Talent acquisition: yesterday and today

Author: Aliona Zagorskienė

According to the statistics of one of the well known career portals, there are more than 1000 open positions in the IT field. 10 years ago this number was ten times lower – about 100 open positions. It is evident that job market has changed a lot. Of course, it is important to keep in mind that ten years ago we were surviving economic recession, while today we live in the times of economic, cultural, social rise. I would like to tell how heavily the recruitment process and the attitude towards a candidate has changed, in other words, why did we ask you about your five year plan yesterday whereas today we are asking what is your biggest dream.

We work in the fields which did not even exist in the time of our grandparents: IT, marketing, Big data, AML, etc. We can clearly observe the evolution through the changing names of teams which take care of employee attraction. Few years ago we knew these teams as human resource departments. Today an employee is not only a resource, so we became people, talent acquisition teams. You may think that it is just some linguistic tricks but actually it marks the change of job market itself. If previously the supply was higher than demand, today we are facing absolutely different situation.

What does a talent acquisition specialist do all day? He or she actively builds their own candidate network. By saying actively I mean always makes an extra step towards a candidate, invites to his or her Linkedin network, writes a message, asks for a recommendation. Job market has changed so much that many of potential candidates do not want to be bothered with job offers. We have to accept this challenge and to understand that it demands courage and new methods. Long term goals become more important than short-term goals.

Together with the changing job market, job interviews have also changed. The most important thing is to fulfill the needs of a candidate. Today instead of meeting we use smart technologies for first interaction with a candidate – to save his or her time and to ensure the best possible candidate experience. The content of the interview has also changed. Actually, we do not call it an interview anymore. It is much more like a conversation, dialogue where both sides talk about expectations, values, dreams, ambitions and goals that can be reached together. One of my colleagues likes to say that this conversation between an employee and an employer is like a dance – both sides are dancing together. Both sides understand that they are working for the same goal – to continue cooperation while fulfilling the needs of both parties. For an employee: self realization, challenge, organizational climate, understanding, for an employer: energy, common goal, motivation and values.

Changing is what makes our world go round. Today the main goal of talent acquisition specialist is not only to find the best candidates for an organization, but also to invent yourself all over again every day to stay competitive in the heated job market.