Talent rediscovery is a critical aspect of modern recruitment practices, addressing the inefficiencies of traditional hiring processes. In the past, companies have invested heavily in attracting a large pool of applicants, only to be able to screen a fraction of them, speak to even fewer and ultimately hire a tiny percentage. This outdated approach is no longer viable in today's competitive landscape.

As organizations shift toward skills-based hiring, they recognize the need to become more targeted in their candidate selection. However, this focus on specific skills and qualifications may inadvertently overlook the untapped potential of talent they have already invested in attracting to their brand. This is where talent rediscovery becomes crucial. Talent rediscovery is the process of uncovering qualified candidates through past applications and talent community engagement.

By leveraging technology and data-driven approaches, companies can identify and rediscover the relevant skills and capabilities of candidates they have already engaged with, reducing waste and accelerating the time to talent engagement. Talent rediscovery enables organizations to maximize their recruitment investments, tap into a broader pool of qualified candidates and foster a more efficient and effective hiring process.

It’s no wonder there’s renewed interest in talent rediscovery and the technology that helps it happen automatically. So, what should you look for when evaluating the talent rediscovery technology market? Here are a few of the top trends to keep an eye on:

1. Data driven

   Job applications are great if they provide details related to the job being applied for, but they’re also a limited snapshot in time. They begin to grow stale as soon as they’re collected and often they don’t represent the full scope of someone’s capabilities since applications are job specific.

   Modern technology providers like Beamery and Gem recognize this can limit ongoing recruiting efforts, causing recruiters to overlook candidates who have gained new skills or have the skills in question but didn’t include them in their past application. That’s why they place such a heavy focus on data and talent intelligence. These systems, and others like them, work to actively refresh candidate profiles — from past applications, from referrals, from alumni and more — so recruiters can easily identify the skills and abilities they need for new roles inside the talent universe they’ve already paid to acquire.

2. Skills focused

   Organizations that are working to shift toward becoming skills-based realize that skills and abilities trump other factors like college pedigree, gaps in employment and title. This shift in thinking has pushed hiring teams alter their approach to identifying talent, and technology providers are stepping up to the plate in an effort to support the new mindset.

   Recruiting solutions like Eightfold and Phenom are designed to better predict success for a role because they are built around skills and abilities. This helps recruiters uncover skills more easily while reducing the noise around other factors that can cause qualified candidates to be overlooked.

3. Employee inclusive

   While talent rediscovery is typically focused on silver medalists, meaning applicants that made it through part of the hiring funnel but ultimately weren’t selected for the role, it needs to go beyond that. Not only are there plenty of candidates who didn’t advance through the process that are worth reviewing, but there are also those that did make it through the funnel and work for your organization now — existing employees.

   You’ve already paid to acquire them and the truth is, if you’re not engaging your existing employees with new opportunities, you can bet someone else in the market is (i.e., your competition). So, it’s important to consider your entire talent universe when it comes to talent rediscovery.

   Technology solutions like SeekOut and HiredScore help recruiters and hiring teams look across their multiple databases of talent to uncover the best candidates for each role, regardless of where they sit, helping to ensure that no talent acquisition efforts go to waste.

4. Nurture

   Talent rediscovery done well isn’t transactional. A big misstep in the talent rediscovery process is only engaging talent when there are new roles or new information is requested to keep profiles up to date. This makes the experience feel transactional and very one-sided, which is a turnoff to candidates.

   For talent rediscovery to be truly effective, it should be backed by nurture campaigns that work to actively engage talent regularly, regardless of whether or not the candidate is a match to current open roles. Highlighting news and events from the company including hitting key milestones, sharing employee stories and hosting company events can help keep talent engaged until timing is right for an open role.

   Systems like iCIMS and SmartRecruiters can keep talent engaged automatically through drip campaigns and outreach that is triggered by candidate actions, such as going to a landing page or attending an event. The personalization capabilities across these systems are increasing and you should expect that to continue as AI also advances.

5. Future potential

   With many organizations facing skill shortages, we’re on track to reach a tipping point where no organization can rely simply on finding existing skills in the market the fastest. Instead, hiring teams will have to focus on tapping into the potential of their existing talent, as well as the potential of external talent.

   While this is an emerging part of the HR technology market, we expect it to gain momentum in the coming years. Technology providers like HireVue and Plum are all leaning into ways to uncover human potential — understanding what someone has done, coupled with who they are and what drives them, to better match them with roles where their skills can be developed. This will be key to talent rediscovery since it can help hiring teams more easily identify best fit talent, based on what they can do today and what they’re likely to be able to take on in the future.

Talent rediscovery is a game-changer for modern recruitment practices. It empowers organizations to unlock the untapped potential of candidates they have already engaged, eliminating wasteful and outdated hiring processes. As the landscape of talent acquisition evolves, the focus has shifted toward skills and abilities. In response, cutting-edge technology has emerged to support talent discovery and rediscovery efforts by leveraging data-driven approaches. This enables companies to maximize their recruitment investments and gain access to a wider pool of highly qualified candidates. Talent rediscovery is not just an option, it is a necessity in today's competitive market.