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Talent Acquisition Week 2024 commenced in San Diego, CA with keynote When Good Isn’t Enough: Recruiting at the Need for Speed in the Age of AI, a particularly timely topic in our industry.
Michael Goldberg, Senior Director of Talent Acquisition and Sourcing at US Renal Care, shared a contemporary perspective on how TA leaders can help their teams excel. Lean into innate human strengths like curiosity and grit, while also elevating workflows with AI tools. He underscored a key point to the audience: while AI is reshaping the recruitment marketing landscape, it’s the human element that remains irreplaceable.
At the core, talent acquisition is a people-centric field, where the unique insights and empathetic touch of a recruitment marketer make all the difference.
5 Tips from Michael Goldberg’s Talent Acquisition Playbook
1. A Recruiter’s Edge: Curiosity and Grit
Modern recruitment marketers need to possess a natural insatiable curiosity and the grit to propel them through the toughest problems. In a field that’s constantly changing, staying curious keeps you informed and adaptable, while grit gives you the resilience to overcome challenges. As the cross-functional linchpin of organizations, Talent Acquisition teams often face a significant amount of “noise” – from shifting market dynamics to internal pressures for quicker hires. These challenges call for a focused drive to identify, connect with, and secure the best talent for our companies.
Goldberg reminds us that Talent Acquisition is one of the least passive jobs out there. We’ll never win the perfect candidate by waiting for them to discover our job posting and apply. Every day requires a fresh new perspective, a growth mindset, and actionable steps toward hiring goals.
2. Get Financially Savvy
The best recruitment marketers are strategic partners to their hiring managers, which means that they understand the nuances of daily operations, financial health, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Understanding real-time operational changes as well as what’s happening on the frontlines will significantly enhance your team’s effectiveness, allowing them to be both proactive and reactive. Learning about the organization is a time commitment beyond the ATS that may initially appear to be a trade-off against active talent acquisition time, but this ultimately yields dividends. Simple ways to ramp your team up in this area include engaging in regional update meetings and spending more time in the field, rather than in the office.
3. Research Creatively – Beyond LinkedIn and Indeed
When a new requisition lands on your desk, you might be tempted to jump onto LinkedIn and Indeed immediately and start sifting through resumes. Goldberg explains that investing the proper time in the prerequisite step of candidate and job market research will actually improve your Time to Fill metrics and candidate experience.
Fine-tune talent profiles with your hiring manager, survey the competition across different regions and industries, and establish clear parameters for your search targets. Consider diving into your company’s own ATS, which is also rich in data points that can help you learn more about your internal talent landscape and trends. Exploring your ATS can unveil insights about candidate journeys, successful placements, and feedback from past TA cycles, equipping you to devise more focused and effective recruitment marketing strategies.
4. Instill a Sense of Urgency
Successful TA within a company requires the ability to manage requisitions with both urgency and purpose. This method isn’t about rushing but mastering the skill of prioritizing and efficiently handling tasks to stay in sync with the rapidly evolving job market. Goldberg challenges Talent Acquisition leaders to assess whether their teams are maintaining the necessary speed and dedication. Here, forward-looking urgency is key to ensuring that recruitment marketing activities are aligned and responsive to the dynamic demands of talent acquisition.
For TA leaders, this involves cultivating an environment where understanding the implications of goals is crucial. Embedding this approach within the recruitment process ensures that while speed is essential, it never compromises the quality of hires or the integrity of the TA journey.
5. Measure Twice, Cut Once: Leverage Data
The strategic use of data and AI tools at the correct workflow touchpoints will significantly boost your Talent Acquisition team’s ability to perform and connect with key stakeholders. Effectively managing and interpreting the right data allows you to identify strengths and weaknesses, track improvements across key metrics, and discern trends that are vital for decision-makers.
Consider tracking metrics such as:
- Time to hire
- Tool usage
- Candidate quality
- Open requisitions
- Hiring manager satisfaction
- Candidate acceptance rate
These metrics offer a holistic view of the TA process, from the efficiency of filling positions to the impact of recruitment marketing technologies, and the overall satisfaction of the hiring process from a managerial perspective.
By harnessing AI and advanced analytics, these metrics transform from mere numbers into powerful narratives that steer recruitment marketing strategies forward.
Michael Goldberg’s five key principles offer a comprehensive framework for talent acquisition professionals aiming to excel in a complex and dynamic environment. By integrating these strategies into their practices, TA professionals can confidently navigate today’s job market with greater success.
For a comprehensive list of talent acquisition and recruitment marketing tools with integrated AI, along with many other tools to help with your hiring efforts, visit our marketplace now.
