Companies have more options than they know what to do with when it comes to finding employees. With so many job seekers out there, it can feel like every individual is equally qualified for every position.
To stand out from the crowd, hiring managers need to focus their efforts on targeting specific talent for their specific hiring needs. Using talent acquisition strategies, hiring managers can target the talent they need to fill particular roles and hire the best candidates for their company.
Let’s look at some critical talent acquisition strategies that hiring managers need to know.
What is Talent Acquisition?
Talent acquisition is the process of hiring new employees and filling open positions with qualified applicants. As the popularity of online job boards has skyrocketed in recent years, many businesses are locating and hiring through online job sites.
However, not all of the best talent can be found through online channels. That’s where the role of hiring managers comes into play. We all know that the hiring process can be lengthy and complicated. That’s why hiring managers are in charge of finding the best talent for their company.
This article will cover talent acquisition, its importance for businesses, and the top strategies hiring managers use to find and hire talent.
The 5 Steps of Talent Acquisition
Before hiring managers can genuinely focus their efforts on finding the right talent, they must understand the process. That’s why we’ve broken down the talent acquisition process into six steps.
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Develop a Thorough Job Description
First things first, you need to develop a thorough job description. Having a job description will help you hire better talent by providing direction and clarity when sourcing candidates.
Spend some time developing an extensive job description to ensure you hire the right people. Then, create an internal website for your organization that includes your job description and other relevant information about the job.
Make sure you post the job description externally so that your sourcing partners can easily find it and get everyone’s attention. For example, create a blog post and post the job description on relevant career communities to reach the widest audience.
Share the job description on social media using tags that relate to it. Create an email list for sourcing partners so that you can directly notify them when you post new job openings.
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Sourcing for Talent
Once you’ve developed your job description, you need to begin sourcing talent. Start by searching on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other relevant sources for candidates with relevant experience.
If you use hiring software, you can also use it to source talent by creating job listings and posting them to suitable sites. You can also use sourcing software to automate the sourcing process. This will save you time and ensure you don’t miss any relevant candidates.
If you have a recruiting team, consider outsourcing to ensure you don’t get distracted by other priorities. A sourcing partner can help you create a comprehensive job description, source candidates, and manage the sourcing process.
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Conduct Phone Screenings
Once you’ve collected a list of candidates, the next step is conducting phone screenings. Phone screens are helpful in screening potential hires to get a feel for their personality and their communication style. It can also tell you their overall ability to fit in with your team.
You should conduct your phone screen in a quiet, private location. This will give you the privacy to interview without distraction.
You can conduct a variety of types of phone screens:
- Personality Tests: Personality tests can help determine if a candidate is an excellent cultural fit for your team. You can use personality tests to determine if candidates are a good cultural fit for your organization or company culture.
A personality test assesses the individual’s preferences, attitudes, and motivations. In addition, the test looks at personality traits such as cognitive style and emotional stability.
It also assesses agreeableness and openness to new experiences. You can use personality tests to screen candidates to help you determine if they’re a good cultural fit for your team or organization.
- Communication Style Tests: Communication style tests can help you understand your candidate’s communication style and determine if they’re a good cultural fit for your team.
- Job Fit Tests: These job fit tests can help you determine if a candidate is a good cultural fit for your job. Job fit tests focus on the job duties and responsibilities of the position to make sure you’re hiring a candidate who can perform the job duties required.
- Cognitive Tests: Cognitive tests can help determine whether a candidate has the necessary skills to perform required job duties. Cognitive tests measure cognitive abilities such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making.
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Hold Online Interviews
After you’ve collected a list of candidates and conducted phone screenings, you can move on to conducting online interviews. Online interviews are similar to phone interviews, but they take place online.
You can conduct online interviews with candidates via video chat, Google Hangouts, or Skype. Online interviews can help you get to know your candidates better and extract more information from them.
You can also use behavioral interview questions to understand your candidates better and determine if they’re a good cultural fit for your team.
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Onboarding
Now that you’ve hired top talent, how do you keep them? For this, you need a solid onboarding process. A well-designed onboarding process will help you create a consistent and streamlined experience across your organization.
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This will help new hires feel welcomed and at home right away. Onboarding can be broken down into two phases: getting to know your new hires and helping them feel confident and successful.
Advantages of Talent Acquisition
There are many benefits to utilizing a talent acquisition software solution. Some of the most important benefits include:
- Improved Hiring Processes – Talent acquisition can help improve hiring processes by reducing the effort and time required for recruiting. This makes it easier to find top talent and find the right fit with your organization. Additionally, it can also make it easier to hire with fewer mistakes.
- Better Candidate Experience – With the right talent management software, candidates can now experience a personalized, engaging candidate experience. This can be done by using AI or other automated recruiting tools to use voice and other technologies.
These technologies help contact candidates and conduct pre-interview screening. This can help reduce the number of candidates who aren’t a good fit for your organization and can also help reduce the amount of time spent on each hire.
- Provides a Pool of Talent for Certain Jobs Another essential benefit of hiring with talent acquisition management is having a pool of talent to draw from for specific jobs. This can make it easier to fill certain roles with certain skills, allowing you to stay competitive in the market.
Conclusion
Hiring top talent is a crucial part of business growth, but it can be challenging to find qualified candidates and a good fit for your company’s culture. This can lead to longer hiring processes and increased mistakes, which can be costly.
With talent acquisition, you can now have a more streamlined hiring process. This can make it easier to find top talent and hire more efficiently, which can help reduce hiring mistakes and make you more competitive in the market.