When you want to build goodwill toward your organization over time (and ultimately build a good reputation as an employer), one of the best things you can do for yourself is to let people down nicely. That is, tell them they didn't get the job instead of letting them hear nothing. This can be done at-scale with a good ATS. However, for the 50%+ of companies who don't use an ATS, this should also be done, albeit with more manual steps. Why? What's at risk if you don't do this? For companies who rely on their brand to sell, it can be devastating as those folks you're not communicating with are potentially a big part of your customer base. For companies who don't have a brand per-se, it can still leave a bad taste in your candidate's mouth to not hear from you. And good luck getting them to want to apply to your job again down the road when they might be a better fit. That's why I consider this type of communication a key part of good talent acquisition efforts because it builds trust.
When laying out a talent acquisition strategy, it is easy to overlook the importance of diversity and inclusion. But even the best acquisition strategy is ineffective if it doesn't prioritize diversity and inclusion. One way to do this is to review job descriptions to identify and eliminate possible biases and optimize them to attract a diverse talent pool. There is plenty of research showing that diversity in talent sourcing and hiring can give a company a competitive edge, strengthen company culture, and even boost profitability.
If you have a large number of openings across many departments, and you are open to remote workers, hosting a virtual recruiting fair can help decrease the amount of time it takes to weed through your candidates. You can have your team dispersed around a virtual networking room (in a platform like Preciate), and candidates can move around and have individual conversations with your team to see who connects best with your employees before you move to actual interviews.
Defining organizational culture and company image are essential tasks for talent acquisition, as this differentiates the organization from other competitors in the market. Employment branding is especially related to the company's reputation as an employer brand and can help improve workers' perception of the organization. The more positive the company stands in the labor market, the greater the chances of attracting qualified professionals to its selection processes. All this is built with a solid culture, offering attractive benefits, competitive salaries, etc.
Employers encourage their employees through rewards to refer qualified candidates for jobs. Employee referrals are the best source of new talents for an organization. They provide immediate access to talent sourced through personal connections with employees—this practice saves on time and costs.
Just because a candidate meets all the requirements for a job does not necessarily mean they are the best fit. To ensure you are bringing on someone who can excel in your line of work and become a great member of your team, the hiring process should be comprehensive. Job postings should thoroughly outline the job to attract prospective employees who meet the job requirements and are excited about the responsibilities. Once you have a good pool of applicants the hiring process should be set up to assess the candidate's relevant skills and personality to fit the company culture. Every new hire should align with your company's mission, vision, and values. It is also important to run a background check on candidates as a final check to make sure you are making the right hiring decision and protect the organization from a number of risks.
Before you set out to find great talent for your business, you must first prioritize the areas in which you will require it. Determine what abilities and competencies will be required to fill the desired position and then proceed with the big pool of talent. Target your niche and tackle it strategically. Hiring the correct individual is considerably easier with a good plan and framework in place.
Often times, companies will only post jobs and interview inbound applicants OR they will exclusively rely on outbound recruiting to bring in talent. While both are useful, they are even stronger together. Explore the free and low-cost sites you can post your jobs to including (Indeed, LinkedIn, Talent, etc.). Many job sites also offer free trials to post for free for a limited time so leverage those free periods if you haven't already. If you're able to hire remotely, research which cities have a high density of candidates you are looking for and post your jobs in those cities as well. Some searches require very specific expertise that can be hard to find from job post applicants. This is where the value of tools like LinkedIn Recruiter and Indeed Resume come into play. Use a wide range of filters to narrow down large candidate pools to just ones that fit your hard-to-fill job descriptions. Reach out to these individuals with a concise pitch on why they should join your company.
A best practice of talent acquisition is providing constructive feedback to candidates when they don't get the role. While this may sound like an altruistic waste of time for some, ultimately the goal is to create promoters of your company. The quickest way to do that with someone you aren't hiring? Help them land that next role with constructive feedback. I have taken that approach in the years I recruited, and now that I manage a team I underscore how important the candidate experience is. When a candidate has a good experience they will tell their friends and colleagues, and this will generate referrals. Bad experience? No feedback? The recruiter ghosts them or doesn't close the loop in a timely fashion? They will also tell their friends and colleagues, and at a much higher rate than with the positive experience. This can negatively impact your brand, prevent referrals, and make recruiting that much harder. So do the right thing, and reap the rewards!
