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2024 Talent Acquisition Tactics: 10 Strategies to Consider

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Posted by: David Garcia October 08, 2021

Companies today are navigating a completely new playing field when it comes to finding job talent. The talent acquisition process we once relied on to find the best employees is obsolete, and new talent acquisition tactics like automated skills tests and enhanced employer branding are becoming the norm.

If it’s time for your business to hire someone new, you need to utilize the latest and greatest talent acquisition tactics. That way, you can secure the best talent out there before the competition does.

From improving your employer brand to automating your recruiting efforts, here are all of the top talent acquisition strategies of 2024 that your company should use to hire the best talent out there.

1. Start With Good Employer Branding

The very first step of your business recruiting and talent acquisition process should not be posting your job opening; it should be assessing your employer branding.

Whether your company realizes it or not, your employer brand impacts your talent acquisition process every day. So, what is it saying about you?

If you want to attract top talent, you need to make it clear that your organization is a great place to work. Think of it as an integral part of your marketing strategy. A great way to incorporate this into a talent acquisition tactic would be to post videos of your employees sharing why they love to work there.

2. Utilize Referrals

According to a 2016 benchmark survey, both large enterprises and small businesses say that employee referrals are their number one source for new talent leads.

So, since we know that these employee referrals lead to top talent acquisition, why aren’t more companies offering more for their incentives? A $100, $500, or even $1000 bonus from human resources is not enough. There are other organizations out there offering $20,000 as an incentive, so those smaller figures just can’t compete.

When you offer your employees a big enough incentive, they’ll be more inclined to refer to candidates that would best fit the culture of the workplace as well as the job role itself.

3. Prepare to Meet (Or Exceed) Market Pay

Another key to top talent acquisition is being prepared as an organization to offer competitive market pay to your candidates. You should be able to match what other companies are offering their candidates or more.

In the 2024 business landscape, offering a great company culture and work perks is not enough. The power is with the candidates and employees, not necessarily the employer, and what they want is good compensation. So, if you want good employees, you’ll need to pay for the talent acquisition.

To find out what you should be offering for the role, you can check out job boards online and analyze the data you found to create a competitive compensation package for your talent acquisition.

4. Consider Contractors

If you feel stuck in your talent acquisition strategy and you feel like you’re not finding the candidates you’re looking for, you should consider hiring contractors instead.

They won’t technically be company employees – they’ll work for themselves, with you as a contracted client. But because they aren’t officially on staff, you won’t necessarily be responsible for paying for things like their vacation time, healthcare benefits, etc. Your hiring managers also won’t have to spend as much time on talent management since they are usually pretty independent and self-sufficient.

According to LinkedIn, data shows that contractors are 2.1 times more likely to view a job post on LinkedIn than the average member, so you likely already have plenty of interested contractors on the horizon. Why not consider them as candidates within your talent acquisition process?

Your business recruiter should start considering these unique professionals in your talent acquisition strategy to take advantage of the flexibility and talent they bring to the table.

5. Integrate ATS

Integrating automation Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) can be helpful in the talent recruiting process because it reduces the tedious, time-consuming tasks that consume the majority of the time and energy required to find the right talent.

Recruiting process automation can improve several aspects, like using data for targeted ads, filtering resumes, scoring and nurturing qualified candidates throughout the hiring process.

An ATS automatically analyzes all of your applicant’s data to filter out and prioritize your potential hires based on things like candidate experience and skills. An ATS can also handle the initial stages of your company’s talent acquisition strategy by testing candidates in certain areas and only passing them through to the next round if the data shows that they are successful.

Then, you take over the talent acquisition process after that.

6. Keep Applicants Nurtured

As mentioned previously, an ATS can also handle candidate nurturing, an important part of your talent acquisition strategy called talent management that can ensure your potential candidates remain interested in the job and engaged throughout the talent acquisition process.

Think of nurturing within the recruiting process the same way you think about marketing email sequences and customer management. Just as a business sends out a sequence of emails for customers who abandon their carts, you can send specific emails to your list of talent to prevent them from dropping off before you can hire them.

Your company can utilize this talent management strategy to prevent drop-off, limiting your talent acquisition pool and leading to less than ideal hires.

7. Be Open to Remote Employees

With data showing that many companies are shifting to a remote business model, it’s time to get on board and start considering remote candidates when looking for top talent.

Removing geographic restrictions and hiring someone based on their talent, skills, and future career interests means you have access to the very best of the best regardless of their physical location.

By looking at job boards like Glassdoor and LinkedIn, you can see that more and more companies are looking for remote employees because they realize the major advantages this offers – the time is now to join the ranks of remote employers.

8. Create Relationships with Colleges

One top talent acquisition strategy that many businesses don’t consider is building strong relationships with local colleges and universities. Sure, they might not have the experience you’re looking for right now, but they will soon be the talent of the future.

Sending recruiters to college career fairs can be an excellent component of your employment marketing strategy. It can put you in touch with students who are studying in your industry and who may be interested in getting hired for a job at your company in the future.

Organizations who want to build a better tomorrow for their work should absolutely start creating relationships with the colleges and schools preparing these soon-to-be professionals.

9. Ask for Candidate Feedback

Sometimes, you may find the perfect candidate, but they decline your offer. Why does this happen?

No, really. You should ask.

Asking candidates for feedback about their recruitment experience can equip you with data and insights that are otherwise unavailable. Candidate feedback can help your company address any issues within the talent acquisition process or improve employer branding so you can avoid missing out on valuable talent when it’s time to start recruiting again.

Candidates may share feedback regarding your company culture, remote flexibility, benefits, or other aspects you didn’t realize were impacting your hiring efforts. When you ask for their feedback, candidates also feel like their opinion matters, which may keep the doors open for future employment.

10. Hire Internally

If your organization has exhausted all of its external human resources and is still searching for that unicorn employee to recruit, it might be time to turn your talent acquisition strategy inside out.

Rather than spending all of your time searching through the unemployed workforce to find the one you’re looking for, you could pivot your search process to the internal team you already have.

Think about it – they are already familiar with your company culture, they have a certain level of skills that you’ve already vetted once before, they’re likely familiar with the job role you’re looking to fill, and they’ve proven to be a good employee if they’re still there.

This is more of a talent management tactic than a true acquisition tactic, but it can be easier for your business to simply promote from within.

Final Thoughts

If you’re a recruiter for your company, listen up. The job and talent acquisition process is not what it used to be. With new considerations like employer branding, remote work, and ATS systems, more employee search approaches can produce better results (read: better employees).

By using the ten top talent acquisition strategies listed above, your business can land the right person for the job every time.

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