Talent acquisition is a strategic, proactive process for finding, attracting, and hiring skilled employees, taking a long-term view of the organization’s current and future goals and priorities.
It has never been more difficult for organizations to find the right talent to help them drive growth. A study by Korn Ferry has revealed that by 2030, there will be a global human talent shortage of 85 million people (that’s almost the whole population of Turkey).
It’s estimated that:
- USA and Russia will be each be short by 6 million skilled people
- China will have a shortage of 12 million people
- Brazil, Indonesia and Japan will each lack 18 million people
If organizations don’t do anything to address this talent shortage, it could result in a colossal $8.5 trillion of lost annual revenues. Just in the tech sector alone, the USA could lose $162 billion in revenues every year, unless it employs more high-tech employees.
Governments and organizations must make talent strategy a key priority and take steps now to educate, train, and upskill their existing workforces.
What is talent acquisition?
Talent acquisition is a strategic, proactive process for finding, attracting, and hiring skilled employees, taking a long-term view of the organization’s current and future goals and priorities. Whereas traditional recruitment stops at vacancy filling, talent acquisition is more of a strategic long haul: recruiting, developing, training and retaining great people who chime with the company culture and vision.
Free eBook: Designing a world-class EX program that attracts and retains talent
Why is talent acquisition important?
Talent acquisition plays an integral role in the health and growth of an organization. Here’s why it’s important.
Future-proofing
By forecasting future needs, talent acquisition specialists help organizations prepare better for the future, ensuring they’re not caught off guard when key roles become vacant.
Quality of hire
A good talent acquisition strategy enhances the quality of potential candidates brought onboard. With targeted sourcing and thorough vetting, hiring managers can ensure they hire great talent who make big contributions.
Employer branding
A strong employer brand plays a key role in any effective approach to talent acquisition; in today’s world, it can make the difference when deciding between potential employers for many candidates. It’s also important to consider the brand perceptions of employees who have been rejected – would you want them to apply for a similar role in the future? Are they current or prospective customers?
Reduced hiring time
A talent acquisition team will build and nurture a talent pipeline, which can significantly cut down the time it takes to fill vacancies. Reduced hiring time can promote business continuity and limit productivity loss.
Competitive advantage
Ultimately, the talent pool within an organization is what sets it apart. Strategic talent acquisition ensures that a company has the people to innovate, help generate growth and outperform competitors.
Why is it important to get the right talent?
An organization is only ever as good as its workforce – those skilled employees who know the ins and outs of the business, and who keep customers coming back.
The right talent:
- Adds value to the business through their contributions
- Helps grow the business
- Outperforms competitors
- Helps make the business scalable
- Closes skills gaps
The talent acquisition process
Your talent acquisition process is bound up with your candidate experience; how you do it affects the way potential candidates feel about your organization from the get-go – and whether they want to come and work for you.
An astonishing 49% of jobseekers would reject the offer of a job if they had a poor candidate experience along the recruitment process.
The five steps of the talent acquisition process are:
1. The career site experience
Engaging job descriptions make a strong first impression with qualified, high quality candidates as they browse the career sites. Then post your engaging job openings in the places where the right people are looking, such as your organization’s career page, industry-specific, specialized job boards, traditional job boards, social media platforms, and talent marketplaces.
2. The application experience
How easy is it for highly qualified candidates to apply for the job? Can they easily upload CVs and documents or take required tests?
3. The screening process experience
Which candidates performed well in tests and assessments and need an interview? Which candidates took the tests but were unsuitable? How you treat both successful and unsuccessful candidates reflects on your brand reputation.
4. The interview process experience
To ensure fairness and to eliminate bias, you need to put in place a standardized interview process that’s a positive experience for prospective employees, with seamlessly centralized feedback, making sure that you evaluate all individuals objectively.
5. The offer process experience
Once you’ve chosen the most qualified and suitable person for the role, make a job offer as soon as possible, following a standardized process of: offer call, candidate questions, and a written offer with an accept/decline deadline.
How to attract top talent
To attract the best of the best, here are the things you need to get right:
You talk the talk, but do you walk the walk?
Many companies say to candidates that they have clearly-defined values and a mission statement, but then don’t ‘live those principles’ on a daily basis. For example, a company may trumpet their commitment to personal development, but then have an inadequate training budget.
