What is talent acquisition?

Talent acquisition is when an HR manager or a team within the HR department works to find the right person for a position. This involves sourcing, attracting, interviewing, hiring and onboarding employees. This is done both for immediate positions and for future openings the company will likely have.

Though this might sound a lot like recruiting, talent acquisition is different in the fact that it also deals with the long-term goals of the organization. A recruiting agent will help find an employee for an organization when there is an immediate need and they focus on simply filling the position.

Related: How Employment and Recruitment Agencies Work

Talent acquisition, on the other hand, will focus on the long-term goals of the company and what type of employee would fit into the role and then possibly move up in the company. The talent acquisition manager would acknowledge that people play a role in an organization’s future success and would try to find talent that would show that idea to be true.

Talent acquisition is an ongoing process, that the manager or talent acquisition team would be constantly working on in order to find candidates that could become leaders of the company. This means that even if there are no positions in the company open at the time, the talent acquisition team would be still making contacts and planning for the next executive-level manager.

The person in charge of talent acquisition would have to be a people person who can easily cultivate relationships with different people. This would allow them to have a large pool of possible candidates when a position opens up, meaning the search for possible employees may not take as long.

Since they would be looking towards the future, they would also have to be able to see the big picture when it comes to the organization and growth. Being able to see the big picture when it comes to the goals of the organization is important as you want a talent acquisition manager to know how to assist in the growth of the company.

Having a background in sales, for example, could make the talent acquisition manager successful at their job as they could easily make the company look good to very talented individuals. Those in talent acquisition also have to be okay with always being on the hunt for new employees as this will make them successful at finding the candidates that will grow with the business.

The process of talent acquisition

Talent acquisition has a precise process that can make the job easier and more efficient. The following is the talent acquisition process.

1. Sourcing and Lead Generation

To start with the talent acquisition manager or talent acquisition team should find as much talent that is relevant to the industry as possible. The way to do this is to create an attractive job description that will make the top talent want to apply for the job. This can mean they have a wide variety of people to look for the best fit and they are more likely to find a good match.

If they are not trying to hire for an immediate position it is important that the talent acquisition continues to use social networks, industry events and conferences as places to find contacts within the industry. This can help them down the line when hiring for jobs where you need a person with a specific set of talents.

Also, make sure that everyone knows you are looking for talented people in the industry or for a particular job. By making their needs known, the talent acquisition team will have the possibility of gaining good referrals if needed.

2. Recruiting and Attracting

Once the talent acquisition manager has enough leads, it is time to recruit and attract the talent. You want the company to look like a good place to work so knowing the company culture is a very good place to start. Being able to talk about what type of working environment the candidate would be entering will make it easier for them to explain why the candidate should work for your company.

Having a clear brand will also help your talent acquisition team when looking for new employees. Having a clear point of view and message to customers or clients will allow candidates to align themselves with your brand and the talent acquisition manager will have an easier time recruiting them.

The talent acquisition team takes very great care in maintaining a relationship with all candidates, even if they are not right for the role they are hiring for. This is because for talent acquisition to be truly successful, the HR manager in charge has to have contacts that could become relevant for other positions in the company.

3. Interviewing and Assessing

Once there has been a decision about who would make the first cut, the next thing to do is interview them and possibly set up an assessment. The talent acquisition manager would be looking who can think on their feet and be resourceful as these are the types of skills that can be handy in any job.

By placing an emphasis on the future, the talent acquisition team should try to find people who fit into the culture of the organization first and then see if these candidates have the skills needed for the actual job.

One way of figuring this out is to do a skills test. A skills test will test their knowledge and ability to perform the needed tasks for the job and will allow the talent acquisition manager to narrow down the field even more. If your company would like some help with performing a skills test, the Indeed hiring tools can help you through the process.

4. Checking References

When checking a candidates’ reference, the talent acquisition team will want to know the reference’s final impression of the candidate. Asking direct questions to the reference about the candidate’s ability to do the job is one way in which checking references can actually help.

A lot of the time when hiring a new employee, companies skip this part of the hiring process or only check the references once they’ve already decided on a candidate to hire. This does not help talent acquisition find out the candidate’s professional personality, which is the last thing they need to know before hiring.

The talent acquisition manager should already know if the candidate has the skills necessary for the position and a bit about their personality. Checking references is now a time when you can get to know their professionalism, which is the best way to gauge if a person will be a long-term fit in a company.

Asking the reference if the person will be successful in the position, is a great way to find out about the viability for a long-term match. Being able to ask direct questions is a great skill to have in talent acquisition as there is a need to know more about the candidate’s overall personality.

5. Make Selection and Hire

This is the last step in talent acquisition. Unless there is an obvious frontrunner, it could be difficult to figure out who would be best to pick. To do this a talent acquisition team often uses a grading system for candidates that will help them see who to hire. This type of system makes the final decision more subjective as it will come down to how each candidate did overall.

Once the new employee has been hired, the talent acquisition team will have to let the other candidates know about their decision in a way that will hopefully maintain the relationship between the company and the candidate. By doing this, the talent acquisition manager is able to continue to help plan for the company’s future through banking candidates for future possible positions.

By using these clear steps, a talent acquisition team can not only make sure that the current role is being filled but also create a network of people who might fit into the future goals of the company.

Related: 10 Recruiting Strategies for Hiring Great Employees