Traditional recruiting is endangered, with most employers moving towards talent acquisition. But if you want to use talent acquisition more than just a corporate world buzzword, you need to clearly understand the difference between recruitment and talent acquisition.
Recruitment and talent acquisition are usually used interchangeably, but they are not synonyms. Human resource leaders that keep an eye on the bigger picture know the true difference between the two.
While sharing the goal – hiring an exceptional workforce – the two terms differ tremendously in approach. It will not be an exaggeration to say that they sat on the opposite poles; one is short-term and tactical, while the other focus on long-term planning and is strategic in nature.
The article below clarifies the difference between traditional recruitment and talent acquisition for you to decide what your company needs.
What Is Recruitment?
It is a process of finding, evaluating, and hiring a suitable candidate for a vacant position in a company or an organization. The process is usually a set of predetermined steps and a highly standardized procedure implemented at the time of expansion or employee turnover.
Specific rhythms and recruitment cycles of a company depend on the turnover rate, expansion needs, company policies, industry requirements, and more.
Recruitment is an essential process to fulfill the company’s requirements for an immediate workforce. However, it is essentially a short-term approach that seeks to cater to immediate needs without considering the aftermath of the process.
What Is Talent Acquisition?
When it comes to the goal, talent acquisition is similar to recruitment. However, the process and consideration of both the processes vary extensively. Recruitment is a standardized process considering the short-term manpower requirements, while talent acquisition is all about long term setting and approach of your company. It involves a thorough knowledge of the long-term strategic aims of your organization and is considerably more flexible and dynamic in approach compared to your recruitment team.
Talent Acquisition Vs Recruitment
Here are some of the common points that tell both the processes apart.
Action Vs Strategy
Recruitment is an action aimed to hire people to fulfill the available vacant positions immediately. While talent acquisition is a long-term strategy that aims to make your company the most attractive workplace for the quality talent in the market. Big companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple have surely worked on their talent acquisition more than traditional recruitment. None of them achieve it overnight; today’s success is the result of a year’s worth of hard work.
Networking
To establish a talent acquisition approach, you need to connect to the industry, attend relevant industry events, seminars, webinars, expos, and other networking sessions. You need to place yourself as worthy of the incoming talent by networking and developing diverse social networks online and offline.
While for recruitment, all you need is to prove your organization’s legitimacy, advertise the available positions, and select the best by standardized evaluation.
Referrals
Your talent acquisition approach also enhances and strengthens your recruitment process. Nearly half of the business quality recruits come from referrals of current employees. Through someone already working in the company, many people try to find more about work ethics, workplace environment, and other organizational culture aspects. So, make sure that you have a strong referral system established in your organization.
Career Sites And Job Boards
It is an oldie but surely a goodie! They are still important. They are the best when you need quick recruits, but a developed profile at career sites can land you in a position where you become the priority of the quality and best available talent. So, work on finding the best job boards and career sites for your industry.
Brand Marketing
Synchronized business departments lead to a profitable organization. Similarly, a well-established brand strategy can help your human resource department to attract quality talent to your workforce. Work on enhancing your brand reputation as this will help you place your company as the hot place for talented and experienced industry professionals.
Talent Acquisition or Recruitment: Which Is More Important?
There are occasions where traditional recruitment practices work for you but the data shows that managers face difficulties in the hiring process, especially when the world is moving towards remote workers practices. This is where you realize that talent acquisition is far more than the tactical approach of recruitment.
When you hire, you invest in people to gain profits from them in the long term, but it may become just an expense with higher turnover ratios. Talent acquisition is all about knowing the modern staffing concepts and practices, the state of the workforce, and the insights required to attract a quality workforce. This surely makes the hiring process an investment instead of an expense for your organization.
There is no one who can claim one of the two to be better. It all depends on the need and your personal business goals and objectives.
Conclusion
Getting a hold on the best and quality workforce is the unrivaled competitive advantage to have, even in a saturated industry. You can enjoy the benefits of having a specialized workforce by placing a long-term talent acquisition approach coupled with a talented and intuitive recruitment team on board.
