Talent acquisition is one of the most important tasks that a HR manager has on their agenda. It's not just about finding and acquiring talent, it's about finding the right people for your company.
Culture fit is now more important that ever, with 80% of millennials stating culture fit as one of the things they look for in an employer. It's no longer simply a case of posting a job advert, conducting an interview, and adding someone to your team. In this digital age, employees have more opportunities than ever, and to ensure you hire -and keep!- the best of the bunch, you need an amazing talent acquisition strategy.
And, in this article, we're going to list the five very important ingredients you need to make one!
1. Planning
Before setting out to acquire new talent, you need to monitor your company's organisational needs so that you can plan and adjust your talent acquisition goals accordingly.
Having too many employees, or too little, can create a bad atmosphere in your work place -- too many employees creates boredom and tension, and too little employees creates stress and even more tension. Just like the old fairytale, you need to make sure that your staff levels are just right.
This can be challenging if your industry is busier in seasonal periods, but that is exactly why it is important to plan. You can do this by looking at past staff levels, at different periods, in order to see what works best. It is also important to look at your internal capacity balanced against attrition and retirement in order to determine the general size of the workforce you need.
2. Pre-Candidate Engagement
Studies have found that most job seekers read 4-7 reviews before forming an opinion of a company. The truth of the matter is, candidates can and will look for information about your company online before considering working for you, so you need to take control of what they find. By branding your site and content in the correct way, and through social interactions, you can paint a clear picture of your company that will attract the perfect candidates.
Engage with candidates before you hire them by creating branded videos that show off your personality. Here is an example from Deloitte:
This video is great for showing potential employees what to expect from Deloitte. The video highlights many positives: diversity, group activities, career progression, travel. And it also has a sprinkling of humour while maintaining a professional theme throughout, which we can estimate reflects the company culture of Deloitte.
In addition to creating content that people can engage with, it's also important to reach out and engage with potential candidates on social media. Continuing with Deloitte as our example, we can see a tweet here from their CEO:
People spend a lot of their online time on social media, so it's important for your brand to have a prominent presence there when it comes to acquiring amazing talent.
3. Technology
In order to remain a desirable company to potential employees, you need to keep up-to-date with the latest tech trends. This not only presents you as an innovative company, but will also help you to improve business processes.
Technology is expanding and evolving all the time, and in recent years, more and more HR professionals have been leveraging recruiting technology and using this to help them make decisions when it comes to talent acquisition.
Recruiters are also taking advantage of more advanced analytics and reporting dashboards to help them to enhance business processes and strategies.
4. Onboarding
Let's face it, the first day at a new job is theworst. Or it at least has the potential to be. Without a good onboarding strategy, new employees will spend their first day filling in boring paperwork and getting lost going from the bathroom to their desk.
Although onboarding may seem like something solely for the benefit of employees, employers that do it correctly reap the benefits for years to come. Studies have found that U.S. and U.K. employees cost businesses an estimated $37 billion every year because they do not fully understand their jobs.
Onboarding is a crucial part of an amazing talent acquisition strategy. It sets the tone for how your business treats its employees. You should have a plan for your onboarding that includes initial training and mentorship, with specific milestones to check off.
You can even make onboarding fun. Send new employees to different departments so that they can get to know their peers and also find out more about how the business works.
5. Retention
There's no point in planning and executing an amazing talent acquisition strategy if you don't put any focus on employee retention.
To retain your staff and keep them happy, ensure that you lay everything out at the interview stage, most importantly what you expect from the candidate and what the candidate can expect from the company.
It's also a good idea to give your employees a clear path of progression. Research has found that 32% of employees want to see and understand the progress they have made towards goals set by their manager. On top of this, 42% of millennials want feedback every week.
So, there you have it:
5 ingredients of an amazing talent acquisition strategy! For more advice on talent acquisition, get in touch with us today.
