What Is Talent Acquisition? A Guide to Effective Talent Acquisition

Talent Acquisition Introduction

Any company needs great talent to grow and flourish and to achieve its business goals. From scouting on social media channels to even dedicate job postings on job boards and employee referrals, HR professionals put in a lot of effort to acquire the right talent. And the word talent acquisition isn’t as well-known as the related term recruitment.

In fact, there is a wide gap between them, as noticeable in Google Trends data in End of July 2023.

What Is Talent Acquisition in HR?

Talent acquisition, as a discipline in HR, is the process of identifying, attracting, and hiring candidates to fill vacancies in a company. In this sense, talent acquisition is more strategic and is aligned with the business goals of the company. Recruitment is a subset of talent acquisition. Now let us see how the two of them are connected.

Differences Between Talent Acquisition and Recruitment

Talent acquisition is more connected with the business goals of the company as opposed to recruitment. As such, talent acquisition also involves continuous workforce planning in addition to the sourcing, screening and interviewing of candidates.

Recruitment is a less time-intensive task as compared to talent acquisition. With recruitment, the focus is on identifying and acquiring candidates quickly. Recruitment involves the filling of positions as early as possible whereas talent acquisition requires more careful planning and detailed strategizing by the recruiter, the HR manager and other stakeholder in the company.

What Are the Roles in Talent Acquisition?

Talent acquisition requires several stakeholders in the company to take notice and come together. The roles in talent acquisition are:

Talent Acquisition Manager

A Talent Acquisition Manager’s role involves developing and implementing an effective talent acquisition strategy for the organization. They also contribute to the building of a strong employer brand.

In smaller organizations the TA manager also assumes the role of TA professional, that of recruiting candidates, addressing compliance issues, and of workforce planning and employee retention.

In larger organizations, the role becomes more of a manager who manages a team or teams of several talent specialists.

A talent acquisition manager’s job role involves:

1. Create a talent acquisition strategy that is cost-effective and can be improved over time.
2. Organize employer branding activities and assess their impact on the hiring and retaining of employees.
3. Assess the hiring needs and prepare a hiring forecast.
4. Change screening and interviewing processes to continuously improve the candidate experience.
5. Conduct surveys to gauge employee satisfaction and identify possible reasons for dissatisfaction.
6. Assess the needs of current employees and adjust the benefits that employees have.
7. Organize job and career fairs and contests that will attract great talent.

Talent Acquisition Specialist

A talent acquisition specialist focuses on the full lifecycle of recruitment which involves the activities that a talent acquisition manager does in a smaller company. They also work on internal candidate development.

The job role of a talent acquisition specialist involves:

1. Create job descriptions that are attractive, transparent, and promote the employer brand.
2. Source the right candidates from various job sites and platforms using an ATS.
3. Screen candidates based on their performance in tests and interviews.
4. Advise the management on how to modify interviewing and evaluation techniques.
5. Interface with government agencies and clients at all stages of the candidate cycle.
6. Work with the succession planning team to reduce time to a great hire.
7. Work with the compensation team and determine the right salary for each candidate.

Head of Talent Acquisition

As Head of Talent Acquisition, you are uniquely poised to improve the talent in your organisation. He/she has a deep understanding of the talent acquisition process and uses this to oversee all aspects of it and manages the resources who handle talent acquisition at various levels from talent acquisition specialists to managers.

The job skills of a Head of Talent Acquisition in the HR department are:

1. Understanding organization’s needs and creating an appropriate strategy to meet the talent requirement.
2. Managing a team of talent acquisition experts and championing their efforts.
3. Maintaining or introducing diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
4. Presenting reports and data to the decision makers when necessary.
5. Lead workforce planning in the organization to address needs that may arise in the future.

Talent Acquisition Process

The process of talent acquisition in HR begins with recruitment and ends with onboarding and training, but unlike recruitment has a lot of strategizing and course correction too. The steps in the end-to-end talent acquisition process are:

1. Develop a specific strategy for talent acquisition

The specialist or the manager builds a strategy for acquiring talent based on the industry your company is in and its workforce needs. It works by understanding where the company is on the market, its budget, the competition it faces and what best can be done. Then the manager comes up with a plan to do what needs to be done to get the talent your company needs.

