How Do You Implement a Talent Acquisition Strategy?

Trying to create and implement a talent acquisition strategy can seem like an impossible undertaking for overtaxed HR teams. This is especially true for small business owners focusing on both growth and foundational aspects of their business. We have developed a strategic talent acquisition roadmap to help implement a talent acquisition strategy. 

Strategic Talent Acquisition Roadmap

This roadmap will be a guide to understanding where you are at in the strategic talent acquisition process. The final destination will be a fully implemented talent acquisition strategy for your business. Small businesses may have skipped to different checkpoints along this roadmap. The good news is that businesses can circle back to these checkpoints without undoing all the work. Here are the steps in our talent acquisition roadmap:

Stop 1: What is a talent acquisition strategy? 

Stop 2: Deciding who develops the talent acquisition strategy

Stop 3: Talent acquisition strategy framework

Stop 4: Talent acquisition technology

Stop 5: Implementing the talent acquisition strategy

What is a talent acquisition strategy?

Talent acquisition strategy is a big picture view of different business goals and how they impact the hiring process. It includes the intentional development of employer branding, talent management, company culture, and stakeholder relationships while also creating scalable and meaningful hiring practices. Recruitment on the other hand is the process and costs associated with filling a single position. The advantage of an effective talent acquisition strategy is that it aligns with business goals and stakeholders to build a more robust talent pipeline. Talent acquisition more frequently leads to top talent becoming qualified candidates for your business. 

Who develops the talent acquisition strategy?

The nature of talent acquisition strategy is collaborative. It would be difficult for one talent acquisition specialist to create employer branding, discuss company culture, manage talent, build stakeholder relationships both internal and external, and also develop a scalable hiring process. Depending on the size and structure of your organization, the people involved with development will look very different. Each business will have two people in common: an HR lead and a marketing lead. These two will take point on developing messaging and processes. 

Some small businesses outsource the development of their talent acquisition strategy to an outsourced HR firm. These companies learn about your business and provide their expertise in order to improve the process. It is an effective model for a company without internal expertise, a tight budget, or too much on its employees’ plates to see the process through. 

Talent acquisition strategy framework

A talent acquisition strategy framework is like an outline for an essay. It flushes out the entire scope of the strategy and asks the questions that need to be developed and answered. Frameworks are effective to allow for an end-to-end solution. It also helps the transition from development to implementation. Here at Milestone, we developed 7 questions to help start developing your framework. You can download those questions at the link below. 

Talent acquisition technology

A strong talent acquisition strategy has the tools and technology to back it up. The first is a careers page to act as a hub where potential candidates can apply. Almost all job applications today have an online portion. Many larger companies use an applicant tracking system (ATS). This can both weed out unqualified candidates and give transparency to applicants. Most small businesses do not need to build out an ATS, but they should think through how they will track applicant data and provide transparency. One company Milestone recommends is Employ Inc.  Second, the phone screen and interview process tools. Zoom or Microsoft Teams are good defaults to conduct interviews remotely. There are other technologies that allow for applicants to record questions on their own time as well. For interviews, your company should employ a standard scoring process tool so that all applicants are evaluated on the same criteria. Another technology to consider is online job boards such as LinkedIn Recruiter and Indeed. These job boards can help track metrics to give insight into what is being effective. There are many job boards, but these are the top two. Overall, your technology should help improve your communication and data tracking. 

Implementing a talent acquisition strategy

Different parts of the talent acquisition process take different amounts of time to implement. Hiring processes, employer branding, and communication workflows should be implemented immediately. Talent management, where to place job postings, salary, perks, building relationships, etc. happens over time with data and intentional pursuit. Implementing a talent acquisition strategy is partially establishing KPIs and checkpoints to keep track of your progress and goals. 

Need help developing and implementing a talent acquisition strategy. At Milestone, we have a team dedicated to talent strategies to help your business improve its talent pipeline. We can help find talent, boost engagement, and increase retention. Contact us today to find out more. 

Need help implementing a talent acquisition strategy? 

At Milestone we specialize in helping businesses build best in class talent acquisition strategies. It goes beyond just recruiting to help your business compete for talent in the long term. If your HR department either doesn’t have the time or expertise to tackle this project, reach out to us. We would love to connect with you.