Talent Acquisition Consultants is usually taken as a synonym of Hiring, but it is beyond hiring, TA suggests the strategic view of the company regarding its hiring philosophy on specialists, experts, leaders & future executives for not just recruitment but also for training & development services, performance review & compensation. It is to build a long-term plan while understanding the requirement of skill set as per the goals of the organization.
Human touch and Automation
The millennials are interested in fast & attractive jobs. Organizations are also required to find Talent at a faster pace, technology can be of help by making it possible to source a number of potential candidates, it can also help by automating time-consuming work, but human interference is required to understand how to best streamline the process. Investing in technology could be a good option & this automation will further let recruiters stay focused on high-value aspects of hiring like interviewing and communicating with candidates.
Thinking in terms of TA means having a clear understanding of tasks undertaken and link it with strategic goals. Giving a personal touch at the beginning could work wonders, post receiving hiring requisition a simple conversation between the hiring manager (requisition giver) and the recruiter (working on position) will help by understanding:
- The company philosophy/work environment
- Job Specifics/ skillset
- Its ins & outs of the job role
The personal touch continues with the recruiter's role, now building communication & trust with the candidate on Company's behalf and honestly becoming a bridge between the two. Feedback is an important aspect for candidates, a personalized, rapid, and relevant response to candidates delivers a positive candidate experience.
Automation through ATS, Assessment tools give a further advantage of a quick assessment of available data for any specific skill required & an equal opportunity to all candidates being assessed on the same skill set minimizing the halo effect in shortlisting / selection.
Active Vs Passive candidates
Matching of active talented candidates & actively hiring employers is difficult at times, leading to poor experiences and frustrations on both sides. A Recruiter usually eliminates passive candidates, but these 'passive' candidates are most crucial for executive and high-impact roles and ignored due to a time-consuming approach. Keeping up the communication with these passive candidates is beneficial for the organization in the long run.
A challenging job, with a great work environment, is usually a dream for Employees, but employees are switching jobs often because they can't find motivating career paths within their companies and even the companies don't focus on effective and scalable solutions for these problems. While in TA special care is taken that the career path is defined for the position and shared with employees, boosting their morale & increasing the retention ratio.
In defining a career path, artificial intelligence (AI) could play a pivotal role by addressing challenges such as keeping a database ready for filling open roles, succession planning to have a long-term view, short employee tenures to adjust the market requirement. Learning analyzing skills and adopting new technologies are critical for overcoming the challenges in recruitment, retention, diversity, and candidate experience.
Vital trends of Talent Acquisition
Employer branding – is the way the company brand is perceived in the market in terms of its goods/ services. Companies with bad reputations struggle to attract candidates and when found difficult to retain them. Efforts are to be made to build the company's brand through the communication of its business, Payroll Outsourcing, HR Shared Services & HR philosophies or Virtual HR Services and HR Outsourcing services/companies, HRMS software companies.
Candidate Relationship Management – candidate's experience throughout the process of TA is extremely important as it helps to keep the candidate warm and remain positive towards the company/ recruiter. Being selected or not selected should not matter much as a relationship is built and once this is done the positive attitude helps to close the position/ accept the offer.
Building a candidate relationship and managing the same helps to build not only the database but also the company's image. It's a continuous process of developing the relationship and enhancing the data.
Global & local hiring - companies are going global and need to hire local talent to match their requirement and manage cross-culture diversity. TA proves to be the tool to carry the Company image to global levels & yet remain close to local norms.