The Complete Guide to Talent Acquisition

Introduction - What is talent acquisition?

Talent acquisition is an HR term that is used to describe the process by which companies source, track, and interview qualified candidates, as well as onboard and train new talent. It is a long-term and ongoing hiring strategy that focuses on future needs and hires. Talent acquisition strategies are usually developed and executed by a team that includes human resources (HR), marketing, and public relations (PR).

By having a talent acquisition strategy in place, companies can develop a talent pipeline to minimize sourcing and hiring times, cut down recruiting and turnover costs.

Organizations frequently utilize talent acquisition to seek candidates for higher-level positions that are harder to fill, such as executive or technical roles. Building long-term relationships with potential candidates is a key aspect of this process. Healthcare and technology industries are two examples of industries that often implement talent acquisition strategies.

1. What are the objectives of talent acquisition?

Finding and attracting, evaluating, nurturing, choosing, and pre-onboarding new candidates to fill organizational needs is the sole responsibility of talent acquisition professionals. To be effective, the talent acquisition manager must go well beyond simple recruiting tasks and create comprehensive strategies for attracting and hiring new employees.

Below are the objectives of talent acquisition:

• Awareness: Creating a strong employer brand and promoting it to potential candidates are key components of this process.
• Consideration: Encouraging employees to apply for new roles at the organization and collecting inbound applications
• Interest: Leading the conversation with new and existing candidates in order to progress applications through the hiring process.
• Application: Creating and implementing end-to-end sourcing, screening, and selection process to locate and choose qualified candidates.
• Selection: Shortlisting and selecting the finest candidates by collaborating across departments.

2. Talent acquisition vs. recruitment

In both cases, the objective is the same: to hire people to fill open positions. Although talent acquisition and recruitment are extremely similar, there are a few fundamental variations between the two processes.

In contrast to recruitment, talent acquisition is a long-term strategy that focuses on assessing the potential of a future employee's career progression within the organization. The goal of talent acquisition is to hire people who have the potential to climb through the ranks and become managers and senior leaders in the future. As a result, talent acquisition shifts from just filling open positions to building a long-term strategy for future needs.

Filling available positions quickly is the focus of recruiting. Recruiting duties such as interviewing candidates are completed by talent acquisition teams when they need to fill a position, but the majority of their time is spent finding qualified people for more specialized positions and promoting the company's brand.

Talent acquisition should be used for highly-skilled and leadership positions that may take some time to fill, while recruiting should be used for positions that can be filled in a short period of time.

3. Talent acquisition vs. talent management

To put it simply, talent acquisition focuses on the hiring process, such as recruiting and hiring. While talent management includes all the other areas of talent, such as onboarding, performance management, retention, strategic planning, and analytics.

Talent Management is the process of managing employees. There are numerous strategies and techniques that fall under this term. Onboarding is a major step in the development and management of talent. There are two essential processes involved:

Engaging with employees

Maintain a positive workplace environment. Increase employee morale with rewards, bonuses, opportunities for self-expression, and so on.

Retention of employees

It's not enough to simply hire someone to work for you. It's the responsibility of management to ensure the long-term success of the company. Alternatively, it could be hoped that the majority of employees stay with the company. In order for this employee retention rate to be at its highest, workers must see long-term benefits in staying with the company.

Responsibilities of the talent acquisition & talent management team

The talent acquisition and talent management team have their own distinct set of responsibilities and roles

The talent acquisition team is responsible for:

• Sourcing and hiring the best talent.
• They establish a strong employer brand to attract top talent.
• Hiring candidates is their responsibility, but letting go of employees is not.
• They keep in touch with former candidates, so they can bring them on board for future positions.

The talent management team is responsible for:

• Managing the candidate once he or she has been hired.
• They have the authority to recommend that team members be dismissed from their positions.
• This team is in charge of mentoring and coaching.
• They provide current employees with training, rewards, and promotions.

