A talent network is like a resume database or candidate bank on steroids. It's a way for job seekers to promote their skills and profiles, and for employers to search, discover and connect with exceptional talent.

There are two types of talent networks, private, and public. In a private talent network, recruiters must request access or purchase a subscription to access talent profiles. In a public talent network, the profiles are viewable by anyone and even discoverable by search engines, but contact info is hidden from profiles until there is a LinkedIn-like connection between the recruiter and the talent network member.

Here's how it works:

The talent network is optional for job seekers, but joining is easy. Job seekers can opt-in to the talent network while updating their profile anywhere on your job board.

You can make joining the talent network free or paid.

Recruiters can search through your talent network based on location, skills, experience, and any other filterable fields you create on your users.

At this stage, profiles don't reveal any contact information.

Recruiters can request to connect with job seekers by sending a message with an optional job posting attached.

Once connected, the recruiter can see the job seeker's contact information and they're also able to freely chat through the live chat within your job board.

Job seekers receive connection requests through the live chat within your job board. They can accept conversations to continue engaging with a recruiter, or decline opportunities as they see fit.

You can configure your talent network through your dashboard's talent network preferences page.

By default, your talent network is inactive, which means your job board doesn't have a talent network. You can enable it by simply clicking the "Enable" button.

This is also where you choose the type (private or public) and monetization strategy of your talent network.

With a private talent network, you can monetize recruiters by selling talent network seats through your job board.

With both a private and a public talent network, you can monetize job seekers by selling talent network membership as a subscription.

You'll need to create an active talent network product to monetize your talent network. You can learn more about talent network products here.

In a private talent network, access is given to companies through "seats". You can think of a seat as a single-user license to access the talent network. Seats are owned by a company and since users can be a part of multiple companies, it's possible for them to have a talent network seat for one company not have a talent network seat for others.

As the job board operator you can always view or change the number of seats a company has through the "Team" tab of the company.

You can also edit individual team members to assign them a talent network seat.

Company admins also manage seats much the same way, through the team page of their company dashboard.

Want to monetize your talent network by selling talent network seat subscriptions? Learn about talent network products.

Want to enable a landing page for your talent network to attract job seekers and recruiters? Learn about the talent network landing page.