2. Build talent pipelines

A pool of candidates ready to fill a position is called a talent pipeline. It is important to build talent pipelines, as the acquisition of talent is a continuous process. The building of such pipelines allows you to tap into them when you need to. If any talent pipelines are not working as expected, then you must fix them.

3. Build strong employer branding

A strong employer branding can save you a lot of time when communicating with prospects. With a strong employer brand, the candidates know what working for the company is like. Negative branding may even affect the quality of candidates that apply to the company.

4. Build a strong relationship with the talent

Beginning with awareness and moving to consideration and interest, the candidate moves through the different phases of this particular stage and in the process builds a strong relationship with the brand.

5. Recruitment of candidates

The recruitment stage again happens in several phases: The first being that of sourcing the candidates from various sites, nurturing leads, selecting those eligible through screening, interviewing those who qualify the screening and eventually onboarding the right candidates.

Tips for Effective Talent Acquisition

Build your company as a great place to work

Make your company a place where employees love to come into work, day in and day out. But don’t stop there. Send the message out that you are a great place to work. Acquire a badge of authority if you could in this regard. Be consistent in all your messaging across platforms and marketing materials that your company treats its employees fairly.

Encourage and boost the amount for employee referrals

Encourage employees to invite their friends. How does this help?

In most cases, it is observed that an employee’s friend would be a great cultural fit. Being a cultural fit is just as important as having the right skills. Also, there is a need to increase the amount that is provided for each referral. A healthy amount commensurate with the position must be provided to encourage every employee to ‘act’ like a recruiter in their network.

Hire as many freelancers or part-time contributors as possible

Sometimes the talent you seek may be difficult to hire. In this case, hire freelancers or part-time contributors until you get the talent you want. Better still have few positions where you hire freelancers or part-timers to bring down the cost of recruitment.

Build a strong talent network

Build strong relationships, especially on talent networks like LinkedIn. Keep in touch with talent you can present for hiring long before the vacancies show up. This way you can be sure that you have the right talent on tap, and that you establish your authority as a Talent Acquisition Specialist as well.

Retain the personal touch

Always have a human do the work that a human must do. Do not automate replies to candidates or vendors as much as possible. Have templates on hand that you can slightly modify if you have to, but try not to generate an entire conversation.

Hire more recruiters

To drive home a great strategy or vision, you need good support too. Hire more people on your team. There is strength in numbers, reducing the time to a hire significantly, especially when everyone is purpose-driven.

What is the Importance of Talent Acquisition?

Talent acquisition adds on benefits to recruitment in HR such as strategic alignment with the business goals, management of a talent pipeline, and an overall better candidate experience and a reduced cost of hire (thanks to identifying the right avenues) and time to hire (thanks to the stronger talent pipeline).

Talent Acquisition Partner vs. Recruiter

A talent acquisition partner is different from a recruiter because the former’s work also involves quite a bit of strategizing, as described earlier.

It must be said, however, that the work of a recruiter has also grown to include what a talent acquisition specialist would do, which means that in many companies the word ‘talent acquisition partner’ and ‘recruiter’ are used interchangeably.

What are the Common Challenges in Talent Acquisition?

Finding the right candidate

With so many seemingly qualified candidates out there, finding the right person for the job is like finding a needle in a haystack. How do you arrive at a resume and pronounce firmly, yes this is the person I am looking for? For this, you must have a clear picture of what degree, skills, behaviours and attitudes your company wants. Then you must determine if the person is a great cultural fit. Give yourself time and pick the best candidate for the money.

Creating a talent acquisition strategy that works

Sometimes there are loopholes in the strategy phase itself, and until this is identified, the end-to-end talent acquisition process cannot achieve its goals. It could be that the salary you are offering is not competitive enough for the industry you are working in, and that you do not have the budget to increase it. This is indeed a very tricky situation.

Difficulty forecasting future talent needs

In today’s post-pandemic world, there is increased hiring volatility. Most recruiters and talent acquisition specialists are not sure about the exact needs that they have. About 95% of all respondents in a 2021 study expected the hiring volatility to persist into 2023 and they are not wrong.