Talent acquisition and talent management are intertwined

There is no conflict between these two departments, and they do not compete with each other. Talent management and talent acquisition are two of HR's most important pillars. They work together to propel the Human Resources department and the company forward.

The better they operate together, the more effective HR strategies can be carried out. The talent acquisition team will get things started by identifying potential hires, and then the talent managers will use their onboarding, training, and management expertise to help candidates shine.

4. Why is talent acquisition important?

Talent acquisition gives your company a competitive edge by building a talent pipeline that can fulfill current and future business requirements. A great talent acquisition strategy can assist you in identifying and hiring workers who possess the necessary talents and personalities to pursue a long-term career with your company. Below are 4 reasons why talent acquisition has a huge impact:

1. It establishes the framework for your human resources strategy.

The quality of your products and services is directly related to the individuals you employ. As a result, securing top-tier employees is essential in building a strong foundation for all other business functions to grow.

2. Helps to ensure a successful future

Talent acquisition takes into account the changing needs of the business as it expands and plans for the future. It anticipates future talent requirements, including any new leadership or management positions that may arise, and acts swiftly to fill those positions with qualified candidates.

3. Establishes a strong pipeline of potential talent.

While the talent acquisition team predicts talent needs, it also plans for them by consistently searching out the top talents in the industry and cultivating long-term relationships with them. When a position becomes available, the organization has a ready pool of interview-worthy candidates to draw from.

4. Provides a competitive advantage

The success of a company all comes down to the people it employs. If your employees are successful, your company will be successful as well. At the end of the day, it is their abilities, attitudes, and decisions that have an impact on customer satisfaction, productivity, organizational innovation, sales, and revenue. Every organization runs the risk of stalling or even failing if it does not have the brightest people in the appropriate positions at the right time. When you have a dedicated and talented workforce, you'll have a significant advantage over your competitors.

5. 12 steps of the talent acquisition process

Generally, there are 12 steps in a talent acquisition process. Follow these steps to find and hire outstanding talent for your organization.

Step 1: Analysis of organization requirements

Your recruitment strategy and selection decisions are based on an analysis of your organization's needs. You will need to take the mission, vision, goals, and values of the organization and transform them into a set of core skills and responsibilities. These factors contribute to the development of the profile you seek and influence your selection criteria for determining a candidate's fit with the company and each position.

Step 2: Implement your branding strategy

Implement or adjust your branding strategy according to the requirements identified in step 1. Your HR department, marketers, and public relations team can all contribute to the development and growth of your employer brand in order to boost the interest of relevant candidates in your company. Channels can include your career page, social media, newsletters, and any other channels that are candidate touchpoints.

Step 3: Job requisition approval

This is where the hiring process gets started. A job requisition is a formal process for requesting a new employee in an organization. A job request is often in the form of a document that outlines the following details:

• Need for the position
• For a new or existing position?
• Name of the department
• The responsibilities of the position
• Compensation and budget
• The start date
• Whether the position is long-term or short-term.
• Full-time or part-time

The direct manager and the relevant director or VP can formally approve the job requisition with this information.

Step 4: Intake of applicants for the vacant position

The vacancy intake is one of the most significant steps in the process of acquiring new talent. During this stage, the hiring manager and recruiter initiate the discussion about the position's requirements, job title, and ideal candidate profile. Most importantly, an effective intake meeting will lead to fewer miscommunications among the hiring team and better relations between the recruiter and the hiring manager.

A job analysis is carried out during the intake of vacancies in order to collect all the required information to make a smart hire. Deliverables should be the following:

• The job description, which includes all the skills, abilities, and everyday tasks required for the position.
• Person specifications are detailed descriptions of a candidate's skills and abilities. The essentials and the nice-to-haves are included here. An ideal candidate persona can be drawn up from this information.

Step 5: Generating a pool of potential leads

Another critical step is to ensure that you can develop a pool of qualified candidates for the position you are currently recruiting for. HR managers are typically not advised to choose the first candidate who walks through the door or to select the quickest and most straightforward hiring option available to them. You should never make a decision because it's easy for you to do. Professional recruiters recommend business owners devise a strategy for identifying and attracting new staff. The next stage is to devise a strategy for promoting the open position across various channels such as job boards, social media sites like Facebook, or your company career page. Read our complete guide on job posting to find out how to leverage all available channels and gather as many relevant leads as possible.

Step 6: Choose the important interview questions

Instead of asking hypothetical questions during an interview, learn about their real-life experiences as well as their previous work history and performance. Build your question's on-the-job description's top 3-5 responsibilities and key performance indicators. After that, you can ask them more targeted questions about their previous employer, such as "What have you accomplished?" and "Can you tell me about the time when you completed this project?" Their answers will be a clear reflection of their actions and experiences. Check out this interview questions database for interview tips and recruiting insights.

Step 7: Use recruitment assessment tools and exercises

Personality tests, for example, should be taken into account if they are relevant to the job and non-discriminatory. Some exercises can include group work, case studies, and a variety of other activities depending on the requirements of the job. Quizzes and case studies can also be utilized to see how the candidate processes information and makes decisions. Learn more about how personality tests can help in determining whether a candidate will fit into your organization.

Step 8: Conduct background and reference checks

Never overlook the importance of calling up references. Review the references provided by the candidate's past employers and colleagues to see if the information shared by the candidate is supported by the references.

Step 9: Time to choose your top candidate(s)

What criteria do you use when evaluating or ranking candidates? Create a system that helps you to select the most qualified candidate for the job! You should clearly define the candidate scoring and ratings before selecting the best possible candidates. Take your time to read through these steps and make sure you're following them properly.

Step 10: The onboarding process

Even when a new employee is hired, the talent acquisition still continues to one more stage. The new employee will need to be given time for orientation. This will boost their confidence and allow them to swiftly adjust to the work.

Step 11: Evaluate and adjust using feedback from candidates and analytics

The evaluation stage is the last step in the talent acquisition process. This is an excellent time to follow up with candidates to gather insights on their candidate experience. Areas of improvement should be addressed in an organized manner.

The use of data in talent acquisition is necessary in order to improve efficiency. Leverage all the data gathered during past hiring processes in order to identify bottlenecks, channels that deliver the best candidates, etc. Then use that knowledge to drive your recruiting efforts when following the aforementioned steps.

Step 12: Repeat all steps

Rinse and repeat all the listed steps to make sure to keep up with any organizational or market changes.

Time to launch

Now that you understand the fundamentals of talent acquisition, it's time to put these steps into action. To go through each step efficiently, it is important for talent acquisition teams to leverage a new generation of software such as Manatal. The software includes many powerful features to manage requisitions, source candidates, share jobs on job boards and social media, build and manage talent pools, create appealing career pages, and overall streamline the entire recruitment process up until the onboarding.

6. Talent acquisition strategies

Every company's success is fueled by a talented workforce. However, top candidates don't just show up at your door, you have to go out of your way to find them. HR professionals are under a lot of pressure to find the best possible candidates. Building an effective talent acquisition strategy is now a must because of the competitive talent market and the fierce competition.

Most successful talent acquisition strategies begin with an in-depth review and analysis of human resources. You must ensure that your present HR activities are aligned with your company's long-term objectives. Look at your present hiring process and see if you can improve it. Make sure to keep in mind that the best candidates are seeking more than just a role. They are most likely looking for career growth and personal development. A lack of focus on the needs of the candidate will result in a lack of interest in pursuing a long-term career with your organization. Below, you will find tips on the most effective talent acquisition strategies your organization should implement in order to attract the best talents in the market.

Build a strong employer brand

Employer branding refers to the way in which a company conveys its identity to candidates, current employees, as well as to clients. It's critical that your company's employer brand be well-thought-out, simply defined, and frequently communicated to employees across the organization, who will subsequently become your ambassadors. The following points regarding your brand should each have an answer to them:

• Describe your employer's brand in three words or fewer.
• What distinguishes your company's employer brand from the competition?
• How is the employer brand defined by the employees?

Benefits of employer branding

A great employer branding strategy can deliver a wealth of major benefits for your organization. Here are 5 benefits that you can look forward to:

1. Differentiate yourself from competitors

By emphasizing the benefits of working for your company and adhering to your core beliefs, you can set yourself apart from other companies contending for the same pool of candidates.

2. Draw in candidates that are more informed

Candidates that are interested in your organization and have done their research will be more likely to apply if you use targeted messaging tailored to specific personas, rather than uninterested job seekers that have little knowledge of what your organization does.

3. Enhance your credibility

Your brand's credibility and trustworthiness are enhanced when you provide your consumers, clients, and investors a true inside peek at what it's like to work at your company.

4. Increase retention in working with your organization

According to a study by Glassdoor, 67% of employers feel candidate retention would increase if they knew what to expect before starting employment. As a result of this, candidates are more likely to stay in the role once hired.

5. Minimized resources & expenses

According to a study published in the Harvard Business Review, companies with a negative reputation had to pay 10% more to attract employees. To summarize, a strong employer brand attracts a larger pool of qualified job seekers who are more likely to accept an offer and remain with the company long term.

Steps on creating a successful employer branding strategy

Depending on your company size, there are different ways that employer branding can be approached. Below are 9 steps you can use to begin creating your employer brand. If you already have a strategy in place, the next section includes some useful tips on how to keep it up to date, and what trends you should expect in the coming years.

Step 1: Conduct an audit to check current brand perception

Developing an employer branding strategy is one thing, but you'll need something to compare your success against in order to know how well you're doing.

As part of your overall plan, you should conduct an in-depth audit with current employees and external stakeholders. To begin, you can ask the following questions. Is it possible that your brand values are being misrepresented from what they seem? Are the negative reviews being replied to and resolved?

For a more complete perspective of the public opinion, conduct an audit that includes the following channels of independent review, such as:

• Social media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok)
• Online forums (Reddit & Quora)
• Employee review platforms (Indeed & Glassdoor)
• Employee feedback

Auditing your brand's reputation across these many channels will help you determine if you are delivering a consistent, compelling, and motivating message to your current and potential employees.

Step 2: Define and set realistic goals

The audit that you have recently completed will show you which areas of your employer brand need to be changed. This will assist you in establishing clear and realistic goals for your employer branding strategy. Think of the result in mind. What would like to accomplish with your employer branding?

These are just a few of the common goals of employer branding:

• Have the reputation of a top employer
• Increase the number of high-quality applicants
• Boost the level of candidate engagement
• Cultivate a sense of trust between current employees and potential employees
• Generate more traffic to your career page
• Take advantage of social media to attract more candidates
• Maximize the number of people who recommend working at the organization
• Raise the offer acceptance rate (OAR)

While there are various ways to make goals, the SMART method is one of the most effective. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based.

For instance, if one of your goals is to increase employee referrals, the SMART version of this target can be :

“The goal is to boost the employee referral rates (specific) from 20% up to 30% (measurable/attainable) in four months (time-based) by improving the referral process and rewarding successful referrals (relevant).”

The tip is to align your goals with company needs. If you don’t have a full understanding of each of your goals, then your employer branding approach will face the risk of misrepresenting the company

Step 3: Create accurate candidate personas for each position

Candidate personas are representations of specific types of ideal candidates. These personas can be created by using informed speculation and real-life data. Some questions to keep in mind during the employer branding process are: Who do you want to hire? Who is your dream employee? What drives them daily to stay motivated?

You'll need employee feedback to create accurate candidate personas. Carry out interviews with at least 10 to 15 employees in order to gain a better understanding of how individuals fit into your company's overall culture. A solid persona considers personality qualities, their goals, as well as skills, and experience. Here is what your persona should have:

• Demographic information: Age, gender, work experience, salary, education, social background, and so on are all factors to consider.
• Future goals: What is the candidate's reason for seeking a new position?
• Specific skills: In which areas do they have the greatest amount of knowledge and practical experience?
• Personality traits: What personality traits do they have? Team player? Leadership? Integrity?
• Drive and motivation: What drives them to do what they do? Is it a higher income or the reputation of the company that matters? Do they place a higher value on possibilities for creativity or on joining a group of people who share their values?
• Channels of job search: What channels do they utilize to find work? LinkedIn? Job boards, perhaps?
• Influencer of choices: Who has an impact on their decisions? What about family and friends? Colleagues? Their management or boss?

Be careful not to focus too narrowly on demographic data. This may mistakenly disqualify candidates and encourage unconscious biases.

Step 4: Create an Employee Value Proposition (EVP)

The employee value proposition (EVP) refers to the reasons why your company is a desirable place to work, such as the perks and benefits that employees will receive in exchange for their hard work and success. You should use this information as a foundation for all of your communications with potential employees, both internally and externally.

According to a Gartner study, a company can cut its salary premium by half and expand its reach into the labor market by 50% if candidates find an EVP appealing. Additionally, companies that consistently provide their EVP, can reduce annual employee turnover by slightly less than 70% while simultaneously increasing new hire commitment by about 30%. From looking at this data, it makes good business sense to invest in an EVP.

Having a strong EVP makes it easier for companies to attract and keep the top talent in today's competitive labor market. The EVP can also sometimes be referred to as the "unique value proposition". It is important to focus on what makes your organization unique, not just the pros. In addition, make sure that your EVP is continually updated to keep up with changes in the workplace.

Consider an EVP as a recruitment elevator pitch. For example, your EVP can include the following benefits:

• Professional career growth opportunities
• A vibrant social and culturally inclusive environment
• A healthy work-life balance
• Paid vacations
• Benefits such as free food, gym membership, etc
• Voluntary service to the community, such as charity work
• The referral rates
• The offer acceptance rate (OAR)

There are certain factors to keep in mind when building your EVP. As a starting point, be aware of the current offerings of your organization. How satisfied or dissatisfied are employees with the benefits they receive? Look into the genuine feelings of current and former employees.

Next, outline the key components of your employee value proposition. These components can be financial bonuses, benefits, professional career growth, and a positive work environment and culture. Which ones are most in line with the goals and values of your organization? The question is, which of these components should be given the highest and lowest priority?

Lastly, make sure to promote your EVP through the appropriate channels such as social media platforms, career pages, job postings, recruiting videos such as “What’s it like to work for Company A”, and employee referral programs.

Looking for a career page builder? Manatal allows you to design a modern career page that shows off your company's identity and culture without the need to be tech-savvy. You'll be able to attract top talent and demonstrate to them why your company is the perfect place to work.

Step 5: Establish suitable KPIs and devise a strategy for tracking them

Your plan can begin once you've defined your EVP and specified your target candidate personas. The first step is to revisit your original goal and develop KPIs/objectives that reflect them.

It's important to make sure your KPIs are relevant when setting them. When traffic is increasing, vanity metrics like page views can be exciting to follow, but they don't provide key information about how applicants are interacting with your brand.

The following are some metrics you should measure:

• Cost-per-hire: The average cost of bringing a new employee on board.
• Sources of hire: The percentage of total hires who have entered the pipeline through each of the different recruitment channels.
• Candidate quality: The level of experience, skills, and qualifications that the candidate has.
• Offer acceptance rate (OAR): The percentage of acceptance rate of your job offers. This provides you with an idea of how enticing your job offers are.
• The number of open applications: These are applications sent by the candidate on their own initiative, rather than sending it to the job posting.
• Hiring manager satisfaction: The hiring manager conducts a performance evaluation of the new hire. This procedure can take place every 6 months.
• Employee retention rate: The percentage of employees who stay with the company for a period of time.
• Brand awareness: Brand awareness can be measured by social listening, which involves monitoring social media for brand references.

After deciding on your KPIs, you must decide how to track them.

Tracking your results will be much easier if you create a measurement plan that describes what data you need to gather, how often you need to assess it, and how to present your findings to share important information.

Step 6: Establish the "voice" of your company or brand

A brand's voice is its distinguishing "personality". This voice should match your company's goals with your target persona's language. Creating content that stands out will help your brand overcome the noise in the crowded digital marketplace. This voice should be consistent across all channels that your brand appears in.

Step 7: Make sure that your employer brand is visible on all key channels

It's essential to have a persona for your audience in order to attract them. But how are you going to get in touch with them? Also, what strategies do you have in place to keep your current employees engaged?

A lot of businesses fail at this point. Research from EveryoneSocial found that while 86% of job searchers use LinkedIn, and only 66% of companies actively search for applicants on the platform.

By determining which channels and touchpoints are most effective in reaching your target audience at the correct moment, you can ensure that your message reaches the right people. As soon as the best channels for recruiting have been discovered, you must also ensure that your material remains consistent and authentic.

Consider the demographics while determining which channels to employ. It was revealed that Millennials are four to five times more likely than their colleagues from Generation X and Baby Boomer to attend job fairs. Since they were born into a digital world, younger workers are more likely to use a greater variety of digital platforms. There are distinct differences between generations when it comes to navigating the employment market.

Step 8: Keep track of performance and make adjustments

You'll need to keep track of your results to assess your strategy's performance. Metrics that demonstrate ROI are critical, including those linked to workplace perception.

Monitoring may reveal areas of the approach that need tweaking. If you pick relevant KPIs and update them frequently, you'll be able to adjust and improve your approach as needed.

Keep a watch on employer review sites like Glassdoor, as they directly impact your employer brand. As Glassdoor points out, 80% of users agree that a company's perception improves once a review is responded to.

Don't get discouraged if you don't receive the outcomes you want during the monitoring phase. Building a successful employer brand takes time, patience, and perseverance. As you develop brand loyalty among existing team members and continue to recruit new members, your employer branding will naturally develop and evolve.

Step 9: And keep in mind that employer branding is a continuous process

In the event that you've achieved all of your immediate short-term goals after implementing and optimizing your strategy, it may be tempting to call it a day at that point. In the long run, though, your employer brand will weaken if you do not retain the momentum you have achieved so far. People's work habits and career goals can change overnight, as the pandemic showed. What candidates liked yesterday may be unappealing tomorrow.

Instead of stopping, you should restart the process. This is because you may lose relevance if the company's strategy changes. Set goals that match industry changes. Then update or create new candidate personas if needed and adapt your employee value proposition (EVP) to the factors above.

Employer branding is a never-ending cycle. In today's always-on, 24/7 economy, real-time employer branding shows you're a forward-thinking organization.

5 tips on how to revamp your current employer branding strategy

Next, we'll give you some advice on how to improve your current employer branding strategy and what trends you may expect in the next several years.

Your employer brand strategy should be a part of your new year's resolutions. To become the employer of choice, having a great employee value proposition is key. Your employer brand strategy is critical to attracting the best candidates for your company's branding and recruitment efforts.

1. Evaluate your current employer branding strategy

Before making any changes to your employer brand strategy, determine what needs to be altered. You may want to conduct a survey of current and former employees, as well as members of the talent community, to see if your messaging is in line with your actual HR brand. Before implementing "extra" upgrades, focus on realigning your messages and branding.

2. Think about the upcoming generation, Gen Z

BridgeWorks, a generational consulting firm, estimates that around 61 million people in the United States are members of Generation Z. Those born after 1996 are now entering the workforce in large numbers. You should take into account the fact that this generation is always on the go and has high expectations for the ability to multitask. You can combine these characteristics into your brand identity (as long as it's true to you): loyalty, open-mindedness, responsibility, and compassion.

