Many people mistake talent acquisition for recruitment because they seem synonymous. However, there’s a big difference between them when viewed from a corporate perspective.
You can look at it as recruitment being short-term and talent acquisition as long-term. Recruitments are for quick fixes while talent acquisition is for long term-plans. Both approaches may be used depending on your company’s circumstances and your tactics.
Understanding the strategic nature of talent acquisition can improve HR’s recruitment system. Even independent recruiters will benefit from this knowledge because of the talent they bring to the company. This in turn will help the company achieves its strategic vision and turn you into a talent acquisition specialist.
Defining Recruitment
Recruitment is the process of looking for experienced and qualified people to fill a vacancy in your company. This process involves evaluating and hiring said qualified individuals as well. Recruitments also happen during a certain season or due to staff turnover. Several factors influence those recruitment patterns, like lack of work security in a company.
Despite this, recruitment is a fundamental part of running any business. The problem is that it’s a short-term process because it only wants to fill the immediate needs of the business. In other words, recruitment is just about filling vacancies.
Defining Talent Acquisition
Talent acquisition sounds similar to recruitment because they share the same goal. And that is to find the best people for your company. While recruitment is a standardized process, talent acquisition is all about planning the long game. It goes beyond merely filling vacancies in the company.
If your hiring team understands your long-term goals, they’ll surely be able to acquire someone with the talent you’re looking for. To do that, they need to be flexible and dynamic in their recruitment.
Where Can You Get Resources for Talent Acquisition and Recruitment?
To acquire talent, your company needs to be attractive to candidates. You also need to make use of several avenues where these new talents can be sourced.
There’s a chance that recruitment and talent acquisition happens through a similar method. It becomes a matter of having a trained eye to spot and train talent. Nevertheless, here are the methods you can use to scout potential talents.
1. Networking or Building Connections by Attending Events
Building connections within your industry is a good start. You can attend significant industry events and meetings to build a diverse social network to find talent.
2. Referrals From Employees
Referrals come from your employees. According to 82% of businesses, their high-quality hires come from referrals. If your company has an attractive employee referral program, they’ll be motivated to refer their peers.
3.cCareer Sites and Job Boards
A good place to search for talent is the classic career sites or job boards. You can post your job openings and get applicants through these sites. Though old, this method is still important to use so we suggest researching the best job board for your industry.
4. Social Media
For a more contemporary approach, you can use social media as a talent acquisition platform. Social media is an information hub, no matter what you want to learn. Granted, not all the information up there is credible but when it comes to showcasing talent, it’s genuine.
The biggest online recruiting tool is LinkedIn where candidates have their portfolios out in the open.
Having different avenues to search for talents is important because it’s getting more difficult to find talent now. With the pandemic, jobless rates are at a multiyear low in the US and other countries. However, employment is expected to grow 0.7% yearly from 2020 to 2030 according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In other words, to acquire talent, you need to cast your net as wide as you can, hence all of these avenues for talent acquisition.
The Importance of Awareness of Staffing Trends
As an employer, you need to be aware of the state of the workforce as it is a major part of talent acquisition. For example, is your industry experiencing skill shortages? How tight is the competition in your industry?
There are several trends that you need to be aware of as an employer. Some of the most common in 2022 are unrealistic employer expectations and poor workplace engagement. If you can’t address those trends, how will talents apply to your company?
You can use that knowledge to make your company attractive to the talents you seek. But always remember that your relationship with them doesn’t end when they sign the contract.
You’ll need to convince these talents that you’re the right company for their career. To do that, you’ll need to establish a relationship based on empathy, understanding, and open-mindedness.
Recruitments can be done the same way as sourcing talent. However, the candidates need to undergo standardized tests and interviews before they’re accepted. For example, some companies require sample works and a writing exam from writer candidates, before conducting an interview.
Which is More Important: Recruitment or Talent Acquisition?
A traditional recruitment strategy may be preferable in some cases, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be hiring the best people for the role. And if that happens, the turnover will be sooner than you’d like. In effect, you’d have lost precious time in training an employee.
Talent acquisition goes beyond the tactics of recruitment. You’ll need a new set of strategies set on finding and hiring talents. At the same time, you need to learn how to understand the value of your employees.
So how will you know which is more important? The answer lies in your company’s current status. If you need a quick fix for any predicament your company is in, recruitment is your best bet. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to scout a talented candidate that can stay in the company.
However, if you’re not facing any serious work problems, you can opt for talent acquisition. It’s a more time-consuming process but it’s all an investment for the long game. The return on investment of training a potential talent will also exceed the costs of training. Therefore, talent acquisition is much better than recruitment.
That said, even if you hire them for their skills, they’re still people and should be viewed and treated as such.
Conclusion
Talent acquisition and recruiting may seem similar but they have their distinctions. They share the same goal but their methods are entirely different as well. Recruiting is done to solve immediate problems within the company by filling a vacancy.
Meanwhile, talent acquisition is a long-term strategy that can help your company grow even more. Your hired talent with improve their skillset and your company will benefit from their skills.
There are many places to start sourcing talent and you can even hire a talent acquisition specialist. But among those places, you can try out social media and networking. You can also start asking your employees for referrals because a talented employee may know fellow talents.
If you’re transitioning from recruitment to talent acquisition, we recommend strategizing differently. Talent acquisition is more difficult but more worth it than recruitment. Hence, it’s best to try different avenues to acquire the talents your company seeks.