Just as you wouldn't dive into a marketing campaign without data, you shouldn't launch a talent acquisition strategy without relevant and adequate data. Analytics will help you identify where your target candidates are, the company benefits that interest them, and what they are looking for in an employer. Data will also help to optimize job descriptions, interview questions, pre-hiring assessments, and career pages, ensuring that the application process is streamlined and candidate-friendly. Leveraging data to attract and hire top talent also improves profitability for any size of business.
An easy way to narrow down your candidate list is to use relevant keywords to find the most promising applications. For example, you can get a list of keywords that you expect to see in people's resumes and cover letters for a certain position, and anyone who has not included these keywords will be taken out of the candidate list. This is a helpful method because at the end of the day, all kinds of people apply for all kinds of jobs, and many times you will get applications from people who are not qualified. People who use the keywords you are looking for will probably have a more suitable background for the position.
Acquiring talent is about having a good foundational team for new talent to join. Skilled individuals want to find a good opportunity for which to put themselves to use. Talent wants to join talent and there’s no better way to attract talent than to have an accomplished team already in place. Whether they are a new graduate or a former employee at an established firm, skilled individuals want to chase success. They want to know that they are signing up to ride a rocket ship as opposed to floundering row boat. The best way to encourage new talent to join is to demonstrate the talent that is already in place.
Before you look to acquire talent for the company, you must first prioritize the areas in which you need them. Identify what skills and competencies you’ll need to fill the desired positions. This process will help you shift through a large talent pool and reach out to the most qualified prospects. Hiring the right candidates is much easier with structure and a solid plan for recruiting.
Attracting top talent starts with creating a strong employer brand that showcases your company as a great place to work. You can do this by sharing positive employee testimonials, highlighting your company culture, and promoting your employee benefits and perks.
Incorporate Everyone By allowing everyone to take part in talent acquisition, you ease HR's work while allowing for a wider pool of ideas. Your organization can have employee referral programs and give incentives for every successful referral. It is also good to ensure employees know the vacant positions and the skill set required to fill them.
An integrated digital adoption platform provides employers with a system to efficiently recruit and onboard new employees. These platforms are helpful to an organization because it saves time, and ingratiates new employees to the company using easy to use technology. A digital adoption platform saves an organization time and resources, two of its’ most precious commodities, and allows for a smooth talent acquisition process.
The best talent acquisition strategy is to make the workplace suitable for everyone. You must adopt a work culture where people of every generation, caste, and creed can get along with each other. Diversity should be promoted. This holds great importance when you hire global talent. When employees get such a friendly and welcoming work environment, they are less likely to face surrounding-induced stress. They don't have to work hard to fit in as the entire ecosystem is flexible and has space for everyone. It makes employees fall in love with the workplace and they won't think of moving out because of silly reasons like incompatibility with peers and office politics.
More and more, data-driven recruiting is becoming the preferred way to approach talent acquisition. Those setting the tone in the talent acquisition space are the ones making sure their companies are comprised of personnel who have the data-driven mindset, as well as the fundamental understanding of technology that enables their organization to execute data-driven recruitment of new talent. They know how to use analytics and insights to select the right person for the right job. If you want to be more strategic in your hiring process, rely on data. It gives you the best roadmap to obtaining and maintaining talent.
The Talent Acquisition team should partner with marketing to identify their "employer brand". Knowing what makes your company culture powerful and being able to help candidates feel it during their candidate experience is a crucial best practice. Working with your peers in marketing will help you create content or assets that make it easier to share that sentiment during the hiring process.
One best practice for talent acquisition is to cast a wide net. This means that you should not focus your recruitment efforts on a single source but rather cast a wide net to attract the best talent available. There are several ways to do this. For example, you can post job ads on job boards and social media, attend career fairs and reach out to contacts in your network. You can also use recruiting software to help you identify and connect with potential candidates.