Talent acquisition specialists devote far more time than recruiters to identifying and investing in sources that can feed the talent pool and then ensuring that the talent pool is well stocked.
Fremont, CA: Recruiting talent for the workplace is almost as old as commerce itself. Businesses have always had methods for identifying and attracting workers, determining their suitability, agreeing on pay, and then hiring and integrating them into the company.
The computer age long ago enabled most of the recruitment process to be automated and extended to a global pool of candidates. In recent years, the term "recruiting" has been supplanted by the more formal-sounding "talent acquisition," and while the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there are significant differences.
While the distinctions between recruitment and talent acquisition appear to be clear, in practice, HR professionals, consultants, as well as HR software vendors frequently disagree on where to draw the line between the two. The two disciplines overlap more than they diverge, and the reality is that the majority of talent acquisition work is frequently completed within an organization's existing recruitment process.
To clear up the confusion, let's break down in more detail how talent acquisition goes beyond recruiting:
- Lead Generation and Sourcing: The addition of talent acquisition to the starting of the recruitment process adds an important step: lead generation and sourcing. Talent acquisition specialists actively investigate and manage the best sources of prospective candidates who meet the organization's requirements, then collect leads for individual candidates. Talent acquisition specialists devote far more time than recruiters to identifying and investing in sources that can feed the talent pool and then ensuring that the talent pool is well stocked.
- Constant improvement: Once the recruitment process has begun, talent acquisition continues to serve as an overlay to the process as well as an external process for evaluating the effectiveness of recruiting and recognizing ways to improve it.
- Analytics: Data analytics is the primary tool utilized in talent acquisition to measure and improve an organization's talent and recruiting strategy. It can, for instance, identify the sources of the best talent in the organization, identify the characteristics shared by top performers, and assess the effectiveness of job postings on specific social media platforms.
