Is your hiring reactive, or proactive? The difference between these approaches defines the divide between traditional recruitment practices and the more strategic talent acquisition. While often used interchangeably to reference hiring, recruitment and talent acquisition are fundamentally different.
Many organisations find themselves stuck in the reactive ‘recruitment’ zone, filling roles as they arise. But by shifting to a more proactive talent acquisition strategy, businesses can build a robust and future-proofed workforce.
In this blog we’ll look at how workforce planning, employer branding and candidate pipelining are key components of talent acquisition. We’ll explore the role of recruitment and onboarding software for talent acquisition management and see how the evolving tech landscape – from AI and skills-based hiring to data-driven forecasting – is steering successful talent acquisition.
Jump to:
- What is talent acquisition?
- Talent acquisition in practice
- The role of tech in talent acquisition
- Trends shaping the future of talent acquisition
- Reach ATS as your talent acquisition partner
Talent acquisition is the proactive and strategic process of identifying, attracting and hiring skilled individuals to meet an organisation’s needs. It is about building successful recruitment strategies, planning for long-term skills provision and taking a more holistic approach to an organisation’s growth and skills requirements.
Why is talent acquisition important for long-term business growth?
Reactive recruitment, filling roles as they arise, can lead to costly hiring mistakes. Beyond lost recruitment costs and time, team morale and productivity can take a hit too.
Taking a more strategic approach to hiring empowers teams to consider what skills and roles will fuel the future needs of their organisation. Rather than simply filling jobs, talent acquisition teams focus on skills requirements, driving innovation and strategies for building a workforce that is resilient and sustainable.
Talent acquisition in practice
Talent acquisition might sound like it’s all about ‘big picture’ thinking and airy planning, but in reality, it’s incredibly practical. From setting long-term hiring goals, building internal talent pipelines and aligning the employer brand with organisational values, talent acquisition relies upon strategic insight and careful operational detail.
Talent Pipelines
A focus on talent pooling provides a ready supply of fresh candidates for a business. Good quality applicant tracking systems will allow talent acquisition managers to segment talent pools as required, sorting by experience, skills, locations etc., for clear insights into potential matches.
Alongside external talent pools, talent acquisition also takes internal talent into account – reflecting upon existing team members skill sets, as well as the potential for upskilling and career development opportunities. This proactive approach to internal talent acquisition demonstrates to existing employees the opportunities within the company, promoting loyalty and increasing retention rates.
Employer Brand
Building and growing an effective employer brand requires consistency. It’s important to make sure external communications and touchpoints reflect organisational values and provide clear and transparent information. When this is done, and when communications are responsive and timely, brands feel trustworthy and sincere.
Candidate Experience
Active oversight and consideration of the candidate journey is a key tool in the talent acquisition playbook. A positive and well thought out candidate journey enhances engagement at key touchpoints, preventing candidate drop-off. Likewise, a clear and thorough onboarding process increases new hire retention rates.
The role of tech in talent acquisition
Traditional recruitment styles can easily fall short in today’s tech-driven hiring environment. Hiring data can and should be leveraged as part of an informed talent acquisition strategy. Advanced reporting tools with AI-driven insights are helping many organisations gain the competitive edge in this candidate-driven market.
How does an applicant tracking system support strategic talent acquisition management?
Using specialist tools, such as employee onboarding platforms and applicant tracking systems (ATS) in talent acquisition allows teams not just to build talent pools, but to refine and optimise the entire hiring process, improving the candidate journey and freeing up teams to focus on longer-term strategic work.
By centralising communications, streamlining recruitment workflows and harnessing data analytics, talent acquisition professionals can enhance the candidate experience, promote their employer brand and use the rich data provided to identify potential skills gaps.
Trends shaping the future of talent acquisition
Skills-first hiring is about prioritising capabilities and potential over qualifications or experience. It’s a hot topic for HR professionals and is seen as a great way to promote a more diverse and inclusive talent base. You can read more about it in this short article by Forbes here.
Weighting skills over qualifications or experience can help HR teams find more suitable matches for vacancies, whilst simultaneously strengthening the organisational skills base for the present and the future.
Taking skills-first hiring to the next level in talent acquisition management means looking at internal mobility, continuously upskilling and progressing employees, adapting roles to cover skills gaps and succession planning. This increases employee retention rates, reduces recruitment costs and, importantly, retains institutional knowledge.
There’s no doubt that the use of predictive analytics for talent and recruitment forecasting will increase in the coming years. These tools will empower talent acquisition managers to identify skills gaps before they occur, highlight job roles that consistently have lower retention rates and help remove obstacles and bottlenecks within the recruitment process for more successful hiring.
But it’s not just reporting that’s benefitting from evolving technology. AI-powered screening is speeding up time to hire, reducing bias and improving candidate matches. Smart talent acquisition professionals are already using their AI-powered ATS to generate ever more personalised communications. They are both protecting and growing their employer brand while also elevating the candidate journey.
Diversity and inclusion have been firmly embedded in most recruitment processes for years now, but using advanced recruitment software facilitates even more equitable and inclusive hiring. These specialist tools provide a clear audit trail, ensure compliance checks are completed and keep candidate data secure, while providing truly blind shortlisting features.
We’re still only just scratching the surface when it comes to the potential of these new technologies to truly reimagine recruitment. Just think what it will do for talent acquisition. There’s never been a more important time to streamline your recruitment and move towards a more strategic talent acquisition approach.
Reach ATS as your talent acquisition partner
Talent Acquisition is like recruitment that’s had a double espresso and has a five-year plan. It’s about considering all talent options, internal and external. Growing an employer brand that will naturally attract top talent and of course, looking at an organisation’s future needs rather than just dealing with the here and now.
To those who are just about keeping on top of their current recruitment needs, this might all feel beyond the realms of possibility. But with the right tools, your recruitment admin can be automated, and your data leveraged to provide you with the insights you really need to strengthen your workforce and take a more proactive, strategic approach to hiring.
Reach ATS not only streamlines and optimises your recruitment, but also enhances your candidate experience, helping grow your employer brand. Advanced data insights provide a wealth of reporting options, helping teams put in place robust talent acquisition strategies, while automating the overwhelming administrative work that recruitment requires.
From smart AI shortlisting and job description optimisation to clear visual reporting and easily segmented talent pools, Reach ATS offers a fresh and intuitive approach to talent acquisition.
If you would like to discover how we can help with your talent acquisition process, then Reach out and book a demo today.