Blog

14/05/2024

By Chris Andrews – Managing Director

When you need to improve the speed, quality, consistency and scale of your hiring, it can be difficult to know where to begin.

There are many moving parts and stakeholders in a successful talent funnel. This can make building one, or improving an existing one, very challenging – especially as it needs to continue functioning during the rebuild process. So where do you start?

Below are (brief summaries of) a few of the early steps to take when scoping a process for our clients:

1. What is the overall strategic goal? – Why are we doing this and where do we want to be? As with most planning, having an endpoint in mind is the starting point. All decisions need to be appropriate to this goal. We worked with a potential client last year and very quickly identified a lack of appetite for growth or change (quite rare). Major changes to their current funnel were therefore pretty pointless.
2. What is our current capability (to meet said goal)? – Where are the current process areas that will stop us from meeting our goals? We break the talent funnel into stages, then isolate and rank each stage of the funnel with our clients, using a list of specific questions to build a picture of the current landscape. From there we can begin forming the project list.
3. Prioritise the project list. Everyone has a great plan, but then there is the real world! Every client we work with has differing needs and timelines, so prioritising which part of the funnel will have the most impact is important. There are also the needs of internal stakeholders to consider, as well as the need sometimes for a ‘quick win’ to ensure the projects gain momentum internally.

These are just 3 steps but they are important ones in the process of building a strong talent funnel. The key point is to build your plan and start! Once you are underway, changes can be made, but at least you are making some progress.

Stone has helped multiple organisations build and operate successful talent funnels, partnering with companies ranging in size, industry and complexity. Every challenge has been unique, however we always begin each process with a Talent Funnel Review. Contact us to find out more!