Winning the Talent Acquisition Race with Strategy and Speed

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to sit with business leaders at a First Business breakfast seminar and hear both an overview of the current talent acquisition situation in Wisconsin and an informative panel discussion of key questions. According to many sources, talent acquisition is the number one issue facing businesses in Wisconsin. I had three takeaways I wanted to share. If you find it interesting, share with your HR leader or other business leaders who might be struggling with this issue.

 

There’s a lot of fodder out there for a robust analysis of the current situation.

And that’s particularly helpful because it will be in mining that data that you might possibly find the key insights you need to drive your talent acquisition strategy. The data is in three forms:

1. Quantitative employment & demographic data
2. Qualitative psychographic data for various talent pool segments
3. Anecdotal information about how other businesses are solving their talent shortage situation

 

There’s a new model emerging that focuses on the talent experience.

Nobody was really talking explicitly about this new model but it’s critically important because it will likely provide a more robust, holistic approach that can be measured and improved to yield better results. I constructed a first pass at the model which is a combination of the marketing/sales funnel and a “path to employer-of-choice” which is a spinoff of the Path-to-Purchase model used in the CPG world. I chose “Employer of Choice” because the data says 1/3 of new hires are looking for another job in the first 6 months after they’re hired. You should construct your model; one that focuses on the “talent experience” in your company. Here’s what I drew up. It has the major steps in Path-to-EofC but they could be stated differently for your business.

 

Not much discussion of Talent Acquisition strategy yet.

Although I heard a lot of tactics being thrown around, there wasn’t much discussion of a strategic approach. To me, this signals an opportunity for my clients because in one day your HR leader could have a strategy in place that’s based on a talent experience model like the one above and you can begin seeing progress almost immediately. Here’s a generic example of one I put together. If you want it in your ThinkPoints strategy web app account, let me know and I’ll clone a copy over to you. You could use it as a starting point for your own. Otherwise, you can go here for a copy.

 

In a tight labor market, it’s a race to find, recruit and retain the talent you need to grow your business. Thoughtful strategy and speed will give you the edge you need to win that race.

Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.