Develop Your Talent Acquisition Strategy With 6 Practical Examples
Recently, 69% of companies reported talent shortages (a 15-year high), and it’s estimated that 97 million jobs will be created within the next three years, so having a solid talent acquisition strategy is more important than ever.
Attracting, hiring, and retaining top talent is a challenging task that requires time, strategy, and money. As your organization evolves, it will be necessary to reassess your talent needs – your talent acquisition strategies must align with your company vision and mission.
In this article, we’ll explore what a talent acquisition strategy looks like, how to develop a talent acquisition strategy, along with some best practices and examples to help you move your company forward.
Contents
What is a talent acquisition strategy?
How to develop a talent acquisition strategy
Talent acquisition strategy best practices
6 Talent acquisition strategy examples
Case study: Unilever’s successful talent acquisition strategy
What is a talent acquisition strategy?
A talent acquisition strategy framework helps organizations source, attract, and retain top talent who fit the organizational culture, can add a lot of value, and help the business meet its long-term goals. It requires a lot of planning, strategy, evaluation, analysis, and marketing. The TA team is often a part of the larger Human Resources department.
A record number of employees voluntarily quit their jobs during the pandemic, particularly in the hospitality, retail, and healthcare sectors. By 2030, it’s estimated that there will be a global shortage of human talent of more than 85 million people. A common mistake in addressing a problem like this is to hire to fill vacancies as quickly as possible. However, this often leads to high attrition rates because the employees hired are not aligned with the company’s future goals.
Successful talent acquisition takes a more holistic approach to recruiting, which helps cultivate an engaged workforce, and talent leaders acknowledge this. In fact, 77% of talent leaders say their TA strategies focus on total value creation for the business rather than saving money.
How to develop a talent acquisition strategy
Here are some steps for developing a successful talent acquisition strategy for your organization.
1. Workforce planning
Strategic workforce planning can help organizations ensure that the right people are in the right roles at the right time and prevent over and understaffing. Workforce planning is essential for many reasons, including aging workforces, cost savings, time management, and flexibility.
HR and TA teams need to ensure they can attract and hire people with the right skills while remaining within budget and planning for potential issues in the future, such as mass retirement and an unpredictable, competitive work landscape.
2. Job description and person specification
Being clear and honest about the skills required for each role can help you attract the right candidates, so make sure your job descriptions are accurate and updated as and when required. It’s also important to be flexible when sourcing candidates.
More and more organizations are moving away from listing formal qualifications as a requirement and are instead focusing on specific skills needed for the role. One example is the IT company Accenture, which no longer requires college degrees and is committed to training new talent with the skills and behaviors needed to excel in the company. This can lead to improved job fit and performance.
3. Attracting talent
Build talent pipelines
74% of HR professionals report a skills gap among their applicants. With the ever-increasing competitiveness of the job market, attracting the right talent is one of the most important talent acquisition strategies to focus on.
To build robust talent pipelines, consider looking at alternative sources, such as specialized online forums or candidates not actively seeking a new job. Create relationships with industry leaders, universities, and colleges so that you can connect with candidates early on and get to know them beyond their resumes.
Employer branding
Candidates today are likely to research an organization to find out what it’s like to work there before applying for a role or accepting an offer. They will check out your social media accounts, visit your careers page, and check Glassdoor. So having a strong employer brand and reflecting this throughout your online presence is essential, which is why 57% of large organizations now invest in employer branding campaigns.
Even the copy in your job descriptions matters. Do your website and social channels match your unique mission, values, goals, and culture? Instagram and LinkedIn are reported as the most used social platforms for employer branding, and 96% of employer branding and recruitment specialists say they use social media.
Selection process
The selection process helps organizations source and hire the best candidates for each open position. This is a funnel-like process that begins with a vacancy. Here’s what the steps look like in the selection process:
- Application
- Screening & pre-selection
- Interview
- Assessment
- References and background check
- Decision
- Job offer & contract
A solid selection process is essential in any talent acquisition strategy to attract the right candidates and move the most talented applicants to the end of the funnel as efficiently as possible.
Hiring and onboarding
The onboarding process begins once a candidate receives a formal offer, accepts, and is officially hired by the company. Even before the new hires start their first day, you can welcome them to the company, introduce them to their team (virtually or in person). This creates a strong first impression so that they are excited to begin their new role. The onboarding process is a key part of the employee life cycle and sets the foundation for the rest of that employee’s journey with you.
On the employee’s first day, they will be shown their workspace, given any necessary equipment or uniform, and have their responsibilities outlined. They’ll meet their team and manager (if they haven’t already) and will start to familiarize themselves with work processes and goals.
A strong hiring and onboarding process will quickly get your new hires operational and create a great first impression of your company.
Talent acquisition strategy best practices
Here are some ways that HR can optimize its talent acquisition strategy.
1. Using technology in talent acquisition
Speak to your TA team to find out if there are any technology gaps that are preventing the company from creating a positive candidate and employee experience. If your TA team is happy and has the tools they need to do their job, they’ll be in a strong position to attract top talent. Technology is advancing rapidly. Digital transformation is essential if you hope to compete for the best candidates.
2. Implementing data-driven decision making
All organizations use data to sell their products and services by marketing to the right people, and the same approach should be taken with talent acquisition. The right data insights can help you determine where your top candidates are coming from so that you can focus your efforts on those sources.
