Perfect Talent Acquisition Means Hiring Less

Adrian’s been in the game a long time, and one of his main sources of frustration is when businesses slap a new label on an old technique and call it “modern.” Take the “spray and pray” recruitment method, which involves aiming for sheer volume. In Adrian’s view, putting a job advert on Indeed isn’t a modern technique at all—it’s simply the digital equivalent of putting a want ad in a print newspaper.

The true skill lies in developing a unique approach to every market and every role, because there’s no such thing as “one size fits all” in a global marketplace. Any decent recruiter knows they should work differently in the Philippines than in the UK, because people think and work differently based on their country and culture.

In other words, the fact that you excel at recruiting in one country doesn’t mean that success will extend everywhere. Great recruiters understand their markets, which is why Adrian’s advice to global organizations is to hire TA people who are experts in the regions you’re looking to hire. 

Sophisticated recruiters also analyze data to see what’s working and what isn’t. I’ve seen this firsthand, when (at a different tech company) we started a student training program to train and recruit new engineering hires straight out of school. Students loved the program and the company, but they didn’t apply in the numbers we’d expected. We’d forgotten to consider the students’ primary influencers: their parents. As soon as we turned our attention to convincing parents—not students—the program was successful. 

Adrian is a strong proponent of targeting the influencers surrounding your ideal candidates, not just the candidates themselves. This sphere of influence varies by country and culture, which brings us right back to our starting point: hiring TA people who have a deep understanding of your target market.

As a longtime recruiting consultant, Adrian helps organizations of all sizes understand why they’re missing the mark on optimum recruitment. “Most organizations struggle,” he told us. Using a standard maturity model to rate all aspects of a company’s recruitment approach, he finds that most think they’re performing better than they really are.

One common practice that could use some maturing is the use of lagging success metrics like time to hire and cost per hire. Adrian argues that the parameters around these metrics are so fluid, they don’t mean much. Measuring delivery against promised deadlines, on the other hand—that has meaning. Adrian recommends substituting forward-facing targets and achievements for backward-facing measures.

And here’s another thing most companies get wrong without realizing it. When someone leaves the organization, most recruiters automatically assume there’s a role to be filled. Instead, he says, they should think about the skills available internally and how the company might adapt following that person’s departure. Maybe a new hire is warranted—but maybe not. The one-for-one exchange is hardly a given.

Adrian sees TA as a strategic enabler of a business rather than a “mere” seat-filling function. