talent acquisition employees

Tips and Tricks

7 Excellent Tactics to Adopt in Talent Acquisition and 3 Flawed Ones To Avoid

February 2, 2022

Tima Rassool

Tima Rassool

Content Writer

In the race to find the best and brightest candidates, companies tend to invest a whole lot of time and resources in finding and hiring top talent.

But the truth is, without adopting the right set of talent acquisition tactics, even the best efforts will fall flat. Regardless of how big or small your company is. After all, you can’t keep using the same tactics to address your talent acquisition challenges and expect a different outcome.

So where do we go from here?

Here’s the thing: we can either hash out some old tactics that used to work a couple of years back. Or, we can have an honest conversation about what talent acquisition tactics will actually work in 2022 – and what won’t.

With that being said, let’s dig into the good stuff!

7 talent acquisition tactics making a difference

Identifying your needs prior to posting jobs

talent acquisition team in a meeting

If you’re pushing hard to hire top talent, you might find yourself immersed too deep in the talent acquisition process. This means, you might be neglecting other important aspects, such as focusing on your current vs. long-term needs.

If all you’re focusing on is rushing to fill seats, then we urge you to pause before hurrying to press the “Publish” button.

Instead, take a good, long moment to discuss a few things with your talent acquisition team. Such as pinpointing skills gaps, crafting what you need in the role and building a long-term development plan for the new employee. Once you do these with your team, you’ll make sure that your job descriptions are on point, everyone is in the loop, and hiring needs are being met.

Doubling down on recruitment marketing

talent acquisition team working on recruitment marketing

If you’re striving to inform top talent about your vacancies, warm up their interest, excite them to accept offers, and help them picture your company as their next employer – then it’s time to double down on recruitment marketing.

Simply put, recruitment marketing can help you showcase your employer brand and boost brand awareness.

First things first, create a candidate persona. Map out the goals, values, and characteristics that a person in this role should have to succeed.

Then, start by identifying the interests of the candidate persona. Perhaps it’s a comfortable office, a promising career path, the latest technologies, or just a friendly work environment.

Next up, begin creating informative content by taking all of the above into consideration. Then, it’s showtime. Start publishing and sharing this informative content on blogs, social media, interviews, interviews, collaborations, news, and emails.

Putting together a hard-to-refuse compensation package

talent acquisition employee

2022 is going to be one of the most challenging years for employers in all industries. From fast-food restaurants to tech giants, there’s a large imbalance between job vacancies and the number of candidates willing to apply to them. So what does this leave them with? Extra pressure to increase salaries or put together a hard-to-refuse compensation package. This isn’t only done to attract more candidates, but also to improve the company’s employee value proposition.

Useful things you can do include: upgrading parental leaves, offering better insurance plans, granting the ability to work remotely, and giving more schedule flexibility.

Hiring talent earlier than you need to

talent acquisition team

Many employers make candidates wait for weeks – if not months – when they apply for jobs. The truth is, hiring has taken longer than many companies would like. Whether it’s because they’re being super selective or the application process is as complex as a jigsaw puzzle – it seems to be as if time isn’t in their favor when it comes to talent acquisition.

With the truth being out, why not separate yourself from the pack and start hiring before the need becomes urgent? Our pro tip is to collaborate with the talent acquisition team and department heads early on, to discuss and agree on future headcount needs. And most importantly, treat your talent pipeline like a supply chain. How?

Begin to source candidates creatively, monitor your team, watch out for internal candidates and train them well when needed!

Strengthening referral recruiting

recruiter using a hiring platform

Sourcing costs can be heavy. Especially for talent acquisition teams that have got to be budget-conscious. But the great news is; a top-notch referral program won’t slay your budget. In fact, it’s pretty much an invaluable talent acquisition tactic.

Bear in mind that employees are a company’s biggest asset. And people tend to trust them more when it comes to sharing information on what it’s like to work at the company.

Referral recruiting is extremely beneficial for hard-to-fill or challenging roles. Roles where you can’t make a whimsical decision based on a gut feeling. All too often, candidates that are referred to by employees tend to be qualified and the right cultural fit. Simply because employees are familiar with the company and know the type of employees that are needed. Also, referred employees tend to feel responsible for their referees. Which means, they’ll most likely stay in the company longer.

Designing jobs that candidates actually want

a group of happy candidates

We’ve talked time and time again about the importance of revamping your job descriptions. But the truth is, no matter how much you rewrite, fine-tune, and polish your job descriptions, it’s still relatively hard to incentivize candidates to apply to an undesirable job. If they don’t like it, they don’t like it. Period.

