How a Talent Acquisition Mindset Benefits Your Hiring Process

Like marketing, talent acquisition is an always-on, never-done element of success. While it may require time and resources, the benefits of developing a talent acquisition strategy make it one of the smartest investments a company can make.

What Is Talent Acquisition?

Talent acquisition is an ongoing effort to identify uniquely qualified or experienced specialists, leaders or executives that add outsized value to the organization. In most cases, these candidates occupy hard-to-fill positions that may have industry-specific experience or qualifications.

Talent acquisition specialists also need to monitor and anticipate the company’s evolving needs to anticipate new opportunities.

Talent Acquisition vs. Recruitment

Recruiting and talent acquisition are vital components of hiring, but there are some important differences.

Recruiting:

• Short-term, addresses immediate needs
• Primarily (but not always) focuses on entry-level positions
• Minimal planning required – the roles are clearly defined

Talent acquisition:

• Long-term, anticipates future needs or opportunities
• Primarily (but not always) focuses on manager, leadership or executive positions
• Tends to require additional planning to identify the right candidate

The line between talent acquisition and recruiting can be blurry. In small organizations, filling any open position is a crucial investment that can impact company culture and opportunities for years. Even large corporations face real consequences when making bad hiring decisions or bringing on too many people at the wrong time.

Why Recruiting Matters – And How a Talent-Focused Approach Can Help

The biggest companies in the world and the one-person small business share one thing in common – their success is built on people, not products or services. As organizations grow, recruiting poses real risks that can waste resources, lower employee morale or have a material impact on the company’s value. Before hiring, know the real costs of recruitment – and it’s not a salary.

The Cost of Recruiting a New Employee

Talent acquisition and recruiting take time, and time is money. Data shows that the average cost of recruiting a new employee is nearly $4,700, which may not even reflect the total bill. Recruiting experts estimate the total cost of a new hire is three to four times the employee’s salary, which more accurately accounts for the “soft costs” of hiring. That includes the time and effort required of department leaders, managers and human resources to screen prospects, schedule interviews and review candidates.

All told, your $ 80,000-a-year new hire could actually cost your organization $240,000 or more before they even clock in.

The Cost of Replacing an Employee

Getting the right person the first time also lowers the risk of replacing employees. When you account for recruiting, onboarding and training, plus lower productivity throughout the process, the average cost to replace an employee is one-half to two times that person’s annual salary. That $80,000 per year employee that took off for greener pastures? That’s $40,000 to $160,000 toward finding a replacement. Depending on your industry, there may be additional costs to training a new employee on proprietary processes or equipment.

Additional Opportunity Costs

In economics, opportunity cost is the value of what you sacrifice when you choose an investment over another option. In recruiting, companies face real opportunity costs in choosing one candidate over another, plus the lost return on the time, productivity and revenue associated with the hiring process.

High employee turnover has immediate and long-term implications for growth – there are better ways to invest in your business than constantly attracting and training new hires.

Always On, Always Improving

Call it talent acquisition, recruiting or simply hiring; companies know how important recruitment and retention are to a successful organization. That’s why a proactive talent acquisition strategy means never being done. You don’t turn on sales, marketing or production with the flip of a switch – organizations are constantly working to improve processes and discover new efficiencies.

Your recruiting should get the same attention, or it could cost you in the long run.

Let’s Get to Work

Oneupweb brings more than two decades of experience to recruitment marketing. Our fully integrated teams deliver strategy, campaigns and detailed reporting that positions HR specialists and in-house marketers with the tools they need bring in the best candidates possible. Contact us to learn more or call 231-922-9977 to get your project started.