The difference between Recruitment & Talent Acquisition?
Afsal Mathottam
Talent Acquisition Partner | Engineering, Assets & Facilities Management
The terms “Talent Acquisition” and “Recruitment” are often confused as the same thing, but in reality, this is not the case. The companies who keep an eye on the big picture know there’s an important difference between the two. Recruitment and talent acquisition are comparable to short-term and long-term—quick fixes versus long-term planning. Both approaches may be used depending on different circumstances.
Recruitment: The process that involves searching for a specific candidate to fill a specific position. Recruitment is reactive: a position is vacated or created, and a new person must be found to fill it. The core function of recruiting is to find candidates for existing vacancies that are currently available.
Talent Acquisition: Talent acquisition is all about the long game of your company. It is a cyclical approach towards building relationships and anticipating future hiring needs to find specialists, leaders or future executives for your company. Talent acquisition tends to focus on long-term human resources planning and finding the most appropriate candidates for positions that require a very specific skillset.
The differences?
- Recruitment is only about filling immediate vacancies whereas Talent Acquisition is a strategical approach to hire people for a long term position
- Recruitment is a subset of Talent Acquisition. Rather than rigorous screening, interviewing and hiring TA also works closely with Marketing & PR to create an effective corporate messaging around hiring and talent development.
- Talent Acquisition approach curbs the employee turnover rate.
- Recruitment is a Reactive approach whereas Talent Acquisition is Proactive.
When should you recruit?
To close vacancies as early as possible. For eg. When you have a target date to deploy a certain number of employees to your organization. When you recruit, you are likely to already know quite clearly what and whom you are looking for. A recruitment process raises the question of “ Can this person perform the job that we want him to?”
When do you need Talent Acquisition?
- When you are looking for growth: When the company looking for new ideas & skills to take them to the next level
- When you arent sure what you need: In Talent Acquisition, you source people and let them do their own best work rather than to tie them into a set of routine tasks, to be performed in a specific way.
- When people don't know you yet: If this is the case, employer branding becomes an important part of your Talent Acquisition strategy.
Logistics Executive @ noon | Job Skills: Supply Chain and Operations
4 年A good talent acquisition team at least they are replying to messages????
HR Professional | AON Certified Performance Management Ready Professional |Trainer in Sales, Soft Skills & Personality Development I Rich HR Generalist experience in Mfg/Retail I YouTuber
4 年Afsal Mathottam Insightful post !! ????????
Talent Acquisition Specialist | Head Hunter | Expert Talent Sourcer | Senior Recruitment Specialist | Corporate & Technical Recruiter| Emiratization | "Connecting Top Talent with Opportunities"
4 年Excellent post . Will be helpful to many ??????
Accounts Professional
4 年Thanks for explaining it well. Few job seekers are aware of it. Your article will definitely be helpful
Thanks Afsal!? I really liked the practical distinction made between the traditional recruitment method against the contemporary resourcing approach to talent acquisition.? Yes, much of it has to do HR planning. Specifically, looking into areas such as environmental scanning of employment markets (loose vs tight), considering flexible staffing measures (having a contingent workforce is receiving much more attention when companies are being pressed for resources), and forecasting internal (promotions, internal transfers) and external (market niches with rare disciplines e.g. mining engineers) talent supplies.? In addition, it includes targeting talent from a broader perspective, by maintaining equal employment opportunities, through promoting cultural diversity and inclusion measures. The latter however is sometimes criticized for meeting only minority hiring quotas (e.g. people of determination, or nationalization agendas). Last but not least, it involves advancing recruitment practices (e.g. style and wording of ads and how it impacts the attraction of different genders), whilst at the same time, improving selection methodologies (e.g. assessment centers, personality tests) to ensure the hiring needs (knowledge, skills, abilities) of current vacancies are met for not only present positional requirements but future competencies of the role are made readily available with stringent Talent Acquisition standards.? The future belongs to companies who stick to those practices. They are bestowed with a competitive advantage that is difficult to imitate, giving them the necessary edge to remain competitive, and stay sustainable over longer term. Hence, what they call an "Agile Organization", that has a capable workforce that are able to adapt to market changes and respond innovatively.?