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Talent acquisition challenges highlighted at HCI Conference

In a few weeks, June 10-12 to be exact, in Boston (Boston Strong!), the Human Capital Institute’s Strategic Talent Acquisition Conference will feature speakers and attendees focused on finding and keeping great talent. Every company looking to the future should be at a conference like this.

Talent acquisition is a great phrase, but I think many construe it to be about just “recruiting” or simply how you fill a bunch of jobs. Today, and for the future, that would be a great underestimation of the time and effort it takes to get the talent you need when you need them.

One look at the theme of the conference, “Take Control of the Skilled Talent Shortage”, and the major themes, “Upgrade your recruiting arsenal”; “Next level sourcing: Build, borrow and beyond”; and “Talent acquisition driven analytics and function design” will tell you, we cannot continue to think of talent acquisition as just posting a job or looking through resumes.

To give you a better idea of what I mean, here are some of the areas within the realm of talent acquisition that I think require specific attention and a holistic approach in order to be successful:

  • Sourcing – As we’ve now heard countless times, unemployment is still high, yet we can’t fill many skilled positions. The people you need are working, not working, working in other industries or simply not aware of your company or your positions. Finding these people, related industries and the channels where they hang out (many times online), is tougher than ever. You have to build a wide funnel with many entry points and source not just for your open jobs today, but for the future.




  • Recruiting – Recruiting today is about creating an environment where you can efficiently screen and place people in the right positions in your company. Good recruiters and recruiting partners are in high demand right now because 1.) it’s not easy, and 2.) it’s not cheap. Gone are the days of creating a huge internal recruiting practice because it takes a lot of time and resources to keep it running and demand can be so unpredictable. Better, more flexible options exist in contract labor or recruitment process outsourcing.




  • Engagement – Candidates, especially skilled candidates, expect more engagement and choose your company as much as you choose them. The type of company you are, your culture and things like their experience in the recruiting process can determine a lot of your recruiting success, or lack thereof. Networking with them before you have a job and putting your company out there as a brand they want to be associated with is now part of the gig. Social media has made this a necessity, not an option. If your sourcing and recruiting process is not efficient or representative of your company’s brand, then you are likely missing good candidates who are not interested in choosing you as their employer.



These talent acquisition concepts are not new or really that radical, it’s just that everything has now been put on steroids if you will; we all have too much to process. Making it efficient and easy for recruiting interactions to happen is anything but easy.

Yoh will be at HCI’s Strategic Talent Acquisition Conference to hear about ways to help our clients improve their sourcing, recruiting and engagement. We are also hosting a panel discussion on “The Benefits of Hiring a Hero”, which will showcase some of the great things our clients are doing to help our veteran heroes.

If you’d like to speak with us at HCI, you can request a meeting here. We hope everyone takes advantage of this great conference and we’ll be providing more information as the event gets closer.













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