Recruiting tips

What Is Talent Acquisition?

What is talent acquisition?

You need a skilled team to help you reach your business goals, but top talent doesn’t just fall into your lap. It requires ongoing effort to attract, engage, and hire qualified candidates for your team. These efforts are part of a modern talent acquisition practice.

What is talent acquisition?

Talent acquisition refers to the strategies, programs, and processes used to identify and hire qualified job candidates at an organization. 

Modern talent acquisition goes beyond the traditional hiring process to adapt to evolving labor market trends and drive organizational growth.

Talent acquisition vs. recruiting

Some talent professionals use the terms “talent acquisition” and “recruiting” interchangeably, though others feel they’re not one and the same.

Hiring best practices continue to evolve and the term “recruiting” doesn’t quite encompass all of the roles and responsibilities found on a modern “recruiting” team. 

Talent acquisition offers a broader term to account for all the activities that don’t tie to specific job requisitions. For example, employer branding, candidate experience, and talent analytics all operate to build a more effective and efficient recruitment process. Modern talent acquisition encompasses both the process of hiring and the strategies that elevate hiring outcomes.

The modern talent acquisition process

The modern talent acquisition process typically involves many steps over several weeks or months as organizations try to identify and hire a qualified candidate for an open role.

1. Align with your hiring manager

Alignment with your hiring manager is a key component of the modern talent acquisition process.

Begin with an intake meeting to learn about the role, ideal candidate profile, and required skills and qualifications. Source a few candidates together to demonstrate what the talent pool looks like and get detailed feedback on candidates. 

Stay in lockstep with your hiring manager throughout the recruitment process to both solicit feedback and guide them toward a desirable hiring outcome. For example, help hiring managers draft social media posts to promote their open role and interview questions to effectively evaluate candidates.

2. Write compelling job descriptions

Job descriptions should be more than long lists of responsibilities and qualifications — they should help you attract the right candidates

Grab your candidates’ attention by sharing what makes your organization unique, whether that’s opportunities for growth, a dedication to diversity and inclusion, or in-demand benefits and perks. Remove any unnecessary qualifications that could dissuade a talented candidate from applying, focusing on the required skills a candidate would need to be successful in the role. Offering pay transparency can go a long way too: Most job seekers (85%) are more likely to apply for a job that lists a salary range.

3. Source candidates

Modern talent acquisition teams use a variety of candidate sourcing channels because they know that great candidates can come from anywhere. 

Effective candidate sourcing channels include job boards, online sourcing platforms, an employee referral program, internal talent, and company alumni. You can also uncover candidates who are expanding their skill sets by partnering with bootcamps and networking at conferences.

Build positive relationships with candidates whether or not you ultimately hire them, as your own database can become a solid source of qualified candidates for your future roles.

4. Attract and engage candidates 

Skilled candidates have many choices when it comes to where they want to work. You must entice them to invest their time and energy into your recruitment process.

Building a strong employer brand, promoting your unique company culture, and designing a competitive compensation package are key components of attracting and engaging talent.

Candidate relationship management is as well, which means creating a positive candidate experience, courting leads, and building long-term relationships. 

5. Evaluate job candidates

Modern talent acquisition professionals come to the evaluation stage prepared so they can evaluate candidates thoroughly and fairly.

Identify the three to five most important skills required for the role and the key performance indicators that will define success — and build your interview questions around those criteria. You can also assess candidates using other tools, including a skills test (like a sample writing or programming task), a personality or cognitive evaluation, or a demonstrated pitch or close.

Have a system for selecting from your strongest candidates. Use people tracking and evaluative software or an internal grading system — both for your own talent team and for any other stakeholders involved in the decision-making. Assuming your C-suite and other employees are as busy as you are, make this final selection process as clear and hassle-free as possible.

Validate your top candidate by checking references to see if there are any final concerns or impressions you may have missed. If the references agree the candidate has the skills and values you’re looking for, you’re set to make an offer.

6. Make a job offer

The job offer is your final opportunity to sell your candidate on joining your organization — make it count. 

Extending a verbal offer first allows you to tell your candidate why they’re a great fit for your role, answer their lingering questions, and discuss the specifics of your offer. Follow up with a written offer detailing the total compensation package and reiterating your excitement in formally extending an offer.

Begin employee onboarding once the offer letter is signed by welcoming your new hire to the team and sharing next steps. A strong onboarding process can make or break a new employee relationship, so prepare for and streamline this process as much as possible before your new employee starts.

Effective talent acquisition strategies

The world of recruitment continues to change and forward-thinking organizations understand the need to adapt their talent acquisition strategies to address opportunities and challenges.

Strategies used may vary due to factors like business needs, hiring pain points, and resources.

1. Talent forecasting

Forward-thinking talent acquisition teams plan for the future needs and goals of their organization so they can adapt to changing conditions.

Identify which roles at your company are hardest to hire for — and prioritize them. Niche skills, highly specific experience, tech or engineering jobs, and senior leadership all fall into positions that can take three to six months or longer to fill. Hiring just the right person for the job, promoting team members, and building an entire team on short notice are much easier with some planning.

You should also prepare for fluctuations in the economy. Look beyond hiring full-time workers to also include contractors, gig workers, part time employees, and flex workers. Changing up your employee mix can help you better address dynamic staffing needs.

