10 Ways to Improve Business Performance by Applying The Best Talent Acquisition Practices
Firstly, let’s define what Talent Acquisition is. Talent Acquisition refers to the process of proactively and continuous attraction of potential employees through various channels and approaches and ensuring an effective onboarding process of new recruits. People are attracted to something if it has features that they would like to have, hence, it is critical that the Talent Acquisition Specialist (TAS) fully understands the features of the organisation’s employment brand and continuously work towards strengthening it to improve its ability to attract potential talent to the organisation.
As a TAS, you can position your organisation to attract the best talent in the market if you apply the practices expressed in this article. The following ten practices will set you apart from other traditional Recruiters:
Practice 1: When do you act?
First and foremost, you need to analyse the business strategy to understand the talent implications thereof. You need to determine what workforce profile in terms of the quantity and the type of positions will be required by the organisation given the business strategy (3-5 years plan). This is what I call the “zooming out” action. Once you understand what the future will look like, you need to “zoom in”, that is, looking internally if you have the potential employees to be developed for the future roles.
The traditional Recruiter act when they receive a requisition to fill a vacancy, while a TAS has a talent acquisition strategy that guides them as to what they need to do to constantly attract and place talent when it is needed. You need to identify mission critical positions (positions that drive the achievement of the business strategy and difficult to fill) and ensure that you have identified successors internally or externally to fill them should they become vacant. You also need to conduct retention risks for the critical positions so that you have an idea of when they will become vacant.
Practice 2: Pool to recruit from
Unlike the traditional Recruiter who relies on responses from adverts and recruitment agencies database for a pool to recruit from, the TAS proactively identifies internal and external pools to recruit from, especially for critical positions. The TAS knows what talent is available in the market and where to find such talent.
Practice 3: Attraction of talent
You will have a database of potential candidates whom you have had some informal interviews with to understand what they can offer and also what your organisation can potentially offer them. These potential employees constantly receive messages about the features of your employment brand. When a vacancy becomes available, you know exactly who to contact for a formal interview.
Practice 4: Performance measures
Traditionally, the performance of the recruitment function is measured by the number of people appointed in a particular period, the recruitment costs incurred and the recruitment turn-around time. The TAS measure their success on recruitment efficiencies (cost reduction and time to recruit), short term labour turnover (number of new recruits who left the company before completing 1 year of service) and new recruit’s performance (hire time productivity).
Practice 5: Focus of the Talent Acquisition Specialist
The task of the TAS does not end when the candidate joins the organisation. The TAS must ensure that onboarding of the new recruit happens as per the onboarding process of the company. They will ensure that culture and job fit assessments take place in the first six months of their employ. They work in partnership with Human Resources Business Partners to determine the engagement levels of new recruits in the first six months of their employ. Technically their tasks end when the line manager appoints them permanently (end of the probation period) and when the TAS is satisfied with the engagement level of the new recruit.
Practice 6: Talent acquisition culture
Talent acquisition is not the responsibility of the TAS alone. Everyone in the business constantly identifies and refers top talent to the TAS. A mindset that acknowledges the importance of attracting and retaining the best talent must permeate all levels in the organisation, especially the leadership rank. The leadership of the organisation is measured on how well they attract (number of best talent referred and recruited) and retain talent (labour turnover rate of critical talent and employee engagement levels). The TAS must help entrench the talent acquisition culture in the organisation.
Practice 7: Talent segmentation
Critical positions are given a high priority in terms of time and resources. Sometimes when a new business strategy develops, the types of positions that have the biggest influence on the execution of the business strategy change. It is incumbent on the TAS, to know at any given point in time, which positions should be in their radar. The traditional Recruiter has no idea of strategy critical positions and assumes that leadership or senior positions are critical positions.
Practice 8: Talent strategy
The TAS understands the organisational talent strategy and their day to day talent acquisition activities are guided by this strategy. They understand the long term plans of the organisation and the implications thereof on what needs to happen on a daily basis to enable the company to implement its business strategy.
Practice 9: Business acumen
The TAS understands the organisation’s business model, operations, competitive position and stakeholders and uses this information to advise line management of the best fit for the organisation and the position.
Practice 10: Talent acquisition sources
Unlike the traditional Recruiter who uses traditional talent acquisition sources like print advertising and recruitment agencies, the TAS uses multiple sources with more emphasis on social media, and employee referrals.
Conclusion
The demand for the best talent outstrips the supply for talent and the war for talent rages on. It is against this background that we need to improve our skills on positioning our organisations to attract and retain the best talent in the market.