Employees who have joined for the prospect of being trained will soon move on, disappointed. Where companies are authentic, open, and honest about what they are and what they offer, candidates will feel whether they will be a good fit before they accept a job. Which brings us on to…
Is your Employer Value Proposition (EVP) good enough?
An EVP is, essentially, what attracts a person to work for an organization, what will retain a person in that organization, and possible detractors that will push them away from the organization.
People give:
- their work time
- previous experience and qualifications
- best efforts
- innovation and creativity
In return, they should get from the company:
- a decent salary and benefits
- further experience
- learning and development opportunities
- career progression
- excellent leadership
- meaningful work
- the kudos of working for a great company
Top talent looks beyond salary and unique benefits to personal contribution, development and ‘making a difference’. You must make your EVP stronger than your competitors’, to attract the best.
Is the company culture great?
– Lindsay Johnson, XM Scientist, Qualtrics
Everybody wants to like where, and with whom, they work. A recent report found that what’s most important is a sense of belonging. Everyone wants to feel like they belong at their company, they want to feel a sense of belonging in their team, and most of all feel like they can be themselves at work.
Employees who don’t fit your culture, who cannot be themselves or will be working against their own values will be unhappy long term. When you showcase your company culture, include:
- What your employees do for fun
- What they value
- Whether they bring their ‘whole selves’ to work
A candidate will soon see whether they’ll be a good fit. Conversely, when interviewing, split the process across different team members who will be able to assess whether the candidate fits the culture as well as the skills set.
Some companies advocate the airport test – your flight has been canceled: could you sit in the airport for five hours with this person?
However, treat this with caution: Adam from IT Support might not be the most fun person to sit in an airport with, but he is the one who can rapidly get the systems fixed for a critical task, and he’s an integral part of the team.
It’s also important to not just surround yourself with people like you, with the same cultures, backgrounds, and views. When organizations do this, they put themselves at a disadvantage.
Is your workplace diverse and inclusive?
Adam thinks differently from most employees: that’s what makes him a talented IT guy.
Diversity in the workplace – having a spectrum of different genders, ethnicities, religions, ages, sexual orientations, physical abilities, neurodiversity, ideologies, and lifestyles – is important. Not only is a diverse workforce an enriching experience for employees, a study found that ethnically diverse companies outperform their industry medians by 35%.
And it’s likely that top talent will want to work for an organization that’s diverse and inclusive: 67% of job seekers said this was an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers.
How is your brand perceived?
Employer branding is an essential part of attracting top talent. Think Apple, Google, PwC, Netflix, Home Depot, Cisco… who wouldn’t want to work for them? Their core values are clear, customers flock to them, employees generally love their jobs and even evangelize about them.
They’ve reached brand equity, and can choose the best of the best to employ. For those companies still building brand equity, finding out what your employees and customers think of the business through engagement programs and surveys will highlight areas to improve. And make full use of…
Social media: does your presence reflect your brand?
Social media platforms are powerful and far-reaching in terms of recruitment. A survey by LinkedIn showed that 75% of candidates research a company and its reputation online before they even apply for a job.
Not only does brilliant social media enhance your brand and showcase you as a desirable employer, connections made on sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram offer a huge opportunity for attracting high-potential candidates. Don’t be afraid to reach out directly to people you like the look of.
It’s not what you know, it’s who you know
It’s sound business practice to recruit from within where possible, and your own employees are the best recruitment tool for your company. While candidates may be skeptical about management extolling the merits of a job, employees’ perspectives are perceived as less biased.
Consider setting up an employee referral program. Simply ask your employees to refer suitably-qualified friends, former colleagues and family for positions or opportunities as they arise. You could even ask employees to carry ‘recruitment cards’ to give to impressive, good-fit people they meet, who might consider an opportunity at your company.
According to LinkedIn research:
- 35% of employees refer to help friends
- 32% refer to help their company
- 26% refer to be perceived as a valuable colleague
- Only 6% do it for financial reward
You can offer referral rewards such as cash bonuses, gift cards, or time off, but many employees will simply be happy to have someone they trust and have recommended working alongside them. From a company perspective, it saves time, money and ensures quality of hire.
Ultimately, recruiting top talent is simple: do amazing things and amazing people will want to join you.
Free eBook: Designing a world-class EX program that attracts and retains talent