The process needs to change

Talent acquisition teams believe that the end-to-end talent acquisition process needs to change to accommodate the changes brought about by the pandemic, such as hiring more freelancers and remote staff. The recruiting strength has fallen, and that does not help.

Now talent acquisition teams are looking at digitizing talent acquisition processes so that the whole process becomes more streamlined and reduces the time and cost of a hire.

Candidate experience needs to improve

The way candidate interviews and screenings are conducted and the quality of onboarding and training that is offered affects the candidate experience in a huge way.

If a talent acquisition team fixes these problems first, then it can vastly improve the experience of candidates. For this, a detailed plan of execution must be made for each step and all stakeholders must sincerely implement it.

Picking the right service provider

At least 30% of all talent acquisition specialists surveyed today were eager to enlist the services of a talent acquisition partner to manage the job needs of specific departments in the company. But they lacked any knowhow on how to pick the right company for this or what parameters to assess a service provider on.

What are the Strategic Trends in Talent Acquisition?

1. Remote Interviewing

After the pandemic, with the number of remote workers on the rise across organisations, remote interviewing techniques have gained immense popularity. For such remote hiring, everything right from screening to interviews to even onboarding and training could happen remotely.

2. Diversity and Inclusion

There is greater focus on DEI initiatives in companies and talent acquisition specialists are cognizant of such changes. They are trying to improve the diversity in their workplace by recruiting more people from such backgrounds.

They are also trying to be inclusive in their policies, so such employees stay on and reach leadership positions.

3. Demand for Contingent Work

Since the pandemic, businesses have witnessed increasing fluctuations in market demand for their products and services, and the only way to address this is with greater flexibility. The demand for contingent workers has grown and so has the methods for recruiting them seen a massive change.

As early as 2020, more than 80% of the firms worldwide were looking at ways to expand the use of contingent labour. Measures must also be in place to ensure that highly skilled contingent workers can transition to full-time employees, should that be suitable for the business.

4. Analytics

Analytics is being increasingly used in HR to derive insights into the efficacy of talent acquisition processes and to enable better decision-making. It can help identify flaws in talent acquisition processes and fill positions more quickly.

5. AI

AI has been a boon to researchers and scientists by speeding up their work and offering them tangible outcomes in very little time. A talent acquisition specialist is very much like them and it offers them more insights into candidate behaviour, attitudes and sentiments at any given point in time. While AI is set to enhance the functions of HR, it is not replacement for an actual recruiter. HR of all disciplines requires that personal touch.

Are you looking for someone to manage talent acquisition?

Recruitment is a short-term activity that can be managed in-house, but when you need to strategize how recruitment happens, especially when years of expertise and analytics come into play, you will need the assistance of a third-party, a talent acquisition partner, like Alp consulting.

Do you have other HR challenges too?

We could help you with that too. With dedicated teams for executive search, contingent and even the capability to do RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing), Alp Consulting is at the apex of HR consulting worldwide.

FAQ Section:

1. Who Is a Talent Acquisition Specialist?

A person who specializes in sourcing, attracting, hiring, and onboarding the recruits in a company while also factoring in the long-term goals of the organization is called a talent acquisition specialist.

2. What Is Global Talent Acquisition?

Hiring talent in a specific location with a new set of skills to make use of the opportunities presented by a new market is referred to as global talent acquisition.

3. What Is Talent Acquisition Partner Definition?

A recruiter’s focus is on the requirement at hand only. A talent acquisition partner looks at the long-term impact of a recruitment and the way the process itself can be improved. A talent acquisition partner is typically a recruitment firm that works with your organization to meet your skill needs.

4. What Is a Talent Acquisition Manager?

A talent acquisition manager oversees the work of talent acquisition specialists and also works on building a strategy for recruitment, along with other responsibilities.

5. What Is Talent Acquisition and Retention?

Talent acquisition is the process of sourcing, attracting, hiring and onboarding candidates into a company, and retention refers to retaining them on the company’s payroll as employees.

6. What is the Difference Between Staffing and Talent Acquisition?

Staffing is the process of sourcing, attracting talent and placing talent in temporary and contract roles and are done with a short-term planning, whereas talent acquisition is for permanent roles and there is long-term planning involved.