3 Effective Tips to Augment Your Talent Acquisition Strategy in 2022

Finding the right people with the right skills at the right time for open positions at your company can be daunting.

Throw in workflow shifts occurring because of a pandemic of the scale never seen before, visibly low unemployment rates, and rapidly transforming candidate expectations; things only get more difficult for talent acquisition leaders.

“In my opinion, the greatest obstacle for recruiters is connecting with candidates through the noise of all the other 2,000 recruiters trying to reach out to the same candidates,” says Ambra Benjamin, Global Leadership Recruiting Leader at Facebook.

While there’s no “right” strategy for talent acquisition, there are a few industry-wide best practices that hiring managers and talent acquisition teams can integrate into their workflows to augment their talent acquisition strategy.

Keep reading to start working on your 2022 strategy.

1. Maximize Employee Referrals

One recent report published by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that a staggering 96% of organizations with 10,000 employees or more—and 80% of those with fewer than 100 workers—say employee referrals are their #1 source for finding new talent.

“Employee referrals have proven success,” says Amber Hyatt, VP of Product Marketing for SilkRoad.

“Employee referrals have excellent conversion rates from interview to hire, as well as typically longer tenure with the organization. Recruiting teams are very aware of the benefits of leveraging employee referral programs to cost-effectively recruit, speed the time to hire, and secure top talent to fill hard-to-fill positions,” Hyatt continues.

Even though a lot of evidence has consistently been mounting to show that employee referrals improve retention rates and quality-of-hire while lowering recruiting costs, this is one sourcing strategy that remains underutilized.

In one of his recent interviews, Tim Sackett, President of HRU Technical Resources, says, “I find most organizations spend the least amount of money marketing and automating their referral program than any other single source they have. Yet, it’s their No. 1 source and their No. 1 quality-of-hire source.”

Suppose you want your talent acquisition strategy to bear the results you have in mind. In that case, you need to think about how you can garner active participation from your employees and maximize referrals. Some of the ways to do that are:

• Make sure your referral scheme is easy to understand and the rules are transparent
• Show company-wide recognition to successful referrers
• Turn the process of referring into a team competition, giving the departments who get the most referrals a prize
• Try to figure out what type of rewards act as the best motivators for your employees and design your referral program around those

2. Have Measures in Place to Make Your Policies Stand Out to Gig Workers

Currently, the gig economy creates close to 56% employment in the US alone and is growing at 20%- 30%  annually.

The demand for freelancers has considerably increased, too, especially during COVID-19.

As this section of the workforce becomes more and more connected and aware, they’re starting to consider work opportunities that provide greater freedom in terms of work flexibility and pay parity. This can include anything from deciding their work timings per their productivity during the day to working from any remote location of their choice.

Talent acquisition leaders need to do away with conventional hiring methods and look for lasting avenues for attracting and retaining the right talent to meet gig workers where they are.

A January 2020 article goes on to explain how expectations are shifting dramatically among the US labor force: “Nearly half of US job seekers in high-demand industries like technology, energy, and banking say they’ve turned down an offer because of a bad recruiting experience.”

“Even if the recruiting process goes well, there are three key aspects candidates look for beyond salary, PwC found: opportunities to learn new skills, personal flexibility, and inclusion. In fact, respondents said they would be willing to give up 12% of their salary on average in exchange for greater flexibility and training.”

This challenge lies in identifying and incorporating factors within the hiring strategy that can attract these new-age workers. A few of these include:

• Creating opportunities that present challenging and meaningful work
• Trying to furnish a positive candidate experience
• Providing the option for qualified candidates to work remotely where possible, or at the very least, promoting a hybrid work culture

In addition to these, talent acquisition leaders should also think of ways to focus on building a strong employer brand, as working for socially responsible, well-reputed brands is a fast-catching trend among millennials.

3. Prioritize Diversity and Inclusion (D&I)

Additionally, according to hiring data in one recent survey conducted by Glassdoor, as many as 67% of job seekers consider workplace diversity critical when evaluating employment opportunities.  Close to 57% of employees think their company should be doing more to boost diversity.

As a forward-thinking talent acquisition leader, you must create an environment within your company where every employee is encouraged to draw upon their backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences to advance business goals.

Doing this will not only have a positive impact on your overall retention rates it will also help fill open positions quickly by attracting modern job seekers that value inclusive workplaces more than anything else.

Your diversity and inclusion strategy needs to be nurtured at every stage to remain relevant and practical with your company culture- from the moment you interview a potential employee for an open position to when you recruit and onboard them and place efforts toward retaining them.

In one article, SHRM highlights a few best practices HR leaders can follow to build a more diverse workforce. These include:

• Educate your leaders about what inclusivity truly means and what they can do to promote it
• Form an inclusion council that can advocate for inclusiveness in discussions with top executives when necessary
• Celebrate employee differences by arranging small events where everybody can come together often
• Listen to your employees by conducting regular town-hall-style meetings
• Hold more effective meetings by creating an inclusive mindset
• Communicate goals at frequent intervals and measure progress

Moving forward, HR leaders need to think about what areas of D&I their company is falling short on and make amends to improve continuously.

To know more about effective talent acquisition strategies that can help you attract top talent and build people-driven, result-oriented workplaces in the long run, get in touch with us today at Recruiter.com .

We will be happy to guide you through your most minor HR-related queries and help you make intelligent, data-driven hiring decisions throughout the process.

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