The Value of Strategic Talent Acquisition

It occurs to me that talent acquisition strategies have shifted dramatically with the growing popularity of social media.  Mature organizations no longer just look at recruiting, hiring and onboarding as individual functions, but as a process.   Best-in-class organizations integrate the entire pre- and post- hire processes and onboarding in ways that engage the candidate and lead to successful outcomes. 

End to end, holistic onboarding practices that involve the candidate in meaningful ways result in higher retention rates, increased numbers of qualified internal candidates being placed, and year-over-year improvement in hiring manager satisfaction.    As organizations calibrate and mature their processes, they have validated data upon which to link talent acquisition initiatives with organizational profitability (mainly cost control and lower time-to-fill).  In addition, social media can be leveraged to build a community of talent; candidates who are a better organizational fit self-select “in” to the community.

A September, 2012 study conducted by Madeline Laurano of the Aberdeen Group indicated that, for companies to achieve Best-in-Class performance in Talent Acquisition, they must:

·         Strengthen employer branding initiatives through a positive candidate experience,

·         Identify critical roles in the organization and concentrate on filling those roles with quality hires, and

·         Invest in innovative technology such as social media platforms, candidate relationship management and video tools.

I recently heard a story of an internal candidate who was promoted.  While the promotion was a good thing, the story was less than stellar.  A job had been posted for months, internally, and this candidate was not identified although he’d been on a “people to watch” list and had earned both “exceeds expectations” and “distinguished” performance ratings previously.   This candidate used an internal search tool and found a job for which he was a 90% positive match --- yet no recruiter had identified him.  How often is that same scenario repeated in company after company?  Talent Acquisition Partners must continuously build and cultivate relationships with top talent inside and outside the organization.  Talent Acquisition Partners only have insight into those high potential candidates if their Talent Management and Executive Development partners share data.  According to trend data, Best-in-Class organizations are 48% more likely than Industry Average or Laggard companies to prepare for future business requirements in two critical areas:  talent pipelines and workforce planning.   Talent Acquisition strategies cannot be successful without HR understanding the interdependencies of these functions and activities.

Data would suggest that organizations who execute on these strategic activities are also able to achieve better business results such as customer retention and customer satisfaction.  You see, Centers of Excellence, Profit Centers and Business Units impact one another in ways we may not have thought.  For example, a strong brand can help drive quality talent to an organization by defining and translating the company’s image, organizational culture, and reputation.  It can also be the foundation of a positive candidate experience.  Best-in-Class organizations have a clearly defined employer branding strategy that aligns with marketing and communication initiatives.  If your organization lacks such a strategy, look to your Chief Human Resources Officer to explain “why not”.

On the social media side, about half of all organizations are using social media to simply broadcast jobs to candidates.  Where organizations are leaving money on the table, so to speak, is when they fail to engage candidates in regular, meaningful interaction.  Does your organization have a social media tool that allows you to post openings on your personal social media sites, thereby reaching a broader audience for referrals?   Would you find that valuable?

Traditional organizations still measure cost-per-hire and time-to-fill; they probably always will.  However, Best-in-Class organizations cited “Quality of Hire” as the most critical HR metric in place today.  Quality of Hire metrics ensures that the sourcer / recruiter isn’t just looking for warm bodies to fill openings.  Quality of Hire metrics holds managers and Human Resources Business Partners accountable for successful onboarding and makes them become more involved in the process.

Think about your organization and what a maturity continuum might look like.  Phase I might be to assess the process, the players and tools available aligned against a Talent Acquisition or HR strategy.  Phase II might be to bring some additional structure to the process and to train / educate the various partners (including hiring managers) about the process.  Phase III could include becoming more involved in the organization’s overall talent processes, including a strengthened partnership with Talent Management to identify talent pools for hard-to-fill or “critical roles” identified during succession planning or talent review discussions.  A fourth and final phase might involve strategic alignment with business processes and decisions, so that Talent Acquisition has a seat at the table to steer strategic discussions, rather than being on the backend of the process, taking orders.