Strategy

Data-driven goal setting for talent pools: A strategic roadmap

Trudy Curto

Principal Value Consultant - Talent Marketing & CRM

April 25, 2025

Talent acquisition leaders know that simply filling the funnel with candidates isn’t enough to be successful. Effective recruitment relies on precision and strategy at every stage.

Throughout this series of blogs, we've explored how to transform your talent acquisition approach through effective talent marketing, distinguishing between talent pools and talent communities, and optimizing talent CRM through targeted email practices. Now, let's tie it all together by focusing on one final critical element: goal setting.

In my experience leading employer brand and talent marketing strategies across enterprise and high-growth teams, goal setting has consistently been the difference between a reactive pipeline and a high performing one.

Setting clear, data-driven goals for your talent pools isn’t just good practice — it's essential. It ensures each effort your team makes is purposeful, efficient, and scalable. Here's how you can establish measurable, impactful goals aligned with historical data and conversion metrics.

Step 1: Collaborative target setting

Goal setting isn’t a solo act. Talent marketers should regularly collaborate with talent acquisition partners to review past data and jointly develop talent pool targets. Ensure that these targets are grounded in historical conversation rates and prior performance metrics — and update them regularly based on ongoing analysis.‍

💡 Example: At each of my previous companies, I made strategic collaboration with TA leadership and workforce planning a foundational practice. By aligning hiring forecasts with real-time talent pool insights, we were able to identify coverage gaps before they became urgent — increasing pipeline readiness by 25% and positioning teams to hire faster and more confidently when demand surged.

Step 2: Understand and align on key funnel metrics

Your recruitment funnel typically includes several key stages:

Leads (Top of the Funnel): Potential candidates who are newly sourced
Ready Now (Marketing Qualified Leads): Candidates who currently meet job requirements
Screening by T.A. (Recruiting Qualified Leads): Candidates who pass initial screenings
Manager Assessment: Candidates reviewed for advancement by hiring managers
Assessed for Offer: Candidates identified for potential job offers‍
Offer: Final step where candidates receive job offers

Clarifying these stages with your team ensures a shared language and consistent tracking.

Step 3: Use conversion rates to set realistic goals

Historical conversion rates offer critical insights for setting realistic and actionable goals. Leverage these detailed benchmarks to understand precisely how many candidates you need at each stage:

Leads to Ready Now: ~18%. To secure one hire, you may need ~32 leads
Ready Now to Phone Screens: ~20%. Plan for 28 Ready Now candidates per hire
Phone Screens to Manager Review: ~30%. Expect to screen 3 to get 1 into manager review
Manager Review to Assessed for Offer: ~50%. At least 2 should reach this stage
Assessed for Offer to Offer: ~33%. You'll need at least 3 in this stage for each final offer

💡 Example: Let’s say your goal is to hire 30 engineering roles across the Americas by the end of the first half of the fiscal year.

You would need approximately 91 offers to achieve 30 hires.
That means 182 candidates assessed for offer, requiring 606 recruiter screens.
To reach that, you’d need around 3,030 "Ready Now" candidates, sourced from about 16,835 leads.

This modeling supports smarter planning and resource allocation — with better predictability and outcomes.

Step 4: Establish annual and quarterly growth goals

Set both annual and quarterly goals for talent pool expansion, based on real hiring needs and historical conversion data.

💡 Example: When planning to support the hiring of 30 engineering roles across the Americas in the first half of the fiscal year, we reverse-engineered conversion rates to set quarterly sourcing goals:

Leads: To reach our goal, we needed to add ~3,030 Ready Now candidates — which required approximately 16,835 sourced leads. This translated into a goal of 416 leads per quarter (or 1,664 annually).
Ready Now Candidates: Based on funnel math, 592 Ready Now candidates annually (or 148 quarterly) would keep the top of funnel aligned to forecasted hiring velocity.

Setting these goals gave our team a clear, measurable target and ensured that all talent marketing and sourcing efforts were tied to business impact.

Step 5: Break goals down for weekly execution

Goal achievement is a team effort. Aligning weekly execution across talent marketing, sourcing, and recruiting teams ensures everyone is contributing consistently to pipeline health.

To maintain momentum and consistency:

Add ~32 new leads weekly
Add ~11 new "Ready Now" candidates weekly
Conduct ~4 phone screens weekly
Aim for ~1 offer weekly

Effective management doesn’t stop at goal-setting. Regular reviews of performance against targets allow for timely adjustments. Watch for bottlenecks, refine your approach in collaboration with TA partners, and adjust to market changes proactively.

This cadence turns large goals into achievable milestones and keeps talent pool development consistent.

Step 6: Monitor and adjust regularly

Track progress weekly and analyze where drop-offs occur.

Use dashboards to monitor each funnel stage
Identify bottlenecks (e.g., drop in Ready Now conversions)
Adjust messaging, qualification criteria, or processes as needed

Step 7: Prioritize high-quality candidates

Focus on alignment, not just volume.

Leverage CRM filters, AI matching, and lead scoring to prioritize high-fit candidates
Platforms like Findem enable this by surfacing Ready Now talent by skills, intent, or career signals — reducing cold sourcing by up to 40%

Step 8: Align talent pool growth with business needs

Goals should always tie back to business priorities and hiring forecasts.

Meet regularly with HR, TA, Finance, and hiring leaders
Adjust quarterly goals to reflect major launches, expansions, or backfill demands

💡 Example: Aligning GTM talent pool goals with a product expansion strategy ensured pipeline coverage in key growth markets two quarters before launch.

Start setting the right goals for your talent pools today

As we've emphasized throughout this series, integrating smart talent marketing strategies, distinguishing between talent pools and communities, and leveraging CRM best practices builds the foundation for effective talent acquisition.

When you layer in clear, data-driven goals — grounded in metrics, aligned with hiring plans, and adjusted regularly — you unlock the full strategic potential of your talent pools.

Want to revisit earlier parts of the series?