It can also tell you if certain questions in your application process deter candidates from filling them out or completing them so you can eliminate these questions. You may also discover that images and videos highlighting company culture could encourage applications. A/B testing everything will be incredibly valuable. Software and applicant tracking systems can help you sort through your talent pool, assess candidates, and recruit.
3. Retaining high-performing staff
After investing time, energy, and money into attracting and hiring top talent, the last thing you want to happen is for those employees to leave your company for a competitor. Consider, for example, putting together an attractive compensation package with good health benefits (including mental health).
Many people are willing to take a lower salary for better benefits. A Society of Human Resource Management survey found that almost a fifth of HR professionals amended their benefits package to retain employees over the past 12 months.
Since the pandemic, flexible and remote working options have sky-rocketed in popularity, so consider offering employees the option to work from home. It’s also essential to have opportunities for employees to learn and develop their skills and progress in their careers.
Training programs, mentoring and coaching, job shadowing, and hiring from within are some ways to retain high-performing staff.
4. Building a positive candidate experience
A successful talent acquisition strategy creates a positive experience for all candidates, regardless of whether they are hired or not. Review your current application and selection process from the candidate’s perspective. For example, emails and automated messages sent, wording in job descriptions, waiting time, ease of applying, etc.
Construction company Hilti requires anyone involved in recruitment to complete a one-day training session covering fair hiring practices, interview techniques, assessing candidates against core values, and more. This training ensures that talent acquisition is consistent and provides a positive candidate experience for everyone.
6 Talent acquisition strategy examples
1. Ben & Jerry’s: Employer branding
Since 1985, Ben & Jerry’s has donated 7.5% of pretax earnings to social causes and has vocally supported voting rights and racial justice. On their company website, you can find a “menu style” item dedicated to Ben & Jerry’s values, emphasizing its commitment to social responsibility.
2. PURE: Employee referrals
American property insurance company PURE has an employee referral rate of 40-60%. Every new hire is asked within their first few weeks of employment if they know anyone else who could be a good fit for the company. This strategy instantly leads to more referrals and demonstrates how important referrals are in attracting qualified candidates and saving time and money.
3. IBM: Talent pipelining
IBM has partnered with a selection of Universities in America for teaching and research. This allowed them to cultivate relationships with potential candidates while they’re still studying. This way, IBM can attract top talent after graduation and boost their retention rates.
4. Spreetail: Candidate experience
Spreetail used CX surveys to gain valuable feedback from potential candidates about what they would like to see improved about the candidate experience. They found that rejected candidates wanted more detailed feedback about hiring decisions. Spreetail then committed to offering more personalized feedback and grew its Net Promoter Score. Plus, they could maintain relationships with candidates they passed on and consider them for future roles.
5. Synchrony Financial: Data-driven recruitment
Synchrony Financial used data and analytics to identify gaps and opportunities within its workforce and talent acquisition process to develop a more diverse talent base. In 2021, they committed to increasing Black and Latinx employees at all levels of the organization.
6. Talking Rain: DEIB initiatives
With 76% of jobseekers reporting that a diverse workplace is a crucial factor when comparing organizations and offers. Statistics continually illustrate that a more diverse workforce leads to higher revenues, including DEIB initiatives in your talent acquisition strategy is crucial. To ensure the success of diversity in your hiring, focus on eliminating bias in your hiring process. Offer DE&I training at all levels, starting employee resource groups, and many more DEIB initiatives.
Washington-based beverage company Talking Rain wanted to diversify its workforce to scale globally and strengthen its culture. After finding that most hires were male and white, predominantly from employee referrals, they switched to a more traditional and inclusive referral model. Female applicants grew from 22% in 2020 to 50% a year later, while BIPOC candidates increased from 32% to 42%.
Case study: Unilever’s successful talent acquisition strategy
The challenge
It took Unilever 4-6 months to manually sift through 250,000 applications and hire 800 people. Paper processes and manual assessment methods bogged down the company.
An overview of the strategy
Unilever wanted to appeal to a millennial workforce, attract talent globally, and be able to hire more efficiently to meet rapidly changing consumer demands.
They began by rolling out their Future Leaders Program, which selected 800 people from 250,000 university graduate applicants. Up until this point, Unilever had purely been screening on experience but wanted to move to screen for potential as well. They utilized various solution to create a digitized engaging candidate experience that utilized mobile video interviews and interview assessment technology. With AI, up to 80% of the candidate pool could be filtered using data points, leaving those most likely to succeed at Unilever.
With their new recruitment funnel, candidates receive and provide feedback at every stage, even if they aren’t selected for a role. Candidate feedback has been over 80% positive so far across 53 countries. Unilever has seen savings of over $1 million in just one year, a 7% reduction in recruitment time, and an increase in the diversity of hires.
Top learnings for HR
- Screen for potential as well as experience
- Leverage tools and technology where possible
- Survey candidates to improve your candidate experience
- Provide candidates with plenty of feedback (even if they are unsuccessful)
- Use data to make evidence-based decisions and improve your TA strategies
- Make diversity, equity, and inclusion a priority in your hiring practices.
Key takeaways
- What is a talent acquisition strategy: A talent acquisition strategy helps businesses to source, attract and retain top candidates who thrive in the company culture and work to meet its long-term goals.
- How to develop one: Strategic workforce planning, clear job descriptions, talent pipelines, strong employer branding, and a solid selection, hiring, and onboarding process can all help you create an effective talent acquisition strategy.
- How HR can optimize their talent acquisition strategy: Leverage technology, implement data-driven decisions, try to retain your top talent, and deliver a winning candidate experience.
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