If we could view the last 3 years of a candidate joining an organisation, it would go like this;
- The year 2020 was a life-changing experience as far as the workforce in an organisation is concerned. It was a year of adapting to new environment.
- The year 2021 was when organisations adopted innovative strategies to adapt and get back on their feet, having been familiar with the environment.
- This year 2022, every organisation is expected to have fully recovered their footing and get going again.
The face of the talent landscape has changed drastically, and as a result, organisations must change their talent acquisition Model as well. Some of the noticeable changes include;
- The pandemic opened the eyes of candidates/talent. They now understand that there are better and more comfortable ways to work, that is, work flexibility and remote working. They now prefer to apply to organisations that will grant them these work benefits.
- Staff retrenchment was also an issue during the pandemic, as many organisations could not afford to pay their staff due to low revenue in that period. It has made many talent turn to freelance roles, as it guarantees a higher level of job security.
- The baby boomer generation are retiring, meaning that there is a skill and experience gap in management and executive roles.
- Now more than ever, candidates are willing to ignore any organisation that they believe does not have a clear growth plan for their employees, no matter how attractive the renumeration is.
This has certainly posed a challenge for organisations. However, as is expected for any growth-oriented organisation, they are expected to see this as another opportunity to show how they are faster than their peers when it comes to adapting to change.
Here are some talent acquisition strategies organisations can adopt to stay ahead in the Talent Acquisition market.
Recommended Post: How to Use Assessment at Every Stage of the Employee Life Cycle
6 Talent Acquisition Strategies to Help You Win in 2022
1. Re-evaluate your definition of a right-fit talent
It is already established that the business landscape has changed. As a result, the criteria for evaluating right-fit talent must also change.
This means that organisations should re-evaluate how they define talent, starting from how they develop success profiles in their recruitment strategy, with focus on which skills, attributes, knowledge and experiences are required for a candidate to thrive in their role and within the company, now and in the future.
When this happens, the organisations will have access to a pool of more talent who have the right skills and attributes, given the current situation of the organisation.
2. Redefine your brand identity
To give your organisation an advantage in talent acquisition and retention, you must redefine your brand identity, and the brand experience.
Your job should be to get acquainted with the brand, highlight and promote its values, mission, and vision, and create a convincing and compelling narrative that will inspire the most talented job-seekers to accept that first interview and hopefully fall in love with the brand.
The goal here is to clearly position your company as a great place to work. This can be accomplished using a customised career section, employee testimonials, and profiles, an active social media page that provides insights into what it’s like to work in your organisation, among other ideas that comes to your mind that can help you elevate your brand.
3. Adopt a people-centric approach to hiring
“75% of candidates said they would not accept a job offer if they had a bad experience during the interview process” (Korn Ferry survey).
The key to securing talent in 2022 and beyond is to create better experiences for everyone involved in the hiring process – from candidates to hiring managers. To develop a strong people-first approach to hiring you must design every stage of the candidate journey with candidate experience in mind.
To ensure speed in your hiring process, you should evaluate the recruitment process and determine which part can be streamlined. In addition, your recruitment strategy must provide a level playing field for all the candidates such that no one has an undue advantage over others.
4. Focus on talent retention
Talent retention is just as important as talent acquisition. Organisations should start taking steps to ensure that they improve work experience for all their employees.
This includes helping them draw up a clear growth plan that will help them improve and also take up leadership positions in the organisation. Managers should also see the need to improve work relationships with their employees so that they will be encouraged to stay and keep helping the organisation grow.
There should be a renewed focus on employee engagement to increase retention and loyalty. A strong work culture will be determined by ensuring all employees feel seen and heard by their colleagues and managers, and not necessarily about how fun it is to work in the organisation. Organisations with the strongest of values and a plan to invest in employees will succeed in the competitive market.
5. Introduce artificial intelligence and automation in your talent acquisition process
With the help of AI and Automation, organisations can use more tools to access more of the available market. Using AI tools to source, screen, schedule, and chat with candidates during the hiring process allows hiring managers to draw in a larger candidate pool for the organisation to choose from.
6. Practise workplace diversity
If you have been sceptical about the importance of diversity in the workplace in the past, 2022 is the year to take it seriously. Organisations must be conscious of the demography that makes up their workplace, as they remain under the spotlight of the world.
To show that diversity isn’t just a “woke” word, McKinsey’s Diversity Wins report shows that companies in the upper quartile for ethnic and cultural diversity on executive teams were 33% more likely to have industry-leading profitability. And companies in the upper quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 21% more likely to outperform on profitability and 27% more likely to have superior value creation.
The war for talent is fierce and will continue to be. Therefore, you cannot be left behind as an organisation, as winning the war for talent is very vital to your growth. If you are looking for an expert that could help you ensure that you win in the talent market, kindly schedule a free consultation here and we will be in touch with you.
