As an HR manager, you know that building top talent teams for your organization falls well within your scope of responsibility. However, knowing that and accomplishing it are two different things. An increasingly global workforce, a shortage of top talent, and the constraints of aligning your talent teams with overall business objectives makes the job of team-building a challenge.

What can you do to meet these challenges successfully? As with any type of building project, it all starts with using the right tools.

Applicant Tracking and Talent Management Tool Kit

One of the most essential tools for solid team building is an applicant tracking system that allows you to keep up with promising candidates. You cannot build effective teams without initially recruiting the right candidates and applicant tracking systems are a great aid in the recruiting process.

It is important to note, however, that not all applicant tracking systems are created equal. You need more than a simple repository of applications. Were that all you needed, you could make do with a large file cabinet or two.

Rather, you need something beyond regular applicant tracking such as a talent management solution. Of course, your talent management solution should contain applicant tracking functionality, but it should do more than simply track active candidates. For instance, ThriveTRM allows you to source top talent from sites such as LinkedIn and GitHub without manual data entry. It also enables a global view of your entire pool of talent from a central dashboard.

This helps you to see instantly what is happening with all your candidates, from their interactions with you to communication and collaboration with your entire hiring team. ThriveTRM helps you keep viable candidates “warm” until a position that fits becomes available. It eliminates the siloed tracking systems of times past, such as spreadsheets and paper document files. In other words, ThriveTRM gives you access in real-time to your entire talent pool. Now that is a useful tool!

The Communication Toolkit

In addition to state-of-the-art technology like ThriveTRM, you need another essential tool in the form of good communication skills. As an HR manager, you know the value of communication, but are you using it to the full extent possible?

For instance, are you communicating clearly to upper management the state of your talent pipeline? Advising the C-suite of what is needed to build effective teams helps to ensure you get the budget allocation you need to get the job done.

How about your communication with candidates? Top candidates will not simply cool their heels while you meander along through the hiring process. Rather, they expect a quick turnaround. If possible, shorten your time to hire in order to attract the best talent. If that is impossible, make use of the longer time to hire by cultivating and maintaining a good relationship with waiting candidates.

The Deeper Dive Toolkit

McKinsey boldly states that building a top team requires you to “get the right people on the team … and the wrong ones off.”

That may sound simple enough, but as an HR pro, you know it is not all that easy to do. When you are evaluating candidates, you must consider carefully the dynamics of your team. You need to find answers to questions such as:

  • What is the purpose of the team?
  • What skills does this candidate add to the team dynamic?
  • What will the interpersonal relationships between team members look like if this candidate is thrown into the mix?
  • How soon will this candidate become a productive member of the team?
  • What characteristics of this candidate’s personality will aid team collaboration?

Of course, the answers to these questions can only be found by taking a deeper dive into the interview and onboarding process. The three things that make this deeper dive possible are your own insights, the insights of others involved in the hiring process, and the insights gleaned from your candidate data.

The Takeaway

Building a top talent team involves embracing the right technology, communicating clearly with all parties involved, and having a real grasp of the team dynamic. ThriveTRM includes functionality which helps supply all these tools. Why not schedule a demo of ThriveTRM today to see put these tools to work for your organization today?