In the field of recruitment, recruitment and talent acquisition are often referred to interchangeably. However, although both approaches have similar objectives (i.e., attracting qualified talent), they are two different hiring practices with their own applications, which we will discuss below.

Recruiting vs. Talent Acquisition: What's the Difference?

Although both strategies aim to hire qualified candidates, talent acquisition and hiring differ in a few key ways:

• Hiring: Hiring tends to be more reactive and faster, focusing on filling specific vacancies, usually in a short period of time. For example, during the Christmas season, companies such as Amazon, retailers and transportation companies are conducting intensive hiring campaigns to meet their immediate demands for more labor.
• Talent Acquisition: Talent acquisition has a long-term strategic focus. It's an ongoing process that focuses on future hiring needs and not just on existing vacancies. Talent acquisition strives to build a strong Talent pool from which to extract qualified candidates for future vacancies. These roles often require highly specialized skill sets.

Benefits of Hiring and Acquiring Talent

Each strategy for finding potential employees has its advantages:

Benefits of hiring:

• Meets immediate staffing needs
• Shorten filling time
• Streamline the hiring process

Benefits of Talent Acquisition:

• It allows companies to fill specialized positions or to find talent with very specific competencies.
• Save time and money in the long term thanks to a pre-selected talent pool.
• It works with the long-term objectives of the organization, focusing on Capture candidates, build relationships, establish better DEIB initiatives and improve the candidate experience.

Why do companies need both?

When considering which contracting method to use, companies should focus less on which is “better” and more on meeting their specific organizational needs, which requires both.

For example, large chains like Burger King need a continuous flow of workers to staff their restaurants. When affected by staffing problems resulting from COVID-19, the company implemented a hiring strategy that accelerated hiring time by 30%.

This hiring strategy can work well to quickly fill Burger King's front-line positions. However, it may not be as effective at finding restaurant or district managers, who require more experience. Filling those positions with the right candidates would depend on a longer-term talent acquisition strategy, demonstrating the importance of incorporating both approaches.

How can companies use hiring? And the talent acquisition?

As a company grows, its hiring priorities must evolve with it. Companies must plan for the short and long term, rather than just reacting. This change may also require employees to change their mentality. For example, instead of just hiring staff to cover immediate warehouse needs, hiring teams can be in a constant state of filling their portfolio of first-line candidates.

Over the next 10 years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that there will be 83, Millions More than jobs in the U.S. For companies, this means that future-oriented hiring strategies will be critical to attracting the most suitable employees, which may require an “always accept requests” approach.

If your organization is currently focused on filling major staffing gaps, but you want to keep your stores full of staff and prevent employees from burning out, consider the following steps to move from a mindset based solely on hiring to a combination of hiring and acquiring talent.

Align objectives with management

For the human resource management team, finding and attracting the best talent may require more time and financial resources than the least qualified functions, which means that management will have to be involved.

Management may be skeptical about the return on investment (ROI) of finding talent before those positions are considered “essential” to the business. So, before making the change, make sure that top management agrees to create a unified, forward-thinking team.

Investing in resources for success

Once management is committed to a talent acquisition strategy, it is necessary to provide the hiring team with the materials, people and tools they need to find the best candidates.

For example, the automated recruitment software can streamline the entire hiring process, helping talent acquisition teams focus on high-value tasks.

Maintain a strong talent pool

Remember that talent acquisition is focused on long-term search. This means that your organization must continuously strive for Talent search on employment portals such as Indeed and social networks such as Facebook. As you accumulate qualified candidates, organize them into a candidate tracking system. This will make it easier to search for and contact those candidates in the future.

6 Best Practices for Developing a Strong Talent Acquisition Strategy

The main objective of any hiring strategy is to find the best people for the company's team. Hiring, onboarding and training can be costly, so using the right strategy leads to better results and higher levels of retention. Here are six tips to help you both recruit and acquire talent:

1) Focus on the brand

Establish a clear set of corporate values and missions, and promote them as part of the hiring process to keep potential employees motivated and interested in joining your company. If you communicate a positive employer brand often enough, potential employees may even start contacting your company to be considered.

2) Collect and analyze appropriate data

Measure and optimize each stage of your hiring process by tracking the performance of each position, identifying the most successful hiring channels, measuring candidate satisfaction, and evaluating team effectiveness. Keeping track of factors such as cost per hire and contract time can also provide valuable information about return on investment.

3) Cultivate a strong company culture

In an age where everything is on the Internet, current employees can be a useful resource or a negative influence on the hiring process. For example, Glassdoor found that 77% of adult workers they take into account the culture of a company before applying for a vacant position.

4) Create a positive experience for the candidate

A strong employer brand and effective hiring techniques can help people move from job seekers to employees. Analyze all the steps of the interview and qualification process to ensure that they promote a positive candidate experience. This will help you and the candidate determine if the position is right for you.

5) Continuously identify gaps

Immediate hiring strategies aren't designed to last forever, and they need to grow and change with your company (and the hiring market). Review your hiring strategy on a quarterly basis to decide what's working, what's not, and what needs to change. Continuous improvement helps build an effective talent recruitment strategy that continues to provide quality candidates.

6) Use the right tools

Using a variety of hiring tools and software can keep your channel organized, streamlining your talent acquisition process and providing valuable data along the way through tracking built-in metrics.

Refine Your Hiring and Talent Acquisition Efforts with Emi

Hiring and talent acquisition are similar approaches to creating a quality, long-term workforce. Both are necessary at some level to meet certain hiring needs.

But regardless of the strategy your organization uses, you must support it with quality hiring automation tools. Emi optimizes its hiring and talent acquisition processes, from selection to interview and onboarding. Eliminate repetitive manual tasks from your hiring team's workload, allowing them to focus on building relationships and hiring the best candidates, more quickly.

Learn more about how Emi can simplify your hiring efforts with a free demo.

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