Talent acquisition and recruitment: the challenges of 2024

The HR function is regularly called upon to transform itself in order to meet the challenges of competitiveness. In terms of human resources , the talent acquisition function goes beyond simple recruitment, since it enables us to anticipate future organizational changes and skills requirements. In fact, it is an integral part of the company's HR policy, since it requires an overall strategic vision of the company's employer brand, skills development plan andhiring prospects in line with the company's growth. From an operational point of view, this means, among other things, sourcing and managing an HR marketing strategy to attract the best profiles. How can the talent acquisition function remedy the difficulties encountered by recruiters? What recruitment strategies can be put in place to attract talent ? Here's how.

Recruiters' main challenges

In today's war for talent, companies need to stand out from their competitors and differentiate themselves to attract candidates. Today, when recruiting new talent, it's no longer possible to publish an ad and simply wait for applications. As a result, 61% of recruitments are judged to be difficult^[1] by recruiters, who explain this by a lack of candidates, unsuitable profiles, working conditions that are too restrictive, a lack of attractiveness of the company, and so on. To succeed in their mission, recruitment managers are faced with major challenges.

An economic challenge

         A number of factors explain the difficulties faced by recruiters: the post-COVID upturn in activity, numerous retirements, a lack of training courses tailored to company needs, more offers than applications received, increased demands in terms of working conditions and compensation and benefits policies...

         Faced with a shortage of skills available on the job market, companies need to consider whether external recruitment is the best way to fill vacant positions, in light of their employees' skills development plans (formerly known astraining plans). In certain sectors, such as IT, it remains imperative to maintain employees' skills on an ongoing basis so that they remain operational in the face of technological change.  

A generational challenge

         The arrival of millennials on the market has created a number of upheavals, with a very different relationship to work than that of their elders. This generation of candidates gives priority to quality of life and a balance between professional and personal life. However, they also attach importance to salary and salary transparency. Demanding and reluctant to compromise on working conditions, they change jobs easily, every two or three years, as new recruits are quite volatile. On the other hand, they are very attentive to corporate values, and particularly sensitive to the CSR policy of their potential future employer.

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   The arrival of millennials on the market has created a number of upheavals, with a very different relationship to work than that of their elders. This generation of candidates gives priority to quality of life and a balance between professional and personal life. However, they also attach importance to salary and salary transparency. Demanding and reluctant to compromise on working conditions, they change jobs easily, every two or three years, as new recruits are quite volatile. On the other hand, they are very attentive to corporate values, and particularly sensitive to the CSR policy of their potential future employer.

Diversification of recruitment needs

         In an ever-changing society, business needs are shifting towards the recruitment of versatile profiles capable of adapting to change.

➢ The importance of soft skills

        With the development of hybrid working, the flex office, the digitization of processes and the increased use of AI, professions are set to evolve and skills to diversify. Gradually, most repetitive tasks can be performed by artificial intelligence, enabling employees to concentrate on higher value-added missions. What's more, when it comes to recruiting talent, the importance of diplomas is declining, provided that certain hard skills are mastered, and priority is being given to soft skills. Adaptability, critical thinking, interpersonal skills for teamwork, leadership and emotional intelligence are among the qualities most sought after by recruitment agencies.

➢ O pen up to other profiles

                     Companies often tend to recruit along the same lines, which doesn't help overcomehiring difficulties linked to a lack of candidates. Yet allowing the recruitment of new profiles, sometimes atypical or from other sectors, not only promotes inclusion, but also innovation and creativity, with the longer-term consequence of maintaining the company's competitiveness. To this end, it may be a good idea to entrust the recruitment of "non-standard" talent to a recruitment firm that already benefits from a network, and whose global vision of the market helps to gain in objectivity.

Enhancing the company's attractiveness

To encourage potential candidates to apply, it's essential to establish a unique employer brand and communicate the company's culture. The latter must be clearly reflected in job offers, in addition to job descriptions and career development prospects. These talent acquisition strategies help to attract the best candidates, i.e. those who are most in tune with the company's values, and who can project themselves into the long-term future. What's more, genuine career management, including skills upgrading training and an internal mobility policy, are important levers for building loyalty, while at the same time contributing to professional recognition. The quest for meaning and fulfillment at work, so dear to Generation Y (not Gen Z, eh?), is also one of the driving forces to be activated by human resources management. In fact, it's not enough to attract candidates; you also need to retain them.

Levers for optimizing recruitment

The talent acquisition manager(TAM) has a number of channels at his disposal to deploy his digital recruitment strategy. He or she can publish a job offer on the company's career site, on a specialized or generalist job board, or on social networks. But this approach must be integrated into an overall action plan to attract the best talent.

Employer branding and talent acquisition

Often initiated by the human resources department , in conjunction with the corporate project, employer branding is first and foremost built internally, with the organization's stakeholders. It must reflect to the outside world what is really going on inside the organization, and not make promises it cannot keep. An effective employer brand is therefore based on collaborative internal communication, and expresses the values defended by the company, such as inclusion, short supply chains, the green economy and so on. It's an integral part of the talent acquisition strategy, and helps to attract higher-quality candidates who are in line with the company's stated values. Candidates are indeed sensitive to the company's culture and values: 75% of them say they take the employer brand into account before starting to apply^[2]. What's more, 90% of them seek information before applying, via the career site, social networks and employee review sites^[3].

