5 Reasons Your Talent Acquisition Strategy May be Old News...And How to Fix It

Right now, be willing to forget whatever you've been doing in your Talent Acquisition strategy over the past few years. Why? Because the game has changed. Everyone has the Help Wanted sign on the door, and nobody is knocking. Candidates and applicants hold the cards right now, not companies. "Oh well", you say - but your candidate just went to your competitor to produce dollars.

The unemployment rates in the US are at a historical low. Some of you may not have been hiring unemployed people anyway (or maybe you were), but whether you were targeting unemployed workers or not, the low rates are indicative of a strong job economy. This means that passive recruiting won't be as effective, and even the best TA programs may be suffering. There are so many reasons you may not be finding the people you need, and why your roles may be going unfilled - some are outlined below. But alas, there's a way to fix them.

Item 1: You are still treating Talent Acquisition like it's in Human Resources. That's great if your company has an HR structure that includes TA...it's better than nothing. But the fact is that most modern HR functions are reactive in nature, and particularly not suited for TA. What's that mean? HR specialties encompass employee relations, engagement, investigations, compliance and sometimes payroll and benefits. These are necessary functions in companies, no doubt - and have some amazing people working them. They are the glue holding the companies together. But these items are a far cry from the salesmanship of active talent acquisition and employment brand.

Solution: Identify a dedicated TA structure and team. Stop trying to double up functions like HR and TA on the same people. HR leaders may not understand the nature of TA...I've experienced it first hand in several places. There's simply not enough time to be good at both. This is no different than trying to make your HR person also your sales-person. TA is TA, HR is HR, Sales is Sales. Focus the functions and make them good at what they do.

Item 2: Your resources and processes are Steam Engines. There is so much noise and competition in the online space - if you are still posting jobs and relying on your employment brand alone, you are a needle in a haystack. Passive media and postings alone aren't going to cut it if you are trying to grow. Does your ATS lose people in mid-application? Have you checked lately? If your process is too long or asks for redundancies, you may have top talent who just made a judgement about your mis-use of technology, and decided to abandon their application because it took too long. And let's face it, all that work spent and no call back or interaction can feel like a slap in the face.

Solution: Re-evaluating proactive search items and resources, re-targeting on internet campaigns, targeted professional media items...etc are the way to go right now. Re-evaluate your own resources and see what's new. If you are still using what you used 5 years ago, you are now powered by a steam engine (obsolete). Assign people, internal or external (contingency?), to help you find your top talent. If you don't have someone assigned to this evaluation, do it now. Finally, aim for proactivity in your TA process. The more active (vs passive) resources you have seeking talent, the better. And go ahead and look at what your abandoned application rate is.

Item 3: You are making too many judgements based on application alone. People want to take the easy path in recruitment and hiring...we've all done it. Having a conversation with 30 people is time consuming. If you have a national level position, in a well-known company, you may get 200 candidates. What ends up happening is that people look for disqualifiers instead of potential. And then, if that person isn't a dedicated TA expert, the resume analysis can be even less calculated.

Solution: Set qualifiers, needs and wants for the jobs. Qualifiers are items that the person must have, i.e. electrical high-voltage experience...or a medical degree. Obviously, you can't be a surgeon if you haven't gone through the proper channels to be one. Needs and wants are things like years of experience or desirable traits like someone who can hold a job for more than 2 months. Based on those qualifiers, needs and wants, you can narrow down your top candidates...but call them quickly, before I do.

Item 4: Your qualifiers are ridiculous, and so are your job descriptions. Piggyback from item 3, you've made qualifiers out of things like "any bachelors degree" or 17 years of experience.... Unfortunately those aren't narrow enough qualifiers, and largely do nothing to serve any purpose. A person's completion of "any" bachelor's degree doesn't make them a more familiar worker the person with a random degree. An underwater basket weaving degree is about as useful as no degree at all. These types of nuances turn people away these days. You've just lost a very qualified applicant because they have 15 years of solid leadership and experience, but don't have a degree. Or, they have 2 relevant degrees but 14 years of experience. Assume that your audience may take you literally, and that they may be turned away by poorly managed requirements and requisition requests.

Solution: Use qualifiers for specifics, like tangible experiences. "Managing a $400k budget" or "Installation of 800 widgets in 2 days", "must be able to lift 50 lbs" or "has prepared detailed executive reports repeatedly". Don't get stuck making up descriptions with big words and complex phrases that sound professional, but really don't mean anything more than "communicate well" and cater to people who don't exist in the workforce. Don't overthink these.

Item 5: Your incentives aren't incentivizing. There are companies who share the belief that their name and reputation is good enough to get them by. And, in some cases they are right...but as generations in the workforce shift, it's more attractive to work somewhere with flexibility, perks and incentives instead of legacy names, products and big sales. We now fund our own retirements (401k), loyalty is hard to come by when the economy dips, and workers are able to accomplish 2x the productivity than their parents did, from the comfort of their couches. If you are still hoping that minimal wages, awards, more hours and poor-cultured managers to move the needle, don't hold your breath.

Solution: Evaluate productivity studies of the flexible work schedule, flexible off days, benefit perks and stock options. Yes, people like money, but they also want to be able to enjoy it. They want to be able to enjoy their workplace too. Gone are the days of suffering through your career to just get by. People have tons of options these days and will find the positions that allow them to have an actual work/life balance. Consider training your managers on culture, leadership 101, and conducting 360 interviews to evaluate their performances. Not many things harm your talent growth than negative internet reviews...and people will leave negative reviews for the world to see.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on these topics. Please drop a comment and tell me what you think.

Matt