‘Talent acquisition’ is often erroneously used interchangeably with ‘recruiting’. However, in actuality, recruiting is a subset of talent acquisition. Recruiting includes sourcing, screening, interviewing, assessing, selecting and hiring candidates for a specified position, it is a linear process that it typically conducted to save time and costs, and takes a short-term view that is essentially a reactive approach to cater to management requirements.
Talent acquisition, on the other hands, aims to not only fill current positions, but also maintain detailed records of shortlisted candidates in a recruiting campaign keeping in mind vacancies that may arise in the future. It is a proactive and long-term approach that anticipates staffing demands rather than merely filling current vacancies.
Talent acquisition entails chalking out strategies to attract and hire top candidates. This can be done by focusing on building the employer brand on social media, creating outreach, communicating the Employee Value Proposition, networking, relation building with potential candidate pools and outsourcing partners. Other important sub-sets include workforce planning, succession planning, on-boarding as well as development and performance management.
Finally, it is critical to not only reach out to candidates but also to access and provide metrics and analytics on those candidates in order to fulfill the future talent needs of the organization. This will lead to development of talent pipelines, eventually creating a self-sustaining talent supply chain.
The future of talent acquisition was recently summed up best in a report by Deloitte University Press:
”Talent acquisition and recruiting are undergoing rapid disruption, challenging companies to leverage social networks, aggressively market their employment brand and re-recruit employees every day. Faced with a scarcity of key skills and rapidly evolving talent demands, companies that fail to adapt will likely be on the losing end when it comes to attracting and assessing the people and skills they need.”
By Fauzia Kerai Khan. The writer is Chief Consultant, i&b Consulting, Training, e-learning.