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Talent acquisition strategies in the new world of work
Talent acquisition strategies are key to business success.
Consider three scenarios: 1.) Your company’s hiring needs surge suddenly. 2.) Your industry is facing a severe talent shortage. 3.) Your employer brand is a bit outdated or nonexistent.
Without the right talent acquisition strategies in place, these common workforce challenges can throw off your company’s talent game.
A weak or missing talent acquisition strategy can cause hiring to fall out of sync with your overall business strategy. Hiring may also lag behind the competition when markets experience sudden shifts.
Yet, the presence of a formal talent acquisition strategy can help position your company to weather changes and capitalize upon market opportunities.
What is a talent acquisition strategy?
A talent acquisition strategy is the series of proactive, ongoing steps that ensure your company has the skilled workforce it needs to thrive. The key elements are:
- Workforce planning. This step involves determining current hiring needs and identifying future ones, based on your business, broader market trends, and the talent market. Workforce planning also helps determine whether there are roles best filled by a contingent workforce.
- Recruitment technology updates. New recruitment technologies improve hiring, whether you streamline your applicant tracking system, elevate your candidate experience with a recruitment chatbot, or scores of other recruitment tech options.
- Employer branding. To compete for top talent, you must be recognized as an appealing workplace through your employer brand to draw the interest of skilled candidates.
- Talent sourcing and recruitment. An ongoing talent pipeline is essential, particularly in industries, such as tech, with a shortage of skilled workers.
- Talent management. Retain employees through pre-hire assessments and post-hire talent development.
- Analysis and fine-tuning. Tracking key metrics, such as retention rates or candidate engagement can pinpoint areas that need improvement. You may discover you’re losing candidates because the application process is too complicated, or there’s a lull in communication after the second interview.
Workforce disruption has become so prevalent in the digital age, that the word ‘disruption’ doesn’t apply anymore. Change is the norm.By 2020, 37 percent of HR leaders expect the use of contractors to increase, according to the 2018 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends report.1
The Deloitte report also highlights the increasing prevalence of flexible careers, in which employees explore different roles and evolve their careers within an organization. It also emphasizes the growing demand for complex problem-solving and social skills.
Additionally, many organizations struggle to align their talent acquisition strategy with their overall business function. Among US middle market company executives, more than 40 percent give their talent planning a grade of “C” or below, according to a 2016 study by the National Center for the Middle Market.2
The middle market study also found better-performing companies placed a greater emphasis on talent planning than slower-growth companies, and that talent planning overall is more successful when the process is formalized. Despite this, only 22 percent of the middle market companies in the study had a formal strategy in place.
The benefits of a talent acquisition partnership: bringing in backup
Partnering with an outsourced recruitment solutions provider can help your company jump-start a talent acquisition strategy from the ground up, or fill in the missing elements of your existing recruitment and workforce management process.
If your company is facing a talent backlog, for example, a recruitment partnership can take the hiring demands off the plate of your human resources team, giving them time to focus on long-term workforce strategies.
Perhaps your company is spending too much because of a reliance on multiple recruitment agencies to help with hiring when there’s a spike in open roles. With a recruitment process outsourcing solution, you access industry experts who can quickly pinpoint and correct inefficiencies and build a talent pipeline so you’re ready for the next jump in hiring.
Or, your company’s employer brand is in dire need of a revamp, but your team doesn’t have the bandwidth for another project. An outsourced talent acquisition partner can provide expertise to build a new employee value proposition and drive this crucial rebranding.
RPO solutions offer agility and know-how which translates into reduced time-to-fill, guidance on the most valuable recruitment tools for your business, global capabilities when needed, and tailored talent development.
A nimble talent acquisition strategy is an essential spoke in the wheel of any long-term business strategy, as vital to the success of your company as customer service, lead generation, and any other business function. In short, effective talent acquisition keeps your business moving forward.
Sources
1 “The Rise of the Social Enterprise. 2018 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends.” Deloitte Insights. Web. Accessed 5 March 2018.
2 “Mastering Talent Planning: A Framework for Success.” A Report by the National Center for the Middle Market with Visage Worldwide, Inc. and Dr. Larry Inks of the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business. Web. Accessed 5 March 2018.
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The Hudson RPO Content Team is made up of experts within the Talent Acquisition industry across the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions. They provide educational and critical business insights in the form of research reports, articles, news, videos, podcasts, and more. The team ensures high-quality content that helps all readers make talent decisions with confidence.
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