Why Talent Acquisition is a Recruitment Priority in 2017

At the start of every year, HR departments fashion a fresh recruitment strategy designed specifically to find the best people to join their organization. But recruitment priorities differ from year to year. This year, many recruitment leaders have identified Talent Acquisition as their chief priority.

While talent has never been an overlooked element in a recruitment strategy, pressing needs in different sectors has meant other elements – whether IT investment or resource restructuring – have sometimes been more critical.

But with global economies recovering strongly, recruiters now recognize the need to maintain the flow of talented professionals inward if growth, innovation and competitiveness are to continue.

Of course, Talent Acquisition is no simple task. In fact, studies have shown that recruiting the right person is an eternal challenge, with sheer competition for a limited supply of talented individuals. In the 2016 Recruiter Nation Survey, 65% of recruiters said that talent shortage was the biggest challenge that they faced.

With that in mind, what can be done to maximize the chances of attracting the leading talents in your particular field?

Talent Acquisition Is No Surprise

It’s no great surprise that talent acquisition has returned as a priority. Economic recovery has injected confidence in most sectors, and this confidence has manifested itself in hiring policies. According to one survey carried out by LinkedIn, more than 83% of recruiters agree that talent was their top priority.

This research also revealed that hiring volumes worldwide are set to increase in 2017. The degree of these increases is expected to range from 45% in Australia to 76% in India, with companies in France expected to increase recruitment by 50%, the USA by 58%, in Germany by 61% and by 68% in the UK.

What is more, the survey also showed that companies were willing to invest in their talent acquisition programmes, with a significant amount of time now reserved to find the right personnel compared to previous years.

Half of the participants said they would be willing to take up to 2 months to sift through applications before making their decision, while 17% stated they would take twice that length of time – 4 months – to get their appointments right.

Sources Recruitment Will Target

There are a number of sources that HR departments will utilize, according to the LinkedIn survey.

• Employee Referrals – Almost half (48%) of the respondents placed employee referrals top of the list of channels through which they would run their talent acquisition drives.
• Job Boards –third-party websites and online job boards will be key sources for 46%.
• Social Professional Networks – networking sites are already recognized as important, with 87% of recruiters admitting they use of LinkedIn. According to the LinkedIn Survey, however, 40% of respondents identified such networks as a priority source in their recruitment strategies.
• Internal Hiring – Just 28% of respondents said they would principally draw from existing talent within their organization to satisfy their recruitment needs.

3 Steps To Better Talent Acquisition

So what can be done to improve the effectiveness of any talent acquisition drive? Well, there are a few steps that can be taken, and here are just 3 of them.

1. Woo Ahead of Time
2. Usually when a position becomes open (or, at least, is set to become open), the HR department moves to find candidates that fit the bill. But with competition so high, talent acquisition programmes should begin even before a position becomes vacant, with HR reaching out to prospective employees very early on. That way, they’ll know who to approach when they need to hire new personnel.
3. Get Your Social Media In Order
4. Research has shown that candidates are influenced by the social media fluency of companies. In fact, one survey revealed that around 75% of participants believed that “companies whose C-Suite executives and leadership teams use social media to communicate about their core mission, brand values and purpose are more trustworthy”. It’s already widely accepted that a sense of worth and shared values are important to candidates when choosing who to work for. Clearly, social media plays a huge part in developing relationships based on these criteria.
5. Improve Unsuccessful Candidate Experiences
6. Recruiters have long been concerned with candidate experience for those still in the running for a job, but the experience for unsuccessful candidates is now also important. Communicating quickly, even if it’s to tell them they didn’t get the job, is appreciated and likely to improve their view of you. It’s also a good idea to keep in touch over social media. The idea is that they’ll be more likely to apply for any future job vacancies.