Successful Talent Acquisition Goes Beyond the Job Offer

Today’s volatile and dynamic job market is reshaping how organizations approach talent acquisition. Amidst reports of widespread layoffs, particularly in the tech industry, employees are looking to work for companies with a strong commitment to employees.

Candidates care deeply about finding opportunities at organizations that value work-life fulfillment, provide more flexibility, and clearly show how they’re supporting their employees.

Further, organizations are recognizing the value of a holistic approach to talent acquisition that accounts for every stage of an employee’s experience with an organization – from employment branding and sourcing strategies to hiring, through onboarding and establishing a long-term career path. Talent acquisition is expensive, so it’s crucial that organizations understand how a robust talent acquisition strategy contributes to strong hires and lower employee turnover.

3 Steps to Revitalize Recruitment

Dramatic change throughout the past few years has conditioned employees to be more selective when it comes to job opportunities, with many only pursuing opportunities with employers whose values and priorities align with their own.

Those values and priorities aren’t always the same, but those who left their jobs during the Great Resignation said low pay (74%), lack of advancement opportunities (61%), and lack of flexibility in the workplace (43%) were the top reasons for their departure.

A strong talent acquisition strategy is now a competitive advantage for organizations looking to grow their head count and reach their business goals. HR practitioners can help themselves and their organizations gain a competitive advantage by expanding their skills and knowledge in building and executing  strong talent acquisition strategies. Here are three ways to get started:

Build your employer brand. How an organization is perceived in the marketplace can either help – or hinder – talent acquisition efforts. The challenge for HR is figuring out how to establish their organization as an employer of choice among today’s top talent. HR practitioners can deploy several tactics to accomplish this:

• Consider refreshing the company’s website to tell the company’s story and showcase its values.
• Start, or build upon, a company blog that provides a glimpse into the employee experience.
• Consider conducting “stay interviews” with employees to better understand how they view their experience at the company.

Create a people-first candidate experience. The candidate experience comprises any interaction a potential employee has with an organization that may impact their view of the company. This could be as simple as visiting an organization’s website or as complex as navigating a series of interviews for an open position. Candidates are tired of being treated as another faceless applicant, and a less-than-ideal experience could impact their interest in moving forward in the hiring process.

To ensure that the candidate experience is people-first, HR practitioners should consider how to optimize each touchpoint within the process:

• Are application forms concise and free of duplicate fields?
• Is the career section of the organization’s website intuitive, easy to navigate, and up to date with open roles?
• How quickly do candidates get a response during the application and interview process?

Understanding how the process might be perceived by applicants can provide HR practitioners with insights on how to optimize and personalize the experience.

Leverage technology and data. Technology is central to the recruitment process. It can help:

• Minimize hiring time and cost and help anticipate how candidates might perform if hired.
• Help lower risk and streamline manual processes, such as vetting the applications of the 36% of candidates who admit to falsifying information on their resumes.
• Measure the success of talent acquisition efforts and areas that need improvement by providing insights like time-to-hire, applications-per-role, cost-per-hire, and retention rate.

Why You Can’t Overlook Onboarding

While “talent acquisition” strategies tend to emphasize acquiring talent, extending an offer letter doesn’t equal the finish line for HR practitioners. Top-tier talent acquisition strategies consider every stage of a candidate’s experience with the company – and that includes their time as an employee. HR practitioners need to account for all of the things that happen after an offer is extended – from communicating with new hires prior to their start date to ensuring that the onboarding process runs efficiently.

When it comes to onboarding, the numbers don’t lie. More than 20% of new employees leave a company within one year due to poor onboarding. The onboarding process should give new hires a clear understanding of their role, performance expectations, and company culture. Further, equipping new hires with the tools, resources, and relationships they need to successfully navigate the company can boost confidence, help them contribute to the organization sooner, and make them more likely to commit to the company.

The pandemic reshaped the world of work, and today’s employees are looking to join companies whose values and culture align with their own priorities. This shift has made HR practitioners’ role in talent acquisition more critical than ever before, which is why it’s crucial for them to continue building and expanding their talent acquisition knowledge.

Investing in continuing education through programs like SHRM’s Talent Acquisition Specialty Credential equips HR practitioners with tools and strategies to evaluate their existing approach and determine how it can be optimized to recruit and retain the best talent for their organization. With a strong, well-executed talent acquisition strategy, HR practitioners can help move their organizations forward and ensure that current and future employees thrive in the workplace. Learn more about the SHRM Talent Acquisition Speciality Credential today.