a. Define competencies. Just over half of Laggard organizations indicate that they define job role competencies at the start of the hiring process, and they are, at least, 25% less likely than Best-in-Class (BIC) organizations to do so. Competencies are critical to communicating business needs to your recruiter and serve as a foundation for assessing talent. Defining the characteristics of top performers is a good first step in laying the foundation for talent acquisition success.
b. Ensure talent acquisition never stops. Nearly half of Laggards define their talent acquisition efforts as reactive, waiting for a requisition and then filling it. Laggards are over 30% more likely than BIC companies to operate reactively. But given the critical shortages of key skills, many fields are experiencing the highly competitive nature of the talent marketplace and hoping top talent will be there when you have an open requisition is not an optimal strategy. At least, for key roles, make hiring a more ongoing process.
c.Use assessments to filter. Companies need to improve both efficiency and effectiveness of hiring efforts. Assessments provide data to help with this, and are used by almost 60% of BIC companies for hiring. Aberdeen's previous research has shown proven increases in hiring manager satisfaction, time to performance and new hire engagement as a result of pre-hire assessment use. Efficient tools to ensure better talent fit make a real business impact.
2.Industry Average (IA) Steps to Success
a. Don't think talent acquisition is over on day one. Just as previous research has shown that effective onboarding starts before day one, a true talent acquisition lifecycle doesn't stop there. How a new employee interacts with the organization during the first days and weeks of employment has a huge impact on retention, engagement, and ultimately the return on hiring investment. Approximately, 60% of "IA" organizations have clear roles and accountability in place to ensure individuals have everything they need to hit the ground running, a number that jumps at least 20% among BIC organizations.
b. Build a talent acquisition culture. Research shows the importance of making talent acquisition an ongoing process, as opposed to a purely reactive one. To help make this a reality, top performing companies don't put this burden on HR or the staffing function alone - they adopt a culture where everyone sees it as their responsibility to find talent and introduce that talent to the organization. IA organizations are 29% less likely to adopt this as a top hiring strategy than BIC organizations.
c. Use tools to increase referrals. By far, employee referrals continue to be viewed as the top sources for new hires, and as noted above, making finding talent a piece of everyone's job is an important strategy. Providing tools to help individuals in this quest is also important.
3. Best-in-Class (BIC) Steps to Success
a. Build talent pools to fill critical roles. Competition for top performers and key skills is stiff, so knowing where to find it when you need it is the most important weapon organizations have in the war for talent. A majority of BIC organizations have identified the roles with the greatest impact on revenue and business outcomes and, at last count, were 44% more likely than all others to do so. This must continue, but organizations must also use that information to make sure they can build a pipeline and build relationships to draw upon when the time comes to fill those critical positions.
b. Continue to explore social and mobile recruiting. Innovative companies must have innovative recruiting solutions. Using social and mobile recruiting isn't about doing it for its own sake; it's about using all the options to find the right candidates. As more and more job seekers look to new platforms to connect with peers, colleagues and potential employers, hiring organizations have to be in the game. BIC organizations are over 25% more likely than all others to indicate the use of these tools, and many more plan to do so.
c. Integrate recruiting data into other talent processes. A lack of data integration is the number one barrier to identifying the source of hire for top performers, an issue that will prevent companies from effectively repeating past successes. Without the information to continue to link hiring to other talent and business metrics, companies will optimize their talent acquisition processes without necessarily optimizing their business outcomes.
Your talent acquisition planning and strategy framework should ensure business alignment, examine workforce plans, require an understanding of the labor markets and look at global considerations...and, of course, the selection of tools, technology and outsourcing partners should be another key element of your organization's TA strategy.
I know many of you want to jump into the recruiting phase first...most organizations do. I respectfully submit, that creating a talent acquisition strategy plan first will ensure that recruitment is done well. Having your priorities in the order that will drive the most value for your business is a proven agenda for success.
If you want to talk more about the elements in this article or need help refining your talent plan, JV Consulting is at your service. We are just an email or phone call away.