Before Covid19, it wasn’t hard to find candidates. But today, with the surplus of jobs in the market, it’s a challenge to entice candidates to apply.

So what can we do in this case? It’s simple. Create better jobs for candidates. Jobs that they actually want – and above all, jobs that pay more.

Now we’re not saying you should jumble four jobs into one role and call it a “new job”. We’re saying employers should match the role with the market-rate pay. And remember, be fair. There’s no need to have candidates fall into the trap of a misleading and illogical job description and title.

Dip into a wider pool of talent

recruiter working on a hiring platform

People say, if you want something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done. The same thing applies to talent acquisition. If you’re following the same talent acquisition tactics and they’re not getting you where you need to be, then it’s time for a change.

Think of it this way, if you base your new vacancies on old job templates, chances are you won’t attract the right candidates for the job. The same thing applies to posting jobs on your career page and sitting back hoping candidates will apply on their own.

Now, these aren’t entirely bad approaches, but they’re definitely limiting your reach and talent pool size.

So take your talent acquisition tactic up a notch. Think about your ideal candidate, where they hang out (job boards, forums, etc.) and what you’re up against in the market.

Promote your jobs on a wide assortment of jobs boards, channels, and social media platforms. Expand your reach and start dipping into a wider talent pool.

And 3 tactics that don’t work

Signing bonuses

a candidate signing bonuses

If you’re not familiar with what this is, signing bonuses is when employers offer new employees upfront payments. It could range anywhere between 5% to 25% of the employee’s annual salary (Depending on the job and industry).

While candidates and employees may love this, here are a couple of reasons as to why this isn’t a great idea.

For one, there’s the obvious reason: employees who cash and dash. And by that, we mean those who receive the signed bonus and quit straight after!

And remember, top talent know they’re sought after. So even if they take your very tempting sign-on bonus, if your position doesn’t fit what they’re expecting, they won’t hesitate to leave for another opportunity.

Using salary as your hook

a talent acquisition specialist working on a laptop

Other than trying to hook candidates with a tempting sign-on bonus, don’t make the mistake of trying too hard to hook them with the salary either. Bear in mind, that when employers dangle the dollar as bait, candidates begin to form unrealistic expectations. Especially since it may illustrate that your company sees them as tools, rather than people. Also, when you plant your focus on luring in candidates with the salary number upfront, it may reel in candidates who are completely unfit for the job, such as those that will do the bare minimum just to get by. Above all, it may elicit the sense that your company is trying to cover up a broken talent acquisition process or cover up a toxic work environment.

So instead, try to hook candidates with your perks and benefits, company culture, work environment and career growth as well!

Overly doing it with job descriptions

a male talent acquisition professional

Writing an essay of expectations, overly used jargon, unrealistic job requirements – there are many job descriptions out there that are extremely exaggerated in every sense. Many companies make the mistake of adding too much personality to the job descriptions without making the right changes to the role, benefits, and the position’s impact. Which won’t exactly boost your talent acquisition efforts. Especially since you’re not practicing what you’re preaching.

So if you want to make your descriptions more fun, honest, and engaging, by all means, do so. But don’t ploy to make your company sound cooler or bigger than it is.

Instead, make sure your descriptions are the perfect balance between authentic, relevant, accurate, and straight-to-the-point. Maybe even drop a great video showcasing your company culture, and let that do the talking.

Over to you

If there’s one thing we know for certain: it’s that the world we live in today is light years away from how it used to be 2 years ago in terms of talent acquisition. So, if companies want to stand any chance of finding, attracting, and hiring candidates, they’ll need to throw out all their old talent acquisition tactics, and invigorate their approach with fresh and powerful new ones.

A great place to start is by fostering the 7 tactics that we shared with you today, and ditching the 3 that are flawed (and won’t always work).

And remember, the future of talent acquisition won’t be something that happens to you — it’ll be something that you will help create!

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Author

Tima Rassool

Tima Rassool

A wordsmith, storyteller, and content strategist – Tima is an MBA graduate with 6+ years of experience in the world of HR. With over 2,000 blogs under her belt, Tima's expertise and insights have helped businesses across the globe take their recruitment to the next level and stay ahead of the curve.

Turn top talent to employees fast

Hire, assess, onboard and manage top talent for every job. See how Elevatus streamlines everything; from acquire to new hire.

Request a demo