Taking the time to hire individuals that suit your company, who want to help your company reach its objectives is imperative to its success.  For decades, companies have approached recruiting with a fill-the-position-quickly mindset. This is a mistake. As we grow in HR, and learn new strategies, it is becoming the norm to have a complete talent acquisition strategy in place of simple recruiting.

First, What is Talent Acquisition?

Talent acquisition is a business process in which skilled employees are attracted for hire to fulfill the current needs of an organization. It is not simply a recruiting strategy. It is, rather, a long-term objective in which future business needs are identified. When proper workforce planning, employer branding, new hire training, and employee retention pathways are put into place, it is easier to pinpoint those needs, and avoid potential pitfalls.

Why is it Important?

A talent acquisition strategy encompasses all of the elements typical to an employees lifecycle from pre-hire to promotion to continued retention. It helps your organization become more efficient in talent management, and ensures that you have a global view of the needs to be met.

When done well, talent acquisition leads to improved performance, growth, and competitive advantage.  It is the pathway to identifying, attracting, onboarding, and retaining the best possible talent available.

How is Talent Acquisition Different from Recruiting?

Recruiting is related to talent acquisition in that it is one piece of the puzzle, but the two terms are significantly different from each other. The best way to remember this difference is this: recruiting is reactive; talent acquisition is proactive. Said differently, recruiting has a micro view of a problem, and thus focuses on the immediate hiring need; talent acquisition has a macro view of a larger problem, and thus focuses on avoiding known pitfalls, and optimizing for future growth.

Why is Talent Acquisition Replacing Simple Recruiting?

Talent acquisition strategies focus on a long-term vision for the organization, instead of an ad-hoc approach to staffing. This ensures less turnover in staff and a mitigated risk of costly bad hires. When a talent acquisition strategy is in place, your organization is kept in alignment at many different levels, across many different departments. For example, one core responsibility for HR is staffing departments with high-quality employees, and onboarding them quickly and efficiently. In order to achieve this objective, the HR team must align themselves with the core values, objectives, and goals of the company.

Additionally, a talent acquisition strategy acts as a checks and balances system for incoming employees while growing the talent pool by considerable numbers. This saves your team time, money, and the headache of constantly trying to fill positions with no candidates available.

By its very nature, recruiting is a function of talent acquisition, but is only one component of a bigger, better system.

By introducing a strong talent acquisition strategy, you start the process of gaining greater insights into all of your processes. You save time, money, and mitigate the risks associated with the hiring process.

Have you started building your talent acquisition strategy?