How to Make Your Talent Acquisition Strategy Succeed

Define your number one plan for getting the right talent to your door

By Joseph Burns, Founder and CEO of Lupa

Where does the secret of a successful company lie? In the product? The number of clients? The marketing strategy? If you think so, you might need to reconsider. The truth is that the future of your business is shaped by the people you hire.

According to a ManpowerGroup survey, talent shortages in the U.S. have more than tripled in a decade, with nearly 70% of employers struggling to fill positions. Are you part of this group and a bit lost? I would say that optimizing your talent acquisition strategy is a great start, and if you’ve never even thought of this before, don’t worry: your questions will be answered.

Let’s talk facts: Organizations with strong talent acquisition practices are three times more likely to see revenue and profit growth. They attract and onboard top talent, driving business success. Here is a compilation of what worked for me and other leading companies I know when it comes to strategizing and succeeding in this intricate field.

Essentials for a Talent Acquisition Strategy

This list encompasses some of the most important points to have in consideration when proving the effectiveness of your talent acquisition plan:

Being Strategically Aligned

To start, you must align your strategy with your specific business goals. This means deeply auto-analyzing your company to determine exactly what you seek and how each hire ultimately contributes to your unique needs. Additionally, looking ahead to the future at a team or organization level can help you develop a proactive approach towards hiring. For instance, you can predict when someone might leave and have a backup plan with 10 other candidates ready to interview, preventing costly disruptions.

Having a Good Employer Brand Strategy

In talent acquisition, employer branding and reputation are everything. You want to present your company as the best place to work to attract none other than the best quality talent. To achieve this, get a first-person perspective from your employees. Ask what they like about working there, the downsides, and what unique offerings are attractive not just at a market level but for the specific roles you offer. These are your main selling points to project an ideal image to the outside world—and other potential candidates.

Providing Great Candidate Experience

They say experience sells best, and that’s true as well when attracting candidates. First and foremost, have a well-defined process that effectively evaluates skills with structured interviews, relevant tests, and psychometric assessments for each role. The process should also be smooth, transparent, and communicative, providing candidates with all the details at each stage. Furthermore, when you decide to hire, make the offer the same day. Don’t assume candidates will stand there waiting for you—your indecisiveness gives them a good reason to look elsewhere and discourage them from applying again or recommending your company.

Having Clear Metrics and OKRs

You must be a numbers freak if you expect your business to thrive—especially when strategizing your talent acquisition process. And if you are not, then take note: you should have clear metrics and OKRs from time fill, placement rate, retention rate, and percentage of candidates with good performance and are meeting the needs of your organization. Of course, you should look for number-oriented candidates too. Every time I interview someone, I delve into their numeric approach and how well they study their numbers. Those are the people that know what they’re doing. At the end of the day, the only way to improve or get better at something is by constantly measuring results.

Today’s Challenges for Talent Acquisition

There will always be stones in the road, but if you know which ones to expect, you can dodge them before it’s too late. Here are the main obstacles in the talent acquisition field and some strategies that have worked for me to overcome them:

Defining Roles Clearly

Having an exact definition of the role, what it means to the business, the specific skills needed, and getting everybody on the same boat is probably one of the most challenging things in talent acquisition.

Strategies:

1. Become an expert in your industry by studying how the competition defines its roles. This will give you a broader view of your hiring struggles and talent gaps. It can help you determine if your role definitions are unrealistic or even identify opportunities to combine two roles into one.
2. Ask yourself the fundamental questions. This goes much deeper than deciding on the specific skills and qualifications you want from a candidate. What about soft skills, cultural fit, or communication styles?
3. Be competitive with your salary offers. You don’t want to overpay, but you also don’t want to underpay. Be fair and study the market to ensure you’re within a good range.

Managing Talent Costs

Let’s be honest: talent costs are rising. Many U.S. companies are experiencing labor shortages and find themselves lost in the middle of a highly competitive market.

Strategies:

1. Explore markets others aren’t considering. Latin America is a great alternative for finding high-quality remote talent at competitive prices. You can find skilled candidates in marketing, tech, finance, and more.
2. Create a map of all the companies in your industry—the best ones, the worst ones, and those that require high English proficiency or strong technical skills. This way, you’ll know exactly where to find candidates and which organizations to approach or avoid.

Enhancing Employee Retention

Finding the secret formula for retaining employees to avoid constantly having to replace them—plus wasting lots of money in the process—is a serious issue for many.

Strategies:

1. The best indicator that someone is likely to leave is if they’ve done it several times in the past. Avoid these profiles at all costs..
2. Always set clear expectations for candidates in the interview process being extremely transparent about what the job will be like—the good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s important to mention both the opportunities and challenges the position might entail.
3. Retention is not achieved by having a strong company culture and selection process—that’s just the starting point. Stay proactive by having regular check-ins with employees and presenting them with challenges and opportunities to grow in their careers, especially with your top performers.

Strengthening Employer Branding

Returning to a previous point, employer branding and reputation are essential for any company looking to attract high-quality talent. Always remember that anyone you fire—no matter the reason—can damage your company’s image in an instant.

Strategies:

1. The key to keeping your company’s image intact and your talent acquisition strategy strong is tackling problems at their root. Have regular conversations with employees to learn what they love or hate about the organization and constantly ask for feedback. If a problem is fixable, address it immediately..

2. Don’t forget the outside world—the ones who are judging your every move. This means talking to the competition and as many candidates as possible, and trying to delve into their views of what makes your company attractive or unattractive.

Putting It All Together

The world of talent acquisition is full of ups and downs, which is why you need to be strategic—it should always be evolving with the market’s dynamics. If you want to attract the right talent, begin today: define your business needs, polish your employer brand, create a great candidate experience, and establish clear metrics for what you want to accomplish. There are other points to consider, but these are great starting points.

Want to know more about building an effective talent acquisition strategy? Get in touch here for a free consultation. I would be happy to guide you through this process and help your company access the best talent in Latin America.