In this guest writer article, SELECT TALENT Managing Director Jo Hall follows up on her prior discussion on talent acquisition strategy.
Having previously discussed the changing nature of recruitment, the difference between recruitment and talent acquisition, and what elements make up a talent acquisition strategy, Jo is here to answer the key questions that she gets around when, how, and why.
Can you tell us when a business usually starts to pay more attention to recruitment and why they typically reach out for help from an expert?
First of all, a business can be at a variety of stages before it starts to apply strategic direction to recruitment. SMEs find it difficult when their network stops offering up suitable people, meaning their recruitment spend goes up without the guarantee of them knowing what that person can do, meaning it’s deemed a bigger risk. Larger businesses tend to have vacancies coming out of their ears and get caught in firefighting mode meaning they have no one taking an overarching viewpoint or giving focus on the things that need focus. When your business expands into new product areas, new verticals or new regions and territories is also a key time to re-evaluate your approach.
The two examples alone (and there are more!) tend to result in you really needing to take a step back and come up with a plan.
When would you suggest a client sets up a talent acquisition plan?
Asap! It is something that needs to be considered on an annual basis and reviewed on a quarterly and monthly basis. The average recruitment campaign from launch to securing a candidate is six weeks. If you’ve pre-planned this there’s more chance of things going as you hope, but if all is unforeseen and you don’t have a strategy in place that’s when you are reliant more on a bit of luck and risk leaving vacancies open too long and it impacting on workload and your people. It’s worth also considering that a lot of rail companies’ recruitment is probably linked to contract wins – CP7 as the current example. With this in mind, having a clear talent acquisition strategy can be key here to getting the staff you want. We’ve talked with a number of businesses about this recently so they know what they need to do or to discuss how we can provide a full talent acquisition service quickly and efficiently.
So how do you get started?
There are a number of things that can be done, and I’ve given some tips below:
What are your business objectives?
A talent acquisition strategy will involve both strategic objectives (one-to-three-year plans) and tactical objectives (shorter-term actions required to carry out strategic objectives). Where possible we want recruitment decisions to be proactive rather than reactive. We’d previously talked about the importance of workforce planning, and this helps a business to get an understanding of requirements for current and future hiring needs. This will need to be closely linked to company goals. Are you looking to grow revenue? Expand into a new market? What staffing will this require?
Having this plan means you can pre-empt recruitment requirements and also get the ‘best value’ from your recruitment by having a range of choices for getting new staff.
Define employer brand
Your employer brand is your shop window and your most important attraction tool. It’s how you present yourself; your culture, what differentiates you, and your reputation. This is something we talk about a lot as it’s your ‘why’. Why would top talent choose to come and work for you? Why would top talent choose you over a competitor?
Companies often have an idea of what differentiates them and that’s great, but does this really reflect you? A good tip here is to carry out regular employer surveys. This can look at ‘employee happiness’ and help you review what staff like and what you should use as your USPs (unique selling points).
Employee advocacy is the top tool for promoting your company. Be sure that you have a plan around it!
Next up is to put all of those insights into an actionable and consistent marketing plan, considering a multi-channel approach.
Benchmark, benchmark, benchmark
Data is very powerful in talent acquisition. Firstly, it’s important to set and benchmark your company package and individual roles. This is known as your Employer Value Proposition (EVP).
Have you looked at what is important to the market? Is it flexible working? Hybrid working? If you are going against employee wants and needs, your target market will be smaller. What else do you offer? This doesn’t necessarily need to be the biggest, best perk but what helps you stand out. Volunteer days, commitment to continued professional development, and holiday entitlement can all help you stand out. Have you looked at salaries? Are these at least in line with industry averages? If not, then this is going to impact your ability to attract top talent. It is important to constantly review this as a benchmark is only a snapshot in time in a given market.
