Shaping the Future of Talent Acquisition: Recruitfest! Director’s Cut

Continuing the RecruitFest! Conversation with Susan Burns and Master Burnett

Susan Burns – Chief Talent Strategist, Talent Synchronicity:

“One of the most imperative questions facing any profession is ‘what’s next?’  In talent acquisition, this question is particularly pressing, given the rapid pace of evolution and change that we’ll continue to see over the course of the months (and years) to come…”

“While we had some great dialogue at RecruitFest! during my session with Master Burnett, this is an issue that’s obviously not going to be resolved overnight.  Here are a few of the most important points I think business leaders, talent organizations and recruiters need to consider to successfully anticipate and plan for the future of talent acquisition:

• Organizations need a more sustainable approach to talent planning and management to meet the increasing demands of the changing workforce, many segments of which are looking for flexibility and will increasingly step in and out of organizational work.
• Talent acquisition leaders are in the business of solving business problems with the right people resources to support the organization’s success and deliver fluid talent solutions.  This means talent acquisition can (and should) evolve to the role of talent broker for the organization.  Being a successful talent broker requires bringing together external talent communities (employee, contract, temporary), alumni networks, university, internal talent management and leveraging internal project teams.
• Talent brokers must plan and execute their activities with these critical questions in mind: ‘What do people want to do?’ ‘When do they want to do it?’ and ‘Where do they want to do it?’ And, how does this allow us to support the needs of an agile business environment?
• The talent broker’s focus on resourcing the organization is rooted in building and managing talent communities – this requires linking business needs to talent and talent interest to the needs of the organization.
• Creating and sustaining talent communities requires building and sharing content that’s both relevant and meaningful; engaging the contributions of other business leaders outside the HR or recruiting functions; establishing a dialogue that contextualizes human capital challenges (and opportunities) within the larger business picture, and finally, partnering with business leaders to communicate these ideas both inside and outside the organization.

Increased visibility and access to insights and information from talent communities adds agility while creating competitive advantage through innovative, better informed talent initiatives, and better alignment of skills with available headcount.

By working against these 5 principles and creating a more fluid approach to talent acquisition and resource management, recruitment and HR practitioners can help deliver clear, tangible benefits to the organization while acting as true strategic business partners.  Achieving this partnership is critical not only to advancing talent acquisition forward, but ensuring that our function, and our passion, has a future at all.

They say the only way to predict the future is to invent it. The best way to adapt to change is to lead it.  And, based on the RecruitFest! conversation, talent acquisition professionals are doing just that.”

Master Burnett – Managing Director, Dr. John Sullivan and Associates:

“When the track leaders got together for dinner the night before RecruitFest! I was really looking forward to what Chris Hoyt affectionately calls social lubrication, because in all honestly, despite several weeks preparation, I still wasn’t sure how to share what I felt I needed to share in 15-20 minutes without a boatload of PowerPoint slides behind me.  I have taken some flak for referring to many of my peers in our profession as profoundly apathetic and for repeatedly referring to the “future of talent management” as a big hairy beast of an issue, but I was being honest.

Anyone who has ever had a job or had to deal with someone that had a job must admit that the way we organize work and attract labor to perform that work is due for some serious rethinking and innovation.  The vast majority of concepts, processes, polices, and legislation that governs our profession is based on circumstances and situations that existed decades ago.  Despite incremental improvements and application of technology, our profession still does things the way they always have even though they may dress it up with new terminology.

While the core of our profession hasn’t changed, the nature of business has.  The world is more flat, speed of change has increased, consumers abandon cherished brands daily, and nearly anything you could imagine can be found at your fingertips.  As the business has changed, so too have managers demand for labor to accomplish work.  Today, managers use employees, temps, contractors, consultants, outsourced service providers, technology solutions, and hundreds of other labor type alternatives with much greater frequency than in years past.

In both large and small organizations, current research indicates that when you look at spending on all non-employee sources of labor, you might just find that a majority of labor dollars go to contingent labor, yet few HR leaders are stepping up and addressing what that means for talent management.

I wanted the thoughts I shared at RecruitFest to startle people, to force them to step back and realize the game is changing and few are paying attention.  While I can’t stand the image of the shirt I am wearing, I am happy with what I shared and the feedback I have gotten.”

BONUS FEATURES:

WATCH: “Shaping the Future of Talent Acquisition” Full Session Recording

FOLLOW: Master Burnett on Twitter| Susan Burns on Twitter

BOOKMARK: Dr. John Sullivan & Associates | Talent Synchronicity

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