff members who were ready for promotion. The small HR staff couldn’t keep up with the organization’s hiring needs, keeping these emerging leaders stuck in their current roles.

A new module was added to the leadership development program called Always Elevating. This module showed participants how to use the Talent Accelerator Process. After completing the program, participants became responsible for helping line up their own replacements.

One Is Enough

Sometimes, filling one type of job on demand is enough. That job, for a small engineering firm, was electrical engineers. When they had enough electrical engineers, they could take on additional projects, adding millions in additional revenue.

Hiring electrical engineers fell on the shoulders of the engineering manager. She was the department’s sole leader. The company had an HR director, but she was a part-time employee who was unable to provide any hiring support. The engineering manager sought outside help from a staffing agency. They provided candidates; she conducted interviews, built her Talent Inventory, and kept in touch with those in it. Investing a few hours each month allowed her to maintain an inventory of engineers.

Core Focus

Assemblers were a core role at a mid-sized medical device manufacturer. For months, people in these roles had to work overtime because of unfilled jobs. The extra money was great, for a while. As months went by, people left. Those that remained were at a breaking point, as was the company’s budget. Overtime was costing thousands in additional expense—well beyond what had been allocated for the fiscal year.

The company had one recruiter, who was given additional help to fill the open jobs. Once the jobs were filled, he collaborated with the production manager to maintain a Talent Inventory. A handful of assemblers, ready to hire, is all it took to ensure they could always hire in an instant. However, they rarely had to replace someone. Turnover of assemblers had all but been eliminated.

Keeping Your Talent Inventory Full

Talent Inventories aren’t foolproof. Sometimes they fail. Why? Hires are made, but the pool of talent isn’t replenished. This lack forces you back into the old way of hiring— keeping a job open until the right person shows up. That’s why it’s critical that you’re always interviewing to maintain a pool of people.

Maintaining strong candidate gravity will ensure you have enough candidates to interview. The referral and networking streams can be especially effective in helping you restock your Talent Inventory as each hire is made. Here are three examples of creative ways to use these talent streams.

BYOC (Bring Your Own Colleague)

Being offered a new job is exciting. You can encourage new hires to share this excitement with friends and colleagues. Ask your new employees to invite people they know to join them at your company. Suggest they bring resumes of their colleagues with them during their first week of employment.

Family Night

The families of your new hires are powerful. They know tons of people, some of whom could be future hires. Invite the families of each new employee to a dinner or reception during the first month of employment. Ask their opinions on whom they know that could be a great addition to your team.

Community Showcase

Have a cool facility? Invented something new? Solved a significant problem? Showing off isn’t just okay; it’s a great way to get people interested in working for your company. Schedule periodic events to showcase your company and the work you’re doing. Partner with community leaders to draw in attendees. Encourage your employees and newest hires to invite friends, family, and colleagues who work at other companies.

Keeping your Talent Inventory full at all times gives your company power. The power of choice. You’ll have people to choose from when a job opens. You’ll also have immediate options when poor performers need to be replaced. A fully stocked Talent Inventory will be your key to ongoing success, ensuring that you have enough quality people to get work done.