Cast a wide net when it comes to talent attraction
Firstly, you must consider and define who your target candidates will be. We talked before about asking where they are and what is going to attract them. A talent attraction campaign in 2024 in the rail sector will need to be wide and varied. This should include job adverts and job boards, recommendations, social media utilisation, and headhunting. However, with the ease of access to more candidates and access to LinkedIn, your outreach must stand out. Think how many messages you have received about a job. You must consider what you can do to elevate your ‘candidate outreach’ and stand out in a crowded market. Approaches we’ve had success with include video and personalised landing pages for clients and social media marketing campaigns.
Get innovative and try TikTok! Don’t forget, different platforms require different content styles!
Speak to your target market
It’s important that you speak to your target market. Too often job adverts or recruitment marketing is written from a company’s point of view. This needs to be flipped and written from a candidate’s point of view. What is in the role that will attract the candidate? What can you do for them? How will this job improve things for the candidate? What information are you providing that allows the potential candidate to make an informed choice? This could be particularly important when considering ED&I and where too many requirements may also discourage applications.
Provide the best candidate experience
Let’s get real, job hunting is tough. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who is applying for a job with your business. Put candidate experience at the heart of your talent acquisition strategy – if you don’t you‘ll lose great people and it will affect your brand. For example, why would you fill in a clunky online application form when you could just quickly send your CV off to another business? Check out your drop-off rates and click throughs!
And please, please do someone the courtesy of getting back to them. There’s absolutely no excuse for not replying – if you don’t have time, then you haven’t planned properly or haven’t got the right tools and tech in place. Pre-organise interview slots, communicate stages to candidates and build in time for feedback. Ensure you are giving candidates every opportunity to learn about your company, the role, and the team and hopefully this pays dividends!
Understand who is able to succeed in your business
Get this right and your employees will stay with you, hopefully for a long time. Talk to your existing employees for a start and understand what makes them tick, what they like about their job and what their aspirations are. Make sure you have completed exit interviews for leavers. Feed all of that into your assessment and interviewing process BUT don’t make your process too long! It’s a quality and considered process that will get you the right people, not the number of stages!
How can SELECT TALENT help?
At SELECT TALENT we’ve been able to craft talent acquisition strategy considerations into all of our solutions, created by listening directly to business challenges around budget, resource constraints, lack of talent and the way contracts are awarded in rail.
Our solutions offer both strategy and delivery options and can support businesses without a dedicated HR resource or with a team of recruiters. Helping with ‘on demand’ style support to pay monthly options.
Bringing our own experience of being senior managers and in-house recruitment experts, we can help you with your recruitment strategy via our new consultancy offering, manage all or parts of recruitment or still support with those one-off roles.
There’s a variety of solution levels from one-off recruitment projects/hires (RaaS Light) to Annual packages (RaaS Ultra) based on a set number of jobs a year. In between these you have RaaS (three-month solution) which is us basically becoming your full-time recruitment function and handling all recruitment requirements and our newest solution Recruiter on Demand (ROD) where you can benefit from a virtual resourcer as needed from as little commitment as a week.
Contact SELECT TALENT to find out how Jo could help your business develop a transformative talent acquisition plan.
About Jo Hall, MD at SELECT TALENT
Jo works closely with rail clients, ensuring they get the recruitment support they need. Since 2023 she has also been a key member of the Women in Rail EDI charter working group.
Prior experience working directly for Network Rail & Royal Mail has helped position SELECT TALENT as an outsourced in-house recruitment partner for the sector.
About SELECT TALENT
SELECT TALENT is an outsourced in-house recruitment partner. Every client matters to us, and we put the time in to make sure clients receive our care, dedicated time and knowledge.
Our in-house and business recruitment background shapes our culture. We utilise our individual strengths and agility to offer the best solutions for our clients. Our size allows us to quickly adapt and respond to our clients and their needs. Our values and ethics are driven from working and understanding the demands of working directly in industry and skills honed from delivering in senior positions ourselves.
Our vision is to create lasting partnerships and leave your recruitment in the best shape possible.
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