Against the Grain: Why Sharing Your Talent Pool Works

In a recent article we explored a white paper by ManpowerGroup Solutions, Amy Doyle, the vice president of strategic client solutions of ManpowerGroup suggests that sharing talent pools among competitors benefits everyone. Here, we present more from Doyle on how this would work and what the potential benefits are.


The white paper, Collaborating with Competitors: Sharing Talent Pools to Meet Workforce Challenges makes a pretty compelling argument for sharing talent pools. The questions become, how would it function and what would it do for the people involved?
According to Doyle, there are 4 critical factors to creating a successful and equitable shared talent pool:

1. Choose the right kind of talent. Doyle suggests contingent workers might be the perfect place to start, as they work for a specific period of time, and would then stop working anyway—regardless if they were going to then go work for a competitor or not. Additionally, their work, while certainly important, might not be as critical as that done by more permanent employees.
2. Focus on those with a specific skill set that fits the concept. Doyle uses coders as an example, as they tend to work project to project, in cycles.
3. Make plans talent oriented. Doyle states that “a shared talent pool will generate long term relationships between employers and talent, ensuring talent is continuously nurtured as part of a community.”
4. There must be a set of regulations. Rules for this kind of thing would be crucial. Part of that means deciding who to exclude. This would be decision makers, talent vital to the company’s infrastructure, and anyone with a noncompete. Doyle suggest that “to ensure legal compliance and avoid even the perception of antitrust or collusion, compliance and monitoring could be driven by a neutral third party funded by participants.”

What’s in It for Me?

Doyle provides a long list of benefits for talent pool sharing.  Here are a few.

1. Sharing the costs. A group of competitors share the costs for hiring from the same pool, making hiring more economical for everyone.
2. Applying strategy. Business needs would define the roles of those in the pool—not random chance.
3. Becoming limber. Businesses would have a quicker, better way to onboard talent.
4. Ever have a tough time choosing between two candidates? Now you don’t have to. Hire who you need when you want. Your silver medalists remain in the candidate pool.

What’s in It for the Talent?

1. A career arc. Those in the talent pool can more easily plan for the future.
2. A single talent pool is not as good as four or five combined, and that leads to a larger pool and more networking.
3. Flexibility. People in the pool can be choosier about where they work.

Read part one of this article here.