This document discusses strategies for improving talent pipelines. It begins by outlining the author's plan to focus on proactively building a pipeline for in-demand, hard-to-fill skills even without open roles. Initial challenges included getting buy-in and tracking candidates. The process involved recruiters sourcing 2 pipeline candidates daily and making 5 pipeline calls each day. Regular reporting and discussions helped drive awareness and demand for the pipeline. Examples showed successes in quickly filling needs and changing perceptions when pipeline candidates were a good match. While concerns include potential waste, the document advocates beginning with faith in the process and focusing on limiting types of waste over time.

1. I Dream of Pipelines:
How to make pipelining suck less
Glen Cathey
SVP Talent Acquisition Strategy and Innovation, Kforce
Author, BooleanBlackBelt.com

2. Pipelining: The Dream
Glen Cathey | Talent42

3. Pipelining: Reality
Glen Cathey | Talent42

4. Pipelining: Reality
• Freddy Krueger
Glen Cathey | Talent42

5. Pipelining: Reality
• Freddy Krueger
Activating Talent
Glen Cathey | Talent42
Speaking to people
who aren't actively
looking to make a
change can get
them thinking
about making a
change…and spur
them into taking
action before you
can hire them.

6. Value
If it doesn't add
value, it's waste.
Henry Ford
1863-1947
American Industrialist
Glen Cathey | Talent42

7. Lean & TPS
Lean is a production
practice that considers
the expenditure of
resources for any goal
other than the
creation of value for
the end customer to
be wasteful, and thus a
target for elimination.
Glen Cathey | Talent42 Toyota Production System – The KaiZone: http://bit.ly/211nRgf

8. Transport
Each time a product is moved it stands the risk of being damaged, lost, delayed,
etc. as well as being a cost for no added value.
Inventory
Inventory, be it in the form of raw materials, work-in-progress (WIP), or finished
goods - any of these three items not being actively processed to add value is waste.
Motion
People or equipment moving or walking more than is required to perform the
processing
Waiting
Whenever goods are not in transport or being processed, they are waiting.
Lean: Seven Deadly Wastes
Glen Cathey | Talent42

9. Overproduction
Whenever more product is produced than is required at that time by your
customers (production in excess/ahead of demand). Generally considered the worst
waste because it hides and/or generates all the others. Overproduction leads to
excess inventory, which then requires the expenditure of resources on storage
space and preservation, activities that do not benefit the customer.
Over Processing
Over-processing occurs any time more work is done on a piece than is required by
the customer.
Defects
Exist whenever the product does not meet the customer's specifications, and
include the effort involved in inspecting for and fixing defects.
Lean: Seven Deadly Wastes
Glen Cathey | Talent42

10. Glen Cathey | Talent42

11. A Tale of Pipelines
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12. I Have a Plan
• Proactive pipelining
• High demand/low supply talent
−Data Science/Analytics/Data Viz
−Mobility
−Cloud
−ERP
−Security
• "Sell" candidate inventory
Glen Cathey | Talent42

13. Initial Challenges
• Leap of faith for recruiters
• KPI's/pipeline metric(s)
• Marketing strategy
• Lack of interest in pipeline talent in
absence of open positions
• Tracking system was cumbersome,
not customizable or sortable
• Inconsistent demand
Glen Cathey | Talent42

14. Know what you want to
accomplish and focus on
the process rather than the
outcome.
Nick Saban
Head Coach, University of Alabama
5-Time National Champs (4 in 7 years)
191-60-1
Watch "The Perfectionist" - http://bit.ly/1YSxzVMGlen Cathey | Talent42

15. The Process
• 2 live jobs or 1 job/1 pipeline skill per day
• Recruiters source new pipeline candidates
daily while maintaining their existing one
• 2 subs/day & >/= 5 pipeline calls/day per
recruiter
• Review pipelines during 1:1s and team
meetings
• Proactively distribute top/active inventory
to internal customers including senior
leadership
• Regularly strategize on how to drive
awareness and demand for the talent
pipeline
Glen Cathey | Talent42

16. Pipeline Reporting and Tracking
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17. Pipeline Reporting and Tracking
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18. Tips and Tricks
• hhhhh
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19. Successes
• Developed a dedicated focus on finding the best talent and reverse
engineering the match from there
• Increased technical aptitude and market intelligence due to focus and 40+
pipeline calls/per day, >800/month
• Increased response and referral rates
• >35% of candidates submitted each week come from existing inventory
vs. a reactive call/match/submit scenario
• Regular "Pipeline Check" requests require no new recruitment efforts
Glen Cathey | Talent42

20. Top Retail Company
• Uncovered an ongoing demand for
Hadoop talent
• Leveraged existing Hadoop candidate
inventory and sought to qualify for people
who would be a particularly a good match
for the manager's specific environment
• With no specific role identified, the team
marketed over a Hadoop candidate and a
Data Scientist for review. The manager
hired the Hadoop candidate and
forwarded the Data Scientist to another
group who hired him
Glen Cathey | Talent42

21. Top Telecom Company:
• Hiring manager made mention of an
upcoming hard to find Cloud skill set:
"I’m just telling you now since it will take
you a while to find someone like this."
• The team leveraged their existing
pipeline focus on Cloud with Docker
Containers and sent over a candidate to
review
• With no open job, the hiring manager
responded within minutes to request an
interview that resulted in a hire
• Perhaps more importantly, the manager's
perception of our capability changed
dramatically
Top Telecom Company
• Hiring manager made mention of an
upcoming hard to find Cloud skill set:
"I’m just telling you now since it will
take you a while to find someone like
this."
• The team leveraged their existing
pipeline focus on Cloud with Docker
Containers and sent over a candidate
to review
• With no open job, the hiring manager
responded within minutes to request
an interview that resulted in a hire
• Perhaps more importantly, the
manager's perception of our
capability changed dramatically
Glen Cathey | Talent42

22. Concerns
• Massive waste
• If you build it, they won't
necessarily come
• Candidate experience
• Time spent managing
pipelines vs. filling open
positions
• Success stories are great,
but the majority of hires
(~70%) don't and won't
come from candidate
pipelines
Glen Cathey | Talent42

23. • Pipeline with a purpose
− What exactly are you trying to accomplish and why?
− Focus on the process, not the outcome
− Begin with faith – build it first
• Make it simple – X calls/day
− Review and discuss pipeline efforts daily
• Involve hiring managers and executives
− Intakes are key
− Celebrate and share wins and socialize losses
− Create and distribute a daily/weekly pipeline
− Proactively pitch & SELL!
• Candidate experience – manage expectations!
− Don't over-process candidates
• Pipelines don't magically solve hiring challenges
− Expect considerable waste – it's unavoidable
− Seek to limit overproduction and reduce defects
And if you don't know…
Glen Cathey | Talent42