Your business will fail if you dont get the right talent in...So who will the winners be?

I love this time of year, the buzz of Christmas, the mood of people, the humm of big cities and the sounds of celebrations, but also its the one time of year that people really do switch off for a few days and recharge the batteries, yes you can have holidays during the year but, this is the only time of year when everyone is off, and the inbox isn’t increasing from where you left it

What this means is that you can fully charge into the new year, full of energy, passion, enthusiasm and a conviction to achieve and I thought it would be a good idea to share and focus on where I think the Talent Acquisition space is and what the coming years look like. It's always dangerous making predictions, but let's crack on

Project RPO is THE talent acquisition model: These days it's all about putting the customer at the heart of everything. Make it easier, better, more efficient for Party A to achieve what they want.

Well, as far as I can see Project RPO is the only model that puts the customer at the heart of the offering.

Let's have a look at the trends and why I believe this model is of its time and one that will displace long term RPO and compliment internal TA functions

(i) It provides scaled recruitment that can be turned up or down based on the customers needs. It can be deployed quickly - guerrilla recruitment is here!?No multi-year commitments, come on no decent CFO is signing off a 5 year RPO deal in this environment, not when you can have the same outcome for less Risk

(ii) Specialist Community builders are now the order of the day: You can't just have generalist recruiters filling specialist needs, now you need specialist TA teams to build talent communities, proactively reach out and provide a scaled solution in order to take market share. Having 4-5 TAs in a team is all well and good, until your growth targets rely on you growing headcount at a more aggressive level

(iii) Tech reach: How do you know if your recruiters, or your TAs, or your RPO are the best in breed? What data underpins your assumptions? Even more, do you own your own Data? These days the market is so competitive, unless your internal team or RPO or recruitment partners have their own software tools….they are getting beaten to the punch

(iv) People: Recruitment is a tough gig, it's hard to scale, it's hard to keep people engaged, it's hard to be part of a company that is going to look after your needs. Your partner has to be growing at a quicker rate then they lose people…if they aren't, then that hurts you. Right now Talent acquisition is the most in demand job on linked in, if you can't get the people….you aren't going to get the people.?Checking the hiring and attrition rates of your chosen partner should be a key part of your pre-contract due diligence.

To get market share, true scaleups and enterprise businesses will look for an edge with talent partners that put their needs first and create a business solution that works around the customer. Those talent partners have to have scale, have to be able to deploy rapidly,

So what does 2022 look like?

●????Traditional RPO players will continue to have their lunch eaten by agile movers in the space that put the client needs first

●????Project RPO providers will continue to grow and take market share

●????Internal talent teams will continue to grow as customers fight for the best talent, but smart companies will hedge their growth with a blend of direct hires and agile vendor support to minimise fixed central costs and maximise flexibility

●????Talent acquisition roles will continue to be in demand, but candidates will get pickier about who they join

●????Chief People Officers, Talent Acquisition Directors and Heads of HR will start to join the strategic boards of companies

●????Recruiters will have to be specialists in the talent communities that their companies need to engage and serve, recruiters who are generalist will struggle to compete

●????Scale and agility matter when it comes to rapid deployment and reach, you've got to be able to address your customers problems wherever they are, and whenever they need your support

●????If you aren't investing in your people, you are going to get beaten, this investment means more training and more opportunities and constantly upskilling your team

●????Leadership matters, authentic leadership matters more than ever, people want to work for people they like, trust and admire.

●????Autonomy, Belonging and offering people a job where they are stretched are keys to building world class culture and building a world class culture allows you to build a world class business in order to give your customers a brilliant service

One thing is for sure, the battle for talent is raging, and the smartest businesses are using different solutions to win the battle.