So you’ve got your background checking all automated with the help of Checkmate and now you’re wondering what to do with all this spare time? What about focusing on your strategic vision for talent acquisition?
In today’s fast-paced and often competitive job market, understanding and implementing a strategic vision for talent acquisition is key to helping you fill those empty positions with top-notch candidates and keep them filled. Candidates these days are looking for more than just a good salary and benefits; they want the full experience. Taking time to define your recruitment goals, the impact you want to make and what your candidate journey will look like from the moment they open that job ad to their first day sitting at their desk and beyond, is vital to building a successful, thriving and well-rounded workplace.
What is strategic talent acquisition?
Strategic talent acquisition is the step-by-step process for identifying, hiring and retaining candidates best suited for your business. It’s more than just the HR guidelines you follow to fill that vacant position, it’s about understanding and optimising your recruitment process to help you find people that align with your company’s goals and values.
It almost sounds the same as recruitment, but not quite. Recruitment is simply knowing what position is available and what skills a person needs to fill it; straightforward, to the point and highly focused on what needs to be done right now. Talent acquisition takes a step back and looks at that process with a much broader vision. It’s about understanding and crafting the strategies that will help you find that person and many like them in the future. It’s about knowing how you’re going to attract the candidates you want the most and keep them on board, without even considering what position they will actually fill.
Why is it so important?
The job market is always turbulent and changing. Candidates have more choices available than ever before and aren’t afraid to think twice before accepting an offer. To break through the noise, no matter what is happening in the market, you need to show candidates you’re about more than just filling empty seats, and that’s where the strategy comes in. It’s not just something you work on when a position opens up, it’s something you continue to develop and evolve even when you’re not actively recruiting.
Aside from helping bring in top talent, strategic talent acquisition comes with a host of other benefits. It can help you reduce your costs by ensuring you pick the perfect candidate the first time around, minimising turnover. It can help you stay productive and competitive by enabling you to attract top performers, keep them on board and even improve their abilities further with ongoing training and development. In today’s landscape, having and understanding your strategy for talent acquisition is essentially a must-have.
How do I get started?
First, you need to know where you’re at to understand where you want to go. Whether you’ve got a little bit of something in place or nothing at all, take a moment to audit the current state of your recruitment process. What is your turnover rate? How long does it typically take you to fill a position? How many applications do you usually receive? This is also a great opportunity to talk to your team and existing employees to get a wider view of how things currently sit and where changes can be made.
Next, figure out your SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound). We know your number one goal is to attract and retain talent, but by breaking things down with your SMART goals you can keep track of your progress and highlight areas that need improvement along the way. These goals will look different for everyone, but they all help achieve the same thing - building a solid strategic vision for your talent acquisition.
A third thing that is important to consider is how you’re going to fill in the gaps you notice either during your initial audit or along the way. Whether you’re employer branding is lacking, DEI could use improvement or your talent pooling and pipeline have seen better days, taking notice of these other issues and making the time to figure out how you’re going to fix them is just as important as working towards the primary target. If these other areas are lacking they can cause you to miss out on important candidates or lose the ones you worked so hard to bring on board, no matter how good the rest of your strategy is.
Make time for talent acquisition with Checkmate
It’s never too late to start working on your strategic vision for talent acquisition, and with all this free time on your hands thanks to Checkmate’s automated background screening software, there’s never been a better time to start.
Haven’t checked out Checkmate yet but interested in learning how we can help you simplify and improve your pre-employment screenings so you can start focusing more on your talent acquisition? Contact our team today to find out more about the difference our user-friendly software can make to your recruitment efforts.
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