The Evolution Of Talent Acquisition In The US & Across The Globe

As part of our close to 2016, we are presenting a series of articles exploring key employment trends, regional talent acquisition (TA) challenges, as well as strategic solutions on how HR leaders can meet or exceed their talent goals moving into 2017 and beyond. If you're just making your acquaintance with the series, we suggest you first check out article one, five global employment trends impacting 2017's people agenda. Below are previous articles in the series:

• HR Leaders, Is Your Talent Acquisition Function Prepared For Brexit?
• Canada's Job Market And The State Of Talent Acquisition
• The Benefits Of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) In The UK Market

This week, Managing Director of Consulting Practices, Joe Kotch, discusses the state of TA in the US, and more broadly, in global markets.

A Bit Of a History Lesson

Going back to the ancient days of recruiting – when dinosaurs were around – a personnel department's typical recruitment strategy centered around running employment ads in the help wanted section of newspapers. Luckily, those days are long gone and we're currently experiencing a talent acquisition metamorphosis in the US and across the globe – the name evolution alone demonstrates this. Recruiting, which let's be honest, was the nicest thing this group was called, wasn't even a standalone function of Human Resources departments. Next, this function transitioned into what we would call staffing, and then to present day talent acquisition.

Key Challenges

TA functions face many challenges today. Perpetual changes in business landscapes, rapid technology advancements, multiple generations in the workforce, and continued pressure on TA budgets – just to name a few of those challenges. If that alone felt daunting, attraction strategies must keep up with new delivery channels, employment branding and employee value propositions must resonate with segmented audiences – while remaining true to an organization's brand, and TA functions are expected to develop strategies that will engage targetted audiences both in the present and future. All of which is evidenced by the continued development of talent communities, talent network strategies, and associated supportive technologies. TA functions have evolved to focus more on building dynamic attraction strategies that support business objectives both presently and in the future while ensuring a positive candidate experience.

Moving Into The Future

This current state has brought many TA professionals to the realization that they can not accomplish all of the aforementioned objectives entirely on their own. This is where a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) partner comes into play. Early on, Recruitment outsourcing was simply about filling candidate pipelines. While that certainly remains a core focus, RPO has undergone a metamorphosis of its own. Today, this process needs to be an extension of the TA function – providing not just a candidate pipeline, but consultative services that align and/or compliment TA strategies. These services may include an objective assessment of the overall TA process, technology, organizational structure, recommendations on employer branding best practices, meaningful metrics, and attraction strategies – all while taking into consideration feedback from key stakeholders and end-users.

The benefits of using RPO services are clear as the practices mentioned above are what is now required to not only secure a successful TA function but also to ensure that overall business objectives are met now and in the future.

In our final two articles of this series, we will dive deeper into how a quality RPO partner can help you meet and exceed your 2017 business objectives and finally what the top five priorities are for CHROs in the new year. We encourage you to sign up for regular updates so you don't miss a post in this series!