Organizations with higher levels of talent acquisition maturity have a more holistic approach to people planning. They can also align their strategies with business goals and drive performance.

Many companies are transforming their hiring processes to focus on skills. They’re removing degree requirements, partnering with universities, and using other ways to nurture candidates and build their pipeline. Additionally, they make use of the best recruiting software to conduct initial screenings and assessments, such as writing samples or skills tests, to efficiently narrow the pool of candidates.

Onboarding

In addition to ensuring new hires are adequately prepared for their roles, TA teams should also focus on fostering a company culture attractive to top talent. For example, letting candidates know about perks like flexible work schedules or mental health resources helps keep new hires happy and engaged.

TA teams can also use data to improve their hiring processes by identifying quality sources and reducing the number of applicants who need to fit the role better. It enables them to lower new hire attrition and save on recruiting and training replacements.

The journey to hiring maturity can feel overwhelming, especially if you need help figuring out how to start. However, with the right tools, talent acquisition leaders can significantly impact their organization’s success.

Recruiting

In this stage, talent teams are focused on finding candidates that fit the job description and company culture. They use multiple channels to advertise roles, including internal referrals, career fairs, social media, and professional networks. They also conduct initial screenings and assessments, such as writing samples or skills tests, to narrow the pool of candidates.

Once a candidate has been selected, they must be engaged and motivated to remain at the company. It includes ensuring they have a supportive work environment, such as flexible schedules and mental health resources while providing timely communication and feedback. They should also be paired with a mentor, which can help them develop professionally and create a more cohesive team. It also helps retain top performers and reduce new hire attrition.

Assessment

As the economy recovers, talent leaders face an ever-increasing challenge to finding and hiring high-quality candidates. While better compensation packages and strong employer brands help attract talent, more than these factors are needed to ensure the best hires.

It is where TA teams typically struggle. Companies in this stage rely on the “post and pray” model, which involves HR generalists handling recruiting on top of their other duties.

Once the candidate pool has been narrowed, it’s time to evaluate and select the best-fitting people for the role. It is often a highly time-consuming and complicated process that requires multiple stakeholders to assess candidate performance. Using a software tool to centralize feedback and rank candidates can make this process easier. By doing so, a company can more effectively identify and select A-players who will perform in the role.

Training

At the top of the talent acquisition maturity curve, recruiters provide a first-class candidate experience to every person they interview. They use personalized feedback surveys, create role models and interview scorecards, and have a centralized candidate database that helps them save 5-10 hours each week by eliminating the need for candidate write-ups.

This level of talent acquisition demonstrates an entirely strategic recruitment function that is closely aligned with business goals. The recruitment function focuses on external hiring, internal professional development, and staff training. There are also companies like Smoothstack providing custom trained teams, helping organizations bridge the gap between hiring needs and specialized skill sets.

A complete evaluation of TA practices across 21 categories allows a comprehensive and holistic analysis of current performance. By identifying areas for improvement, organizations can begin to fine-tune their recruitment processes better to meet the needs of candidates and employees alike.

Performance

Candidates now value a company’s culture, chances for advancement, work-life balance, meaningful work, and sense of community more than they did on income. Talent acquisition teams should strive to create hiring processes that put these candidate priorities at the center.

Getting this right can be challenging, primarily when multiple people evaluate each candidate, and it takes work to keep track of feedback. Talent acquisition teams can improve this by using software tools to centralize candidate assessment.

Successful talent acquisition teams are proactive and strategic. They are aligned with their organization’s goals and values, enabling them to build high-performing teams that drive innovation and business performance. They also use data and predictive analytics to anticipate future hiring needs and avoid last-minute scrambling to find talent.