When most people see the phrases “talent acquisition” and “talent recruitment,” they believe they are synonyms. They are not.
This is part 1 of our new talent challenge series. In it, we look at the new issues companies have to face when hiring talent, especially in the context of the pandemic-related fallout that is still disrupting every sector.
Acquiring or recruiting talent for a company involves bringing new team members. However, there is a subtle difference between the two practices that is of notable importance for any company interested in hiring the best professionals.
This is because hiring new people as a general practitioner needs to follow a solid strategy to obtain the best results. And no hiring strategy can be considered solid if it ignores capital aspects, even when seemingly as subtle as this. That's why we thought it would be great to take a look at what talent acquisition and recruiting are and why they're important to your overall hiring strategy.
What is talent acquisition?
Talent acquisition is about hiring new people without losing sight of long-term goals. This means talent acquisition is more than just finding candidates to fill open positions at your company – it's also about creating a better hiring experience for everyone involved. In other words, talent acquisition involves recruiting people but also making improvements to the process, not just to fill a position but to increase employee satisfaction and overall retention.
As such, talent acquisition encompasses many basic tasks, including hiring candidates, interviewing them, and onboarding new hires, but also others that go beyond these, including all ongoing efforts to nurture internal talent in such a way that it grows. the loyalty of your team. for your company.
Given this comprehensive nature, talent acquisition is the foundation of a well-developed employer brand. Just as you have a user brand to advertise yourself to your audience, you must have an employer brand that “sells” your company to both employees and candidates. In this context, talent acquisition encompasses all the practices you take to hire the right people, keep them in place, and help them grow in their careers.
What is talent recruitment?
Talent recruitment consists of hiring new people to fill open positions in your company as quickly as possible. This sets it apart from talent acquisition, as recruiting only begins when you have a need for a specific role (something that often happens when an employee quits or when you expand your business). This “as soon as possible” approach to hiring new people often doesn’t pay attention to long-term goals because the company can’t afford to go too long without filling open positions.
Since it is primarily driven by immediate needs, recruiting talent can often lead to a more difficult hiring process as there may be fewer suitable candidates for a position on such a short notice. Therefore, focusing on the speed of talent recruitment can create specific problems, such as hiring the wrong candidates due to a contextual shortage.
However, there will be times when you have no choice but to turn to talent recruiting as people will abandon you no matter how good an employer you are. That's why you need to have a good strategy to ensure a good hiring experience for all candidates, even if the position responds to an emergency.
Why You Need Both Talent Acquisition and Recruitment
In a sense, talent recruitment is more reactive, while talent acquisition is more proactive. The former is about responding quickly to an unexpected opening on your team, while the latter is about designing a hiring strategy that supports your growth and better aligns with your long-term goals.
At first glance, this might lead you to believe that talent acquisition is better than talent recruiting, basically because acquisition has a level of foresight that recruiting lacks. However, as it is not possible to anticipate all talent movements in your company, complementing both processes is the key to a better hiring strategy.
Ideally, you'll develop a great talent acquisition strategy that's so comprehensive that it will end up guiding your talent recruiting efforts in even the most time-constrained role searches you face. This is because well-thought-out talent acquisition takes into account potential “job search emergencies” and establishes a way to handle them that aligns with your overall hiring strategy.
However, even with the most sophisticated talent acquisition strategy, there will still be times when talent recruiting unexpectedly presents itself as the only way forward. Think of a key manager leaving your company at any time in the middle of an important project or whenever a project starts to fail due to lack of resources, forcing you to hire in a matter of days rather than weeks.
These types of moments are becoming increasingly common after the arrival of the pandemic. This is because people are changing their approach to work itself, considering new types of perks, balancing crucial life decisions with career development and even taking on new professions.
Technology to the rescue
On the other hand, it can help us better understand the talent we have available and when they perform at their best. This way, we can match all our talents with the projects best suited to them, increasing their satisfaction and also the satisfaction of those responsible for the project (again, whether they are a client or one of our internal teams).
In a way, you could say that our AI-powered solution is a type of talent acquisition software because not only does it allow us to form teams or find specific roles very quickly, but it also provides us with data-driven insights that improve our future talent practices. hiring. and the general satisfaction of everyone involved.
This example also shows the importance of combining strategy with technology to obtain better results. Today, any self-respecting talent acquisition and recruitment strategy has sophisticated technologies at its core. Using AI and big data applications can empower you to make better, more informed decisions about your hiring practices, whether you need them to focus on long-term goals or emergency hiring.
All of this can lead to more robust strategies that can strengthen your employer brand while helping you on the operational side of hiring new professionals. So, the best thing about specialized software like Staffing Hero 
is that it can help with both rapid talent recruitment and robust talent acquisition initiatives that, in turn, will make your company much more attractive to people looking for job opportunities – and to people already working for you.
As you can see, the difference between talent acquisition and talent recruitment is subtle, but it's important enough for you to start paying attention to it. Hopefully, you can start using this difference to your advantage to develop a better hiring strategy by creating separate strategies for sourcing and recruiting. Doing so will certainly change your hiring for the better and prepare you for the tricky talent waters ahead in the post-pandemic world.