3. Update your honors and awards

In order to become an employer of choice, you've undoubtedly been recognized as a local best place to work or featured in the media for your community activity throughout this past year. It's important to incorporate any content that will help your company's employment brand on your website's career page and in social media marketing.

4. Consider how technology will affect your organization

The future of technology must be taken into account in order to reach your target audience. Also, don't be hesitant to experiment with new technology in order to spread the word about your company's image. Technology should not just be viewed as a means of communication, but also as a catalyst for new ideas in your organization.

5. Include ambassadors on the list

A new employer brand approach is being implemented, and while it may take some additional effort, the benefits to your HR brand will be significant. Authenticity is added because it's not simply your company talking about itself, but rather your ambassadors who are offering a true and real-time take on your organization. You must be able to give certain rules for information sharing, but allow ambassadors to express themselves in their own unique way

Leverage AI to accelerate recruitment

Including automation in your workflow is a great method to streamline and improve the efficiency of your talent acquisition processes.

Sourcing and finding the best talent for the job can take days or weeks. Manatal’s AI recommendation automatically matches your jobs with the ideal candidates in your talent pool. The way this works is that the software scans through all your job descriptions and identifies the essential skills and requirements that candidates must have to be considered for the role. The software then compares these results to your talent pool to find the top candidates. All you have to do then is to reach out to candidates for your current openings, or nurture relationships through newsletters for example, until the day their skills are needed.

Other valuable features included in Manatal are AI Candidate Scoring as well as Social Media Enrichment of candidates. The first one does just what it says, it scores and ranks candidates according to their fit to a job, making it extremely easy to screen and spot the best candidates in a large pool. For the second, the feature locates all social media accounts of candidates, giving recruiters a full view of their candidates’ personalities and passions, allowing for a better assessment of culture fit.

Evaluate your most effective source of talent

It is important to understand where the best applicants are coming from in order to maximize efficiency. Analyze your data to find from which source the best candidates and present employees originate. These can include your career page, job boards, social media platforms, and employee referrals, among other things.

By utilizing the source of hire (SOH), you will be able to gain a clear understanding of where to direct your talent acquisition efforts and resources. You should make it a habit to keep track and assess on a regular basis to evaluate which sources work well and which ones don’t.

Leverage the analytics suite from recruiting software to help you with that. Manatal for example can be used to measure SOH. In addition, Manatal offers other advanced recruitment statistics that will assist you in identifying bottlenecks in your recruitment funnel and eliminating them. You'll be able to keep track and improve key KPIs including Time-to-Hire, Cost-Per-Hire, Rejection Reasons, and Recruitment Performance Ratios.

Consider hiring internally

Before using up your resources and searching for external talents outside the organization, you should think about hiring internally. Consider the advantages of hiring someone who is already familiar with your company culture. They have skills that you've previously verified, are familiar with the area of work you're looking to fill, and have proven to be a high performer. Although this is more of a talent management strategy than a real acquisition strategy, it may be more convenient for your organization to just promote internally

Plan for the future and take your time

It takes time and effort to establish a successful talent acquisition strategy. There must be enough time and resources available for it to get off the ground. You must first know where your organization is in the industry, what your goals are, and where you need to enhance your hiring process before building an effective branding strategy. These tips can then be implemented one at a time.

7. The 7 best practices for talent acquisition

The process of acquiring top talent for a company is not an easy one, as it takes thorough planning and swift implementation. You may still miss out on some great talent, even with all the planning. This is why talent acquisition is crucial, since it gradually targets applicants who could become future assets for the organization.

In this part, we'll look at the 7 best practices in talent acquisition. You can think of these best practices as the foundation of your talent acquisition approach.

1. Establish your needs and set priorities

Prioritize the areas in which you will require professional talent before you go out and find it. Determine the skills and experience required to fill the role, and then tap into the vast talent pool. Plan your approach and target your choice of industry. Having a plan and framework in place makes hiring the best candidates much more feasible.

