What is talent acquisition?
Talent acquisition refers to the HR functions necessary to source, attract, process, screen, qualify and hire talent. They include:
- Developing a hiring plan
- Developing an elegant candidate acquisition program
- Writing job descriptions
- Posting jobs to job boards, careers pages, and social media accounts
- Tracking hiring metrics
- Receiving and tracking applications and resumes
- Developing screening questionnaires, candidate scorecards and interview scripts
- Scheduling and conducting interviews
- Performing background and reference checks
- Writing offer letters
- Employment contract negotiation
- Creating employee referral programs
- Finding the best candidates who may not even be looking
Talent Acquisition Management
The task of talent acquisition varies depending on the size of a company. In small businesses, owners may handle all recruiting tasks themselves. In larger organizations, Human Resources departments and hiring managers perform much of the recruiting work. At the enterprise level, companies may outsource recruiting to staffing agencies or professional recruiters (sometimes called headhunters).
How does a talent acquisition specialist fill an open job?
Here is the general process a talent acquisition specialist or hiring manager would follow:
- Submit a job requisition to appropriate members of leadership and obtain approval
- Perform a job analysis to identify the knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics required for a position.
- Decide whether to fill the new position with an outside candidate or through internal placement.
- Write a job description based on the position analysis
- Create the application including any screening questionnaires included in the application process
- Post the job to job boards, social media sites, careers pages or other job advertising venues
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- Seek referrals from current employees
- Review applications and resumes for qualifications and experience
- Select a pool of top candidates from the overall applicant pool
- Manage the interview and evaluation process:
- Select the candidates from the initial pool who will advance to a phone interview
- Of those candidates, choose which candidates to invite for in-person or video interviews
- Schedule interviews
- Conduct interviews
- Gather feedback from the hiring team
- Select the candidates from the initial pool who will advance to a phone interview
- Make the final hiring decision
- Obtain approval from the executive team (or other necessary stakeholders)
- Conduct background and reference checks
- Extend an offer letter
- Negotiate the employment contract
See also
Additional resources
- Talent Acquisition: A Guide to Understanding and Managing the Recruitment Process, SHRM
- How to Hire Your Next Employee; The Ultimate Guide
- How to Find Employees: 4 Talent Acquisition Techniques to Embrace
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