While many industries face labor shortages and an unending need for qualified employees, understanding the difference between talent acquisition and recruitment is essential. As we work with organizations on this critical piece of their operations, too often we find that many pieces of a comprehensive talent acquisition strategy are missing. The title “Talent Acquisition vs. Recruitment” makes it sound like a boxing match between two heavyweight champions. In our work, talent acquisition represents a strategy (albeit, too often an incomplete strategy), where recruitment is often just a task.
If your organization is struggling with filling vacant positions, consider whether you have a strategic or task orientation. In our consulting practice, we help organizations establish and implement a talent acquisition strategy. That strategy is built on 5 pillars:
(1) Active Recruitment: The recruitment of individuals who are actively looking for a job. Oftentimes, this is accomplished through a variety of recruitment advertisements. Active recruitment is easy but is often poorly executed and many times fails to result in quality hires. The process needs to be efficient, purposeful, and, most importantly, reflect that hiring is a two-party process – the organization identifying a talented individual and job seekers identifying an organization that aligns with their career objectives.
An organization can easily and inexpensively post a job on websites like Indeed.com or Ziprecruiter.com. Depending on the type of position, that effort might generate hundreds of candidates or just a couple of candidates. Regardless of the number, organizations need to have an effective process for assessing candidates. Too often, that assessment is too heavily reliant on a resume. Resumes are summaries of work experience but do not tell you the entire story. As we work with hiring managers who are struggling with hiring, they often place too much value on the resume. Some examples of these errors include:
- Assuming the home address is correct – Job boards are designed to be user-friendly to the job seeker. As such, some of their “application” processes could be as simple as clicking a single button. Too many job seekers fail to recognize that by clicking the button, the job board is sharing a stored resume that may be months or even years old. Drawing a definitive conclusion about the candidate’s location based on a job board resume is a recipe for missing great, qualified candidates. Contact every candidate that appears to have relevant experience to the job you are hiring for. Many times, you will find that a “non-local” candidate lives down the street or has just moved to the area.
- Overvaluing dates of employment – Nearly every resume or job application contains the dates of employment. This lone data point leads countless hiring managers to err in choosing which applicants to call. While dates of employment might suggest certain attributes such as loyalty, commitment, or even quality of work, assuming fault in a candidate because of brevity in employment can lead to bad hiring decisions. Overvaluing tenure will inevitably lead to missing out on a hard-working military spouse who moved frequently, a loyal employee who stayed with a company through three sales and name changes, or a skilled associate who has been recruited by entrepreneurial organizations that sold, moved out of the area or closed due to economic challenges.
- Ascribing worth to a job title – Doesn’t it seem like everyone who works in banking is a Vice President? Hiring managers who ascribe worth to a job title can miss out on great applicants. This err can work in both directions. Imagine you are hiring for a General Manager type of position. One of your applicants is currently employed as an Assistant Vice President of Operations. Prescribing worth to this job title could lead a hiring manager to incorrectly conclude that the applicant is overqualified, makes more money, or would be taking a step backward for the General Manager job. Ascribing worth to a job title can also work the other way. This time, the hiring manager is looking for a Human Resources Manager for a company of 500 employees. One of the applicants for the position has been a Human Resources Manager for Clear Your Drain plumbing for the past 5 years. If the hiring manager assumes qualification based on job title alone, (s)he may be missing the reality that Clear Your Drain plumbing has just 5 employees. As such, while the job titles are the same, the scope of the position is clearly different.
(2) Passive Recruitment: The recruitment of individuals who are not actively looking for a new job, but are open to new opportunities. My first boss in Human Resources always told me that the best hires are those who are willing to leave their job for your job. Passive recruitment efforts are more difficult and time-consuming; as such, many organizations neglect this important pillar of finding top talent. In this area, a quality outside recruitment resource could prove to be a valuable resource.
Without a doubt, passive recruitment is commonplace for higher-level management and executive positions. However, passive recruitment can be effective in nearly every industry and for nearly every level of position. If you are looking for a cook, talk to the cooks working the live cooking stations at the local buffet restaurant. If you need a great administrative professional, network with the folks at your doctor’s office, at your government offices, or at the cafeteria in your office building where everyone who works in the building grabs a coffee or a snack. Regardless of the level, passive recruitment is about listening to what a better opportunity might be and demonstrating how your position fills those wants.
(3) Networking: The personal and professional network of a hiring manager is a proven source of top talent. However, in far too many industries, hiring managers are not well-networked with individuals who could fill vacant positions on their teams. If the hiring manager’s network is weak, tap into the network of your employees through an effective referral program. Likewise, outside recruiting resources are an investment into their respective personal and professional networks, which are often vast.
(4) Retention: Often neglected as a “talent acquisition” strategy, retention is foundational; after all, the goal of talent acquisition is to fill positions. As such, when organizations focus on retention, the goal of a talent acquisition strategy is fulfilled. Retention takes on many forms. In our practice, we help organizations with retention strategies including leadership development, compensation planning, benefits design, succession planning, and employee engagement/culture.
The top 5 reasons for employee dissatisfaction and turnover all relate to the manager or supervisor. Developing and enhancing the skills of the leaders in your organization is the most important investment you can make in enhancing employee retention, growing employee satisfaction and engagement, and improving the financial performance of your organization. While rarely mentioned today, the old adage still holds true…the economic cost of losing an employee is a multiple of his/her salary. In other words, if you lose a $40,000/year employee, that turnover can have an adverse financial impact of over $100,000.
(5) Reputation: In defining “talent acquisition vs. recruitment”, this pillar best exemplifies the difference between strategy and process. Marketing Departments have large budgets to build the brand of the company. How much do organizations invest in their brand to job seekers? When the employment application takes two hours to complete, that establishes a reputation. When hiring managers arrive to interviews 30 minutes late or don’t follow up with candidates after an interview, that forms a reputation. When an organization puts candidates through a dozen interviews, a reputation is formed. When organizations have low employee rankings on surveys and websites, this impacts their reputation. Your talent acquisition strategy should be focused on a reputation that facilitates the attraction, identification, and selection of top talent.
In the battle of talent acquisition vs. recruitment, the champion is a well-formed talent acquisition strategy. As older generations of workers exit the workforce, gig jobs increase in popularity, and as non-traditional work opportunities (i.e. running a YouTube channel or grocery shopping for people) grow, filling vacant positions will continue to be a challenge. Put your organization ahead of everyone else by developing and implementing a thorough talent acquisition strategy.