Building the Talent Pipeline: Ideas for HR Recruiting and Talent Acquisition

Last Updated December 4, 2020

Increases in national employment rates have caused human resource departments to rethink how they recruit qualified job candidates and retain high-prized employees.

Finding ways to improve HR recruiting and talent acquisition is often critical to HR management roles. While recruiting methods constantly evolve, there are approaches to attracting and retaining talent that may work well in current HR environments as well as the foreseeable future.

This article looks at some approaches HR departments and professionals can use to help gain a competitive advantage in recruiting and talent acquisition.

Five Ways to Improve HR Recruiting

Recruiting looks at the short-term needs of an organization. HR recruiters work to fill immediate positions with the best possible job candidate. This is not an easy task in the 21st century.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) summed up the current situation succinctly: “Fewer applicants, more jobs force recruiters to get creative.” HR managers face a job landscape in which the job openings grow, and the number of qualified applicants shrink.

SHRM quoted the 2018 Recruiter Nation Survey from Jobvite, which found that 74% of the 800 recruiter respondents said that hiring will become more competitive in 2019.

How can HR departments meet those challenges? Here are few ideas outlined by SHRM.

Texting

Speeding up the process is key to successful recruiting. Today’s job applicants are used to texting with everyone. HR recruiters who text can reach applicants faster, especially if they are already working. While it may not completely replace email or phone calls, it may be especially useful for setting up meetings.

Flexibility

Finding the “perfect candidate” is no longer an option. HR departments must now find the best possible person, often in tight time frames and in a situation where the job candidate likely has other offers. Both HR recruiters and leaders in the department with the vacant position may want to consider relaxing their positions on issues such as:

• Years of experience
• Knowledge of specific systems
• Educational background

It may also be beneficial to give credit to such “non-traditional” educational areas as self-training, online education, certificate programs and experience.

Consider Non-Traditional Candidates

At the Indeed Interactive 2019 conference in Austin, Texas, HR recruiting professionals talked about the need to give more consideration to job candidates who do not fit the traditional mold.

This list includes those who have decided to transition from one industry to another, often by earning a certificate or degree in the new field. The conference featured speakers who had made that transition, including a man who worked on a car plant assembly line and now works as a registered nurse. Another speaker was a former college basketball coach who is now a mental health counselor.

Internal Promotion

Developing talent already on staff is such an important part of filling short-term openings that Deloitte dedicated an entire chapter to the subject in its 2019 Global Human Capital Trends report. The report notes that 45% of the organizations surveyed said employees do not have enough information on internal job openings. They also note that it does not need to be a perfect fit, but rather an opportunity for a talented worker to grow. It’s less costly to train a current employee than hire a new one.

Manage Your Reputation

It’s vital to ensure that any negative comments about your company online are addressed. Every potential employee will look at online job sites to determine whether your organization is one they want to work for or if they want to move on to other options. It’s important to not let negative comments impact your ability to attract talented workers.

Five Ways to Improve Talent Acquisition

While HR recruiting is focused on filling current vacancies, talent acquisition focuses on the long-term goal of having a talented staff. It’s a continuous process of searching for talented people to bring into the fold, regardless of whether there are any current job openings. This strategy acknowledges that having successful employees is key to organizational success.

Here are some strategies companies may consider employing in this area.

Recruitment Marketing

Some companies have gone as far as to hire people specifically to market the company for potential new hires, according to SHRM. They work to promote the workplace culture and values of a company to potential job candidates. This also involves online reputation management.

Networking

Because talent acquisition is an ongoing process, it’s important to go to the places where potential job candidates hang out, according to the LinkedIn Talent Blog. This includes social networks, conferences, events and online forums. HR professionals can network and build contacts over time, building up a pipeline of potential job candidates for their organization.

Get Everyone Involved

The more people involved with talent acquisition, the better the chance of finding large numbers of talented people. For example, it can pay off to create employer referral programs where employees get paid for bringing in a talented candidate. Department heads and executives should also be on the lookout for talent, as they typically have good ideas for what a company will need in the future.

Leverage Technology

The Deloitte report calls technology potentially the “most transformational” of all HR strategies. Artificial intelligence has made talent acquisition more scalable and effective, including software that can screen the resumes of potential applicants. Technology also can be used for video interviews, chatbots used in the application process and targeted online job advertising.

New Approaches

This dovetails into the nontraditional candidate issue. For HR professionals who work in talent acquisition, job networks offer ways for organizations to contact highly skilled professionals who are looking to return to the workforce and connect them with candidates they might otherwise never come across. Other networks offer ways for organizations to contract freelancers to complete task-oriented assignments.

These are some ideas to consider for improving HR recruiting and talent acquisition. It’s clear that building the talent pipeline is not only the goal of these endeavors, but also a necessity in a competitive environment.