2. Monitor the Talent Pool

Tracking shortlisted candidates in a spreadsheet or an applicant tracking system. When possible, keep them informed about upcoming roles. Put in place a talent acquisition strategy that allows the organization to hire the required talent whenever the opportunity arises. It allows you to save both time and resources while also recruiting great talent with the least amount of challenges.

3. Make sure you're always connected

Keep an eye out for changes in the workforce. Continue to be involved in all online forums and discussion boards (digital and traditional). Engage with your channels of recruitment on a regular basis.

4. Predicting the workforce

Organizational and workforce trends can influence talent acquisition decisions. A successful talent acquisition strategy requires workforce planning. Being in constant communication with your hiring managers also helps you anticipate your recruitment responsibilities in the next weeks, months, and years. The recruitment team will be better prepared to hire the right talent at the right time.

5. Management of vendors and third-party agencies

Vendors can improve matters in the search and attraction phase of the recruitment process. This is called RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing). RPO is a type of process outsourcing where some or all of the recruitment process is outsourced. Even if you are not currently using these services, keeping in touch with them might be beneficial in the event of unforeseen changes in workforce demand.

6. Be flexible

Build flexibility into your talent acquisition approach by employing a data-driven decision-making process. If fairs and events aren't bringing in a sufficient return on investment, shift your attention to social forums or developing agency connections.

7. The beginning of talent management

Managing employees after they have been hired is the main part of talent management. There is a drive and hunger in the future prospects to always learn and develop their abilities. That's why it's critical to provide them with the required training and growth programs.

8. Start building your talent acquisition team

Use this Talent Acquisition (TA) Manager job description template to start building your own talent acquisition team. Attract the best candidates for this position by customizing it and posting it on job boards and your career page.

Job brief

We are seeking a Talent Acquisition Manager to oversee the recruitment team and work with hiring managers to identify talent needs and find outstanding candidates through a range of channels.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement long-term strategies for talent acquisition and recruiting.
• Plan, organize and carry out employer branding activities.
• Encourage your team to act as brand ambassadors.
• Source and search for qualified candidates for open positions.
• Examine the organization's development and future employment needs.
• Assist with events like job fairs and on-campus recruitment.
• Represent the organization at internal and external events to network and build contacts with potential candidate populations.
• Conduct background checks.
• Respond to queries about perks, remuneration, and corporate culture.
• Establish long-term relationships with candidates.
• Find candidates using professional networks or social media.
• Organize assessment tests, phone screenings, and in-person interviews.
• Prepare position-specific job descriptions and interview questions.
• Participate in career and college fairs, as well as other comparable events.
• Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) for human resources and recruiting.
• Produce KPI reports.

Qualifications

• X years of experience as a Talent Acquisition Manager or similar role
• MA in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field
• Complete understanding of full-cycle recruiting and employer branding techniques
• Proven expertise posting jobs on social media and job boards
• Experience with HRIS, ATS, Sourcing, and Recruitment Marketing tools
• Employee motivation ability
• Critical thinker and ability to solve problems
• Excellent time management
• Team player and can communicate effectively
• Optimism and a can-do attitude
• Impressive presentation style

The importance of Recruitment Software

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) are one of the key components to successfully run a performing TA strategy. As underlined throughout this guide, many aspects of TA would be inefficient or outright impossible without an ATS supporting the recruiters.

As more and more HR Departments start engaging in TA activities, these companies rapidly move from outdated legacy solutions to new generation software like Manatal to supercharge their whole recruitment process.

Manatal was designed to tackle this challenge. Effective collaboration is essential in recruiting. Manatal helps you improve internal and external cooperation and communication so that your team, hiring managers, and third parties can efficiently select candidates and manage their path through the recruiting process.

Want to know more about our recruiting software? Check out our recruiting and HR technology insights or sign up for a 14-day free trial and test out Manatal yourself.