Some Key Examples of Talent Acquisition Strategies

Rapid innovations, advent and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), AI chatbots, advanced algorithms, virtual assistants, and a number of other emerging and powerful technologies

Talent acquisition is a challenging task in today’s highly competitive corporate world and has become increasingly tech-driven in the more recent past. Initially Human Resource Management (HRM) and recruitment and onboarding was majorly affected due to acute shortage of candidates or individuals sufficiently skilled and experienced for a job, or lacking the required talent, capability, and drive or ambition for a specific job, project, department, or assignment. Other aspects to be considered by companies, HRM, recruitment teams, and personnel is deploying and using a talent acquisition strategy framework to enable sourcing or attracting, and retaining desired or suitable talent. This strategy or framework also enables ascertaining whether each candidate fits the organizational culture, is a collaborator, can aid business meet long-term goals, adds value to brand, and others.

Getting this done however, may certainly be a lot easier than it was a decade ago, and this can be attributed to the changes in the technologically advanced world of today. Rapid innovations, advent and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), AI chatbots, advanced algorithms, virtual assistants, and a number of other emerging and powerful technologies are gaining traction quite rapidly, and are contributing to development and execution of talent acquisition strategies across various organizations and businesses.

COVID-19 Exposed Business Model Weaknesses & Brought Major Changes

Human Resource (HR) recruitment operations, sourcing and aligning suitable talent for further processing, acquisition and management of talent, retaining, and various other employee-related procedures have steadily been moving away from the manually-driven and multiple-member supported decision making approach post the pandemic and return to new normal. Majority of processes and operations are proceeding along the brink of major disruption, and bring along positive and negative impacts in equal measure.

Use of high-speed Internet for work from home work setups, availability and use of connected devices for job searches, recruitment, interviews, and networking for professional reasons are some major factors that drove the initial success models of talent acquisition and management. Other factors thereafter included rapid traction of various employment platforms and job apps, AI and ML integration on various platforms and for end-uses and analytics, access, use, and analysis of personal information, details, and data on social media feeds and other such platforms.

As the trend continued and more individuals were entering the market with need for employment, adoption of real-time communication and interactive technologies for interviews and discussions, personalization trends, and increasing preference for immediate communication and responses became key factors of focus driving rapid changes within corporate settings and organizations across the globe. In addition, usage of AI-powered platforms enabled HR to streamline their processes and ensure a more accurate selection of candidates and accelerate hiring timeline, and these benefits also contributed to rising popularity of AI and ML in recruitment, talent acquisition, and management in a short span of time.

Algorithms being used are capable of rapidly processing vast volumes of data, and this eliminates need for time and effort-intensive and manual review of résumés. Moreover, increasing use of chatbots to enable real-time communication and addressal of candidate enquiries and job application status update, scheduling interview on demand, assistance for scheduling, and reviewing of candidates to proceed along recruitment process creates certain room for flexibility and planning among company management and HR personnel. Easing the load also allows HR to focus on other core responsibilities and tasks in a company, as well as to participate in activities related to company growth and goals.

Talent acquisition and key strategies are the prime focus areas among HR and recruitment personnel in various organizations, sectors, and verticals currently, and having this approach in place has altogether redefined the bar for employee experience. A lot has happened since the COVID-19 outbreak, subsequent pandemic, and lengthy lockdowns, and these caused immediate or even systematic disruptions of business models across all industries. The lockdowns served to drive high dependency on technologies and connectivity, promote the remote work trend, highlighted potential and capabilities of assets and employees, and ability to deliver efficiently on projects and targets. While the unplanned slowdown in business and revenues across companies and organizations worldwide created severe negative impacts, these also served to expose some that are having positive impacts on overall business models and HRM and talent acquisition and management strategies. The turning point appears to have emerged as a result of improved productivity among many sue to flexible work timings and remote working, employees showing more support to company goals and objectives, and this period also enabled better understanding of talent acquisition importance and strategy, and here are some key strategies along with a few pros and cons that come along with them.

Some Key Talent Acquisition Examples 

Some primary factors that drive an effective talent acquisition strategy are strong employer brand, streamlined candidate experience, and keen focus on long-term goals. This is where the strategy to be deployed needs to be customized according to need or requirement of the organization, and this is crucial as it needs to serve to identify, evaluate, and hire the best candidates, in order to achieve a company’s long-term goals. The strong employer branding is also crucial for a positive candidate experience, as this brand value serves to build a sense of community among employees and help cultivate an engaged organization.

Going through the various procedures and rounds involved all the way up to hiring top talent can be rather time consuming, require the proper intention, and energy investment can take a toll. Also, the task requires deployment of fresh strategic moves and decisions need to be altered and modified accordingly as the business evolves. This also calls for continuous assessment of the organization’s needs and bringing aboard new talent with the right skills from time to time, to move the company forward or along the proposed long-term goal.

Also, successful talent acquisition cannot be simply indicated by the hiring of capable candidates and individuals and moving along with other tasks while the new candidates work out things thereafter. The key to a successful talent acquisition mission is to align your company vision with employee experience and recruiting strategies, and this also needs to be spread across the team and workforce to create the necessary connect between new team member and existing workforce. This approach is critical as it is at this point of entry where it is most suitable to point the new joiners in a direction that can support growth of the organization, from the moment go. 

Employers could take a cue from the most common mistakes others make, and this is related to talent acquisition Vs. recruitment. Just filling a position as soon as possible because it is vacant or exists is a major mistake an employer can make. Making assessments of the company or organization’s unique goals as opposed to whether filling the said position exceeds far-term goals over immediate ones or vice-versa would enable a better-defined decision. The need for the moment may become clear through such assessment because such needs may differ from one business to another, and from region to region. For one business the immediate requirement may be to double or expand the workforce or team size to cater to expanding product or services demand. This expansion and additional investment may be catering to a short- or near-term goal to capitalize on and drive revenues. This, however, is driven by the need for immediately recruiting to fill a vacancy and there may not have been any talent acquisition efforts or suitable candidates involved. However, for another business, it may be critical for significant investment to acquire specific expertise to expand abroad. Hence, having a clear understanding of the skills and traits required for each situation or outcome is key to knowing how to leverage on a clear talent acquisition strategy.