What is talent engagement and why should businesses care about it?

You probably already know the unstoppable trend towards contracted working is on a new accelerating trajectory. This presents a multitude of challenges when it comes to talent engagement. Question is, how do you make it work for your business?

Talent engagement 101

Talent engagement is fast becoming an industry term describing the broad capability of talent portals to offer value adding services to a talent audience that makes them keep coming back.

The world is moving even further into gig economy, a labor market characterized by people performing jobs on a part-time or temporary basis, or as independent contractors. Millions of gig workers wake up in the morning and ‘clock’ into portals that offer them jobs that need doing. These seeker-solver digital markets make it easier than ever to connect skilled workers to organizations who need them.

This new era of work is a huge departure from the full-time employment culture of the 20th century. Gone is the notion of a job for life. Also gone is the idea that people can get a full living wage from a single source. Think more of a university coffee shop culture of people doing projects and getting paid for them based on outcomes.

All this sounds fine, but if your brand isn’t attractive to workers, you’re going to be at the bottom of the list of choices offered to candidates. There is big competition between talent portals to be the go-to place for gig workers. This is creating a storm of digital innovation focused on attracting and keeping contract based digital workers. In 2022, talent engagement is where the digitalization of the talent industry is at.

From job portals to career portals

As far as digital talent portals are concerned, one of the major changes we’ve seen in 2022 has been the shift toward ‘career focus’. Until recently, software vendors were entirely focused on task-based portals, persuading businesses to consider a gig based sourcing approach first.

The focal point of talent portals has pivoted toward hiring candidates over winning business clients. This arguably comes as no surprise. The Great Resignation has created an imbalance of supply and demand of top talent. All industries have been by hybrid working, baby boomer exits from the labor market, the rising demand for digital and analytical skills, and a widespread global shortfall in skilled talent. Portal providers know if they capture and keep the interest of candidates, the business buyers will come.

But what’s the practical difference between a job and career portal?

The emergence of career portals

Career portals aren’t about finding one-off jobs for people to do. They are about providing a marketplace for talent that seeks long-term employment opportunities. This comes from new feature sets that traditional job sites lack. These can include:

1. Providing a shop window for talent

Creating a space for talented candidates to evidence what they are capable of, profiling their work, experience, and career successes.

2. Career planning

Helping candidates discover their career options, gain knowledge of the skills that will raise their valuation in the job market, etc.

3. Training and education

Helping candidates discover their career options, gain knowledge of the skills that will raise their valuation in the job market, etc.

4. Accommodation of diversity needs

Neurodiverse candidates make up one in seven of the workforce. Modern talent portals need to encourage engagement with diverse groups by providing the emotional and practical support they need to find work.

5. Wellbeing support

There exists a clear link between personal wellbeing and productivity. An era of remote working and ad hoc employment places new stresses on candidates. This means, to engage candidates, talent portals must do what they can to consider their wellbeing needs, not just their financial needs.

Is talent engagement important enough to get on your priority list?

There are a vast number of pressures acting on business leaders at present. To mention a few, these include: Coping with a global downturn, addressing resourcing and supply chain issues brought about by the war in Ukraine, handling social issues that cross over into the world of work, dealing with markets transitioning due to digital innovations. Why should you invest time into getting your talent engagement on track? Follow this logic:

 1. Your business needs to be agile to compete. It’s not an option. Annual re-orgs and costly workforce transitions are a big part of the agility challenge. In addition, your business needs the right talent when it requires it.

2. The solution is to get more work done by candidates. But that’s not a COMPLETE solution. Hiring costs can be excessive, and the talent supply chain unreliable. So what you really need is a way to access talent on-demand – it’s more reliable, more predictable, more affordable.

3. This brings us to talent engagement. It’s about creating a place where candidates keep coming back to; that brings a plentiful supply of the right talent to your door without the high costs of staffing agencies.

How valuable is that to your business?