Talent acquisition is a term widely used in job recruitment circles. It is the process by which companies seek out and employ individuals who have the skills and mindset to meet the needs of their organization.
Talent acquisition is not the same as job recruitment, although the terms are often used interchangeably.
Recruitment is merely just about filling vacancies. Talent acquisition, on the other hand, is much broader, going beyond just filling vacant positions. It’s an intricate process that entails future resource planning and allocation to prioritize the diversification of its labor force.
How Talent Acquisition Works
Talent acquisition specialists identify, assess and employ candidates to create a robust talent pipeline. They utilize a series of strategies that help key decision-makers and managers determine valuable talent.
These specialists may come from a company’s HR organization or a candidate sourcing company. However, the work process cuts across regardless. Let’s walk you through the key stages of a talent acquisition exercise.
Generating Leads
The first step in the talent acquisition process is lead generation. This proactive recruitment approach targets potential candidates by getting them interested in open positions at the company. In simple terms, you generate their interest so that they can consider you as a suitable hiring manager. Job ads and a job alert are a few ways we use to generate leads by combining relevance and employer bids.
Attracting the Best Candidates
At this juncture, the talent acquisition team focuses on the company’s recruitment initiatives and values, identifying candidates most suitable to the company brand and the employer’s needs.
Candidates also get to learn about the company culture, business strategy, and the products and financial services it offers in the market. They also learn about competitors and how the company differentiates itself as unique.
Interviewing And Assessing Candidates
Once qualified candidates have applied and the best candidates are identified, interviews and assessments can begin. The competency of candidates is tested by a senior talent acquisition specialist at this stage of the process.
Do they have the skills to be helpful to the company? If not, can they learn them? Can they work with others to achieve the company goals? Will they be a good fit in the workplace dynamic, or would they disrupt the flow? Do they fit the job description?
This part of the talent acquisition process is quite intensive as the employer needs to be sure that they are going after the right people.
Evaluating Candidate References
Evaluating references is a crucial part of the pre-employment screening. It’s a reliable way to discover strengths and weaknesses, leadership ability, managerial skills, and even the personality of the jobseekers. It always helps to gather any useful information about the qualified applicants.
Selecting The Best Candidates
Selection should never be a rushed process. At this stage in the talent acquisition process, the team chooses candidates they feel have the most outstanding aptitude for employment by that company or organization. Sometimes there is a second round of interviews, assessments, and evaluations before the best candidates get selected.
Hiring and Onboarding
Once the best candidates are selected, they are formally hired, and the process of onboarding begins. Onboarding gives new employees the resources and information they need to become productive at the workplace. They get integrated into the culture and vision of the organization so they can understand their role in the company.
Some Tips For More Effective Talent Acquisition Jobs
Good communication, having a clear goal in mind, and working together to achieve it are just some of the most basic ways to improve talent acquisition. When the team knows exactly what they want and how to get it, the process works much better, and the quality of candidates absorbed by the company is much higher.
That said, here are some more tips to improve the talent acquisition process:
Don’t Be Too Rigid
Candidates should not get evaluated on skills and experience alone. While these are essential factors, sometimes candidates should be assessed more on their potential than their achievements.
Most candidates who perform poorly at the workplace do so not because of a lack of knowledge or experience (one can always learn these with time), but rather a lack of aptitude to do the job. Focusing on hard skills as the main criteria for long-term employment is an outdated way of thinking.
Take Your Time
Rushing things makes for a shoddy process, opening the door to mistakes which end with the recruitment of poor-quality candidates.
You do not want to cut corners with talent acquisition as it can compromise the pool of candidates. It’s much better to take your time scrutinizing individuals rather than rushing through the process to save money or time. Employing the right people saves the organization more resources in the future than shortcuts ever will.
Practice Effective Collaboration
Talent acquisition specialists work as a team, so collaboration is vital between specialists and the company’s HR department. Remember that talent acquisition is not about filling vacant positions but finding individuals that will fit into the mold of the company brand and culture for the long term.
You must align the goals of your team together with that of the organization.
Come Up With a Pipeline for Candidates
Organizations have different cultures and approaches to how they conduct their business. This means that they have different ways of sourcing talent. But every candidate sourcing company should have a strategy aimed at producing the best candidates for the organization. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of spontaneity, but making things up as you go along is something you must avoid at all costs.
Hire a Suitable Talent Acquisition Partner Today
Talent acquisition is an intensive process involving several aspects. While some larger companies have in-house talent acquisition specialists, this is not the case for everyone. In such a scenario, it is prudent to seek the services of a candidate sourcing company like Velocity Resource Group to help your organization get the best available candidates.
At Velocity Resource Group, we use highly effective hiring strategies to help our clients find the best talent available. We have set a high standard for ourselves by observing high compliance in our corporate hiring initiatives and employer branding practices.
Most importantly, our talent acquisition specialist will work hard to understand the organization’s needs to identify the best possible candidates from the get-go. Get in touch with us by giving us a call on 813-586-1700, so we become your talent acquisition partner today can help you to assess, interview, track, and recruit potential job candidates for your company.