As we’ve explored in my previous article, Talent Acquisition has all the ingredients of a classic recruiting process, but grew apart from it over the years, as it was pushed to adapt to new trends and technologies in the field. While the classical recruiting process is a more static practice, relying strongly on active candidates and their desire to find you, talent acquisition has evolved to become more targeted, more direct, focused on attracting candidates yourself, rather than waiting for them to find you. Let’s look at some of the subtleties that set talent acquisition apart from standard recruiting, and discuss them in a bit more detail.
Focus on recognizing and acknowledging talent
This means that a talent acquisition specialist is more people-oriented. He understands people are the engine that makes everything work in a company, with every piece of the intricate machinery vital to the adequate functioning of the institution as a whole, so they should be treated accordingly. It’s a shift in focus, from ‘What can you do for us?’ to ‘What can we do for each-other?’.
Build a relationship with all candidates
Seeing beyond your immediate needs, into the bigger picture, is vital to people working in HR, especially where large-scale recruiting takes place, such as with a software-outsourcing company providing dedicated development teams to its clients. For instance, if a candidate was rejected by a client a year ago and didn’t make it into his team, that doesn’t mean the same developer won’t prove to be a perfect fit today. That’s why it’s important to build a professional connection with them, and to later stay in touch and build upon that connection, consolidating your position as a potential future employer.
Favoring quality over quantity
There’s a significant difference between filling a position and finding the right candidate. The right candidate goes beyond the request set of technical competencies, showing good soft skills, commitment and dedication. This holistic approach to making new hires insures sustainable growth, because it secures people who have all the right ‘ingredients’ to grow and adapt along with the company.
In a society undergoing continuous change and technological development, the recruitment process is faced with an ‘adapt or die’ type of undeniable need to keep reinventing itself. Strategic talent acquisition is just the result of this wave of changes, and in the near future it will probably be adopted by all companies that want to hire the right talent to meet their dynamic business needs.
How is your company adapting to the new recruitment challenges? Have you embraced talent acquisition, or are thinking about making adjustments to the process? As an employee looking to make a change, do you feel a difference in the way companies approach you? Share you thoughts via comment or email, and stay in touch through RSS feed for more insights into the talent acquistion constantly-changing procedures.