Develop your reputation on social networks

Social networks and employer branding have become essential in the search for candidates . 7 out of 10 companies use social networks to recruit.^[4]. Linkedin, for example, is brimming with profiles of current and prospective employees . Brand awareness can, for example, be developed by building and animating a community of followers. The regularity of publications and interactions, defined in an editorial charter, also increases the company's visibility and search engine ranking. To develop a company's e-reputation and recruit the best talent, HR communication involves HR marketing techniques such as inbound recruiting. This involves first creating personas, i.e. typical candidate profiles, and then publishing content of interest to each target on the appropriate networks. This also allows you to personalize your messages. After all, you don't address young graduates in the same way as a senior with at least 15 years'professional experience.

Optimizing the candidate experience

In a market under pressure, it's important to pamper the candidate, if only by simply acknowledging receipt of each application. Optimizing the candidate experience also means simplifying the recruitment process, making it transparent, avoiding lengthy forms and giving candidates the option of applying from their smartphone, for example. Similarly, maintaining a relationship with the candidate at every stage of the process, and being responsive in providing answers, also helps prevent them from turning to the competition.

The role of the recruiter or talent acquisition manager is evolving along the same lines, diversifying recruitment strategies where necessary: gamification, role-playing, inbound recruiting to reach passive candidates, direct approach for rare profiles or executive positions. Potential employers must encourage candidates to take a longer-term view, for example, by offering them a tour of the company, testimonials or contacts with current employees, and by fine-tuning theintegration of new employees. When it comes to recruitment, successful onboarding contributes to the commitment and loyalty of the company's human capital.

Effective recruitment tools

-HRIS and ATS

         HRIS facilitate career management, talent management and indicator tracking. ATS (Applicant Tracking System) software is particularly useful for high-volume recruitment. They save considerable time in the pre-selection of candidates, thanks to parsing (analysis and integration of data contained in a CV) and matching algorithms that automatically identify the skills and qualities required for the positions to be filled. This technical solution simplifies the selection of candidates and enables the best profiles to be recruited more quickly. HRIS and ATS also offer the possibility of building up a talent pool with the CVs of good candidates for subsequent recruitment .

-Artificial intelligence

         Artificial intelligence or generative AI is also developing, with the aim of saving time through automation. It is already making it possible to draft attractive job offers, analyze thousands of CVs in a short space of time, and construct frameworks for interactive recruitment interviews. Of course, the recruiter will always remain the sole judge of soft skills. 

Data analysis and tracking

These new tools contribute to more effective monitoring of HR indicators. Indeed, it is essential to define KPIs(key performance indicators) in order to measure return on investment (ROI) and show that the recruitment/talent acquisition function has high added value. In this way, it contributes to the company's performance, limiting casting errors and the associated costs. Among these KPIs, it is possible to evaluate, for example, recruitment time, turnover rate, number of applications for a new position, and so on. Rigorous monitoring of KPIs makes it possible to analyze recruitment activity and the effectiveness of the talent acquisition strategy. These indicators are an aid to decision-making, and enable corrective action to be taken where necessary. Be careful, however, to comply with RGPD legal obligations, as data on unsuccessful candidates can only be kept for 2 years.

The 2024 recruiter: a strategic business partner

More than ever, the recruitment/talent acquisition function plays a key role in company performance.

What is the role of the talent acquisition manager?

In some large companies, the HR Director is often supported by one or more human resources assistants, a recruitment manager, and dedicated departments with a training manager, an employee relations manager, etc. The talent acquisition function may be shared between these different HR department positions. The talent acquisition function may be shared between these different HR department positions. In smaller structures, which don't always have an HR department , the person acting as HR Director needs to be versatile, just like the founders of start-ups who sometimes wear many hats when they are very early stage. This type of structure can call on a recruitment firm like Skillink to benefit from the services of an RPO consultant or headhunter.

A high value-added function

The recruitment professions have evolved considerably to adapt to the job market and digitalization. Today, recruiting the ideal candidate for a vacancy requires sales skills, HR marketing skills , human resources management skills, as well as knowledge of employment law (employment contracts, fixed-term and open-ended contracts), and strong interpersonal skills. Thus, a talent acquisition manager, among other things, is capable of negotiating commercial contracts, carrying out market research, building support for an employer brand, implementingtalent sourcing andattraction engineering right through to job interviews with human resources management or general management, among others. What's more, with the increasing use of AI and the digitization of processes, the recruitment function needs to develop its skills on a regular basis.

In a market under pressure, recruitment, in the broadest sense of the term, or talent acquisition, is no longer a simple support function. It is a pivotal position between customers, candidates and management, likely to contribute to the company's strong growth. With a global, forward-looking vision, it is capable of anticipating the needs of each individual, attracting and retaining the skills that are strategic for the company, and staying one step ahead of the competition.

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^[1]https://statistiques.francetravail.org/bmo

^[2]https://makemycv.fr/statistiques-recrutement

^[3]https://www.hellowork-group.com/fr/actualites/le-recrutement-en-2022-candidats-recruteurs/

^[4]https://corporate.apec.fr/home/espace-medias/pratiques-de-recrutements-des-cadres-en-2022.html

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