2. Talent pipelining

Modern talent acquisition goes beyond immediate needs; it involves long-term thinking.

Keep track of the candidates you find, whether in a simple spreadsheet at a smaller company, or organized via specialized software (such as your applicant tracking system). Make sure to also carve out and schedule time — daily or weekly — for talent acquisition activities: Networking, outreach, inputting and updating candidate details, and most importantly, building relationships that could be useful when you have a future role to fill.

Don’t silo the efforts of your HR and talent acquisition team and keep an open mind about where the best candidates can come from. Get the department or even the entire company involved. Consider introducing employee referral programs, monetary rewards for key hires, and public recognition systems for your top referrers. You’ll find qualified candidates faster if your team members know what roles you’re hiring for, what kinds of people you need to fill those roles, and your vision about where the company is headed.  

3. Employer branding

A strong employer brand can be your greatest strength in recruiting quality candidates. 

Make sure your organization’s website, social profiles, and company culture speak not only to your target customer, but also to your potential candidates. 

Your branding efforts, often led by marketing, communications, or HR departments, are hugely important in grabbing the attention of skilled talent and making them want to apply.

4. Skills-based hiring

Employers have long relied on proxies like education or years of experience to evaluate candidates — but these often irrelevant qualifications weed out otherwise qualified candidates.

A more effective approach is skills-based hiring, which focuses on evaluating candidates based on their skills, rather than on their pedigree. For example, you could remove degree requirements from your job descriptions and focus on responsibilities and competencies instead.

LinkedIn research shows that employers who find talent using skills are 60% more likely to make a successful hire than those who don’t rely on skills as part of their hiring process. 

5. Candidate experience

A positive candidate experience can help you engage more job seekers and sway your top-choice candidates toward accepting your job offer over another.

Best-in-class talent acquisition teams invest in providing a seamless and respectful experience to candidates — from preapplication to onboarding. This includes transparency around the hiring process, timely communication, and the exchange of feedback.

Going above and beyond a candidate’s expectations at every stage will ensure a positive impression of your company and build your reputation as an employer of choice.

6. Internal mobility

This business and HR strategy develops and promotes employees internally, instead of going outside the company to fill open positions. 

Internal mobility starts with identifying top performers within the company and taking the time to train and prepare them to take on more responsibility and leadership. An organization can work toward this months or even years ahead by offering career pathing, regular and detailed feedback, internal mentorship programs, high-quality employee training, and stretch assignments

Circulate a list of your open roles on a regular basis via an internal wiki or email so employees can be aware of job openings and express interest.

7. Diversity, equity, and inclusion

Diverse teams bring together a variety of perspectives and experiences, fostering innovation and creativity. 

While building a diverse team can’t fall on talent acquisition alone, there are many ways to support your organization's overall DEI strategy. Effective initiatives include writing inclusive job descriptions, sourcing diverse candidate pipelines, and mitigating bias throughout the hiring process

Paving the way for underrepresented candidates to experience an inclusive recruitment process is an important step toward building a more equitable workplace.

8. Talent analytics

Modern talent acquisition software makes it easier than ever to take a data-driven approach to decision-making. Talent analytics play a crucial role in optimizing your recruitment processes for the best hiring outcomes and return on investment.

For example, you can understand which candidate sources yield quality applicants and which are a waste of your limited resources. These metrics will help you determine where your recruitment marketing budget is best spent.

Talent acquisition using Linkedin

The right tech stack can help you modernize and streamline your company’s talent acquisition function. 

Here’s how Linkedin Talent Solutions can help.

LinkedIn Recruiter

Finding candidates with specific skills and from underrepresented communities is top-of-mind for many talent acquisition professionals. 

LinkedIn Recruiter 2024 includes an AI search experience to help you find qualified candidates faster, plus AI-assisted messages to personalize LinkedIn InMails and garner more responses. These features can save you time so you can focus on other talent acquisition strategies, like boosting your employer brand and providing a stellar candidate experience.

LinkedIn Jobs

Using a variety of sourcing channels can help you expand your available talent pool and increase your chances of finding the most qualified candidate for your open position.

You can post your open roles on LinkedIn Jobs in minutes to reach the largest pool of professionals. LinkedIn will show your job posting to relevant members — even if they’re not actively searching for a new opportunity — and adjust who sees your job posting as you rate applicants.

It’s free to post one job at a time and you control the spend if you pay to promote it, making it easy to optimize your recruitment strategy as you gain insights from your talent analytics.

LinkedIn Talent Insights

It seems talent acquisition teams are often being asked to do more with less. The right insights can help you become more efficient and effective so you can focus your efforts where they count.

LinkedIn Talent Insights enables data-driven recruiting so you can make more informed workforce and hiring decisions. For example, talent pool insights enable more efficient talent pipelining, more effective candidate sourcing, and more targeted employer branding.

Final thoughts: Talent acquisition will continue to evolve

The recruiting function has come a long way since the days of placing an ad in a newspaper and waiting for candidates to apply in person or fax their resume. You have access to a greater talent pool than ever before — and your candidates have access to more opportunities as well. 

Adopting modern talent acquisition processes and strategies can help you attract, engage, and retain top talent, ensuring long-term success and growth in a competitive candidate market.

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