Top 10 Tips for Talent Acquisition

Corporations around the world spend millions of dollars on talent acquisition every quarter. They hire talent acquisition experts to help them find the right fit for each job position, and go through a painstaking recruitment process to make sure the right person is hired.

Talent acquisition departments in numerous organizations are made up of recruiters, HR managers and hiring managers. In a corporate setting, the talent acquisition process is often placed under the human resources umbrella and involves sourcing, bringing, interviewing, selecting, and onboarding assistants.

But acquiring the best talent for any given job isn’t easy. In fact, HR departments frequently get it wrong and end up costing the organization precious time and money in getting rid of unsuitable candidates. 

So what can hiring managers do to improve talent acquisition within organizations? That’s what we’ll be discussing in today’s blog by providing you with the ten best tips for talent acquisition.

Best Tips for Talent Acquisition

• Understand Needs of Employing Manager

Recruiters need to have a solid, presuming relationship with hiring managers to know their needs and the unique necessities of their departments. Strategize together to distinguish significant role duties as well as short and long-term goals, and how a particular candidate will help deliver them. 

Striving together will give you a better sense of the role and the ideal applicant while reinforcing your relationship for eventual hiring. In addition, employing managers often trust the judgment of recruiters in finding the right candidate according to the needs of the department. As such, interdepartmental relationships depend on a sound understanding of employing manager needs.

• Onboarding is a Big Step

The job of a hiring manager isn’t done once a candidate is hired. After a candidate is approved and becomes an agent, organizations have digital dilemmas to the conventional paper-based post-hiring process, often called onboarding, the next significant step in talent acquisition.

Employee onboarding comprises an online benefits register, welcome emails, and team presentations, and signing on to employee commitment and wellness programs.

Major HR technology players such as Cornerstone OnDemand, Oracle, and SAP implement onboarding features, as do more sophisticated HCM suite merchants such as Zenefits and Namely, as well as ERP vendors such as NetSuite.

• Keeping Employing Manager Up-to-Date

A fairly obvious yet recent trend in talent acquisition is keeping the employing manager up to date with the progress of the hiring process. Not only does this allow the employing manager to contribute invaluable insights while the hiring process is going on, it also builds interdepartmental cohesion through communication and coordination.

For smaller organizations that may not have separate roles defined for hiring and managing new candidates, it’s important for the hiring manager to include other team members into the hiring process. 

This is because existing team members need to see who is being brought into the organization to give feedback as well as feel that their opinion is valued during the hiring process.

•  Rely on Employee Referrals

Hiring isn’t an easy process and headhunters require all the help they can get. That’s why a staggering 96% of organizations with 10,000 employees or more say they rely on employee referrals. 

This is because a significant portion of the hiring process can be cut down by using employee referrals while offering current employees monetary incentives to refer a good and loyal candidate.

However, it’s important to note that employee referrals can only be effective if the monetary incentive offered to employees is substantial. Often employees do not take employee referral programs seriously as they offer low or no additional bonuses.

• Be Comfortable with Flexible Work Arrangements

One of the most effective ways to be an attractive employer for competent and loyal candidates is to offer flexible work arrangements. Offering flexible work arrangements is also more in-tune with the industry trend in the post-pandemic world.

The pandemic has already proven that organizations can sustain work from home models and that employees can work effectively outside the office as well. As such, offering flexible work arrangements is one of the best ways to acquire the top talent in the market.

• Look to Part-Time Contributors

One of the ways organizations can acquire talent more effectively is to look towards part time contributors. Usually full time resources cost organizations too much, even during the hiring process in the time it takes to sift through countless CVs and to interview.

A more efficient and cost-effective way of acquiring talent is giving out projects on a part time basis. This not only cuts down on the time it takes to hire new people since project based hiring is quicker but also expands the talent pool to include part time resources.

• Stop Trying to Find the “Perfect” Candidate

Managers, and even entire departments, can be guilty of envisioning a “perfect” candidate who checks all the boxes and fits every criteria. But as anyone who has ever hired an employee will tell you, no one like that exists. There is no “perfect” candidate out there, so stop passing up good candidates in your search for the perfect one.

The reality is that even the most suited candidates will require orientation and training to adjust into the job role and the organization. And it’s virtually impossible to find a potential employee that has everything you’re looking for, simply because each organization and job role is unique, much like candidates themselves.

• Don’t Lose a Good Candidate to Counteroffers

Once you do find a suitable candidate and make them an offer, it is likely that their current employers will try to retain them with counteroffers. It is at this stage that most organizations refuse to commit and backout once a potential resource comes back with counter offers from existing employers.

In fact, it’s better if you commit to hiring the candidate and show that you are willing to go the extra mile in hiring them. This builds a better reputation of the organization with the candidate and ensures that the working relationship gets off to a good start.

• Stay in Touch with Former Employees

Former employees are a vital part of the hiring network. That’s because they know the working of the organization, understand its culture and know what it takes to be successful. As such, it is important to maintain good relationships with former employees and develop a network with them even after they leave the company.

• Review Talent Acquisition Processes & Success

Finally, you need to regularly review your talent acquisition processes and measure success rate for the candidates hired through it. Regular inspection and revision of the talent acquisition process can help work out chinks and refine the process to make it smoother for the next hiring cycle. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, acquiring the right talent for your organization is not an easy task but it can be accomplished if you keep these tips in mind. The great thing about these talent acquisition tips is that they work for any organization in any industry, including LGBT owned businesses.