Your top-of-funnel problem isn’t a lack of candidates—it’s a lack of visibility.
In talent acquisition, we’ve been conditioned to believe that the solution to an empty pipeline is always more. More job ads, more sourcing seats, and more expensive tools to find the next great hire “out there.” This endless pursuit of new talent has become the accepted norm, a constant and costly scramble to fill a seemingly leaky funnel.
But what if the funnel isn’t leaky? What if you’re just looking for talent in all the wrong places?
The real problem isn’t a shortage of people; it’s a failure to recognize the goldmine of talent you’ve already paid to acquire. This blog will make a compelling case for shifting your strategy with an emphasis on candidate rediscovery. We’ll show how a proactive focus on your existing talent pool is the most efficient, cost-effective, and high-quality solution to your top-of-funnel problem.
The Costly Habit of Chasing What’s Next
The “outside-in” recruiting model is a financial and operational drain. Here’s why the constant chase for new talent is a losing game:
- The Sourcing Drain: Every time you post a new role, you spend money. Job board fees, agency costs, and recruiter time on cold outreach all add up. It’s a recurring, expensive investment in a talent pool that has zero prior relationship with your company.
- The Quality Question: Candidates found via external searches are often in a “spray and pray” mode, applying to dozens of jobs at once. They may have the right keywords, but their intent-level is low. This forces your team into the time-consuming process of screening and engaging people who are not truly committed to your organization.
This constant churn of external sourcing comes with a hidden cost. According to Wharton research, external hires are paid 18-20% more than those promoted from within and have significantly lower performance for their first two years on the job. The best talent often isn’t the most expensive—it’s the talent you already have, who you just need to find.
Your ATS Isn’t a Graveyard; It’s a Goldmine
The solution to a broken funnel isn’t to pour more into the top; it’s to start from the middle. By shifting to an “inside-out” funnel, you unlock a talent pool that is pre-vetted, high-intent, and ready to be engaged.
This untapped pool includes:
- The Silver Medalists: The candidates who were great but came in second. They had the skills, the experience, and the culture fit, but weren’t the absolute perfect match for that one specific role. However, they may have evolved into gold medalists in the time since they first applied.
- The “Applied-for-a-Different-Role-but-They’re-a-Great-Fit-for-This-One” Crowd: These are the people whose resumes and profiles are sitting in your database, but they get missed by narrow, keyword-based searches because their career trajectory doesn’t fit a predetermined, keyword-based mold.
The advantages of this talent pool are immense. They have already expressed interest in your company, and you already have their data. This reduces time-to-hire, drastically cuts sourcing costs, and increases the likelihood of a successful, long-term fit.
The Brain Upgrade That Makes It All Possible
You’ve probably tried to search your ATS before, only to be met with slow, clunky results that don’t yield much. That’s because a traditional ATS is a passive database. You can only get out what you manually put in. It’s a cage, not a key.
This is where intelligent matching comes in. It is the brain upgrade that transforms your ATS from a dumb database into a proactive talent engine.
Fastr.ai is not another sourcing platform. We are an enhancement layer that plugs directly into your existing system to do what human recruiters and keyword searches can’t:
- Find Hidden Connections Instantly: Our technology understands context, synonyms, and career trajectory to find the “perfect” candidates that keyword search could never find, with one click.
- Replicate Success: By analyzing your top performers, we build a profile for success and find candidates—both internal and external—who share those core attributes. It’s not just about filling a role; it’s about replicating your best talent.
- Provide Clear ROI: By leveraging the talent you’ve already paid to attract, you drastically reduce your time-to-hire and cost-per-hire, while improving your quality of hire.
By adopting an intelligent matching solution, you empower your team to stop being administrative processors and start being strategic advisors. You free them from the grind of the “keyword treadmill” and give them the ability to be proactive, strategic, and innovative.
Fastr.ai: The New Way to Win at Talent Acquisition
The best hires are already in your network. It’s time to find them. The solution lies not in more external sourcing, but in intelligently leveraging the talent you’ve already attracted.
Stop searching and start matching. See how Fastr.ai can turn your ATS into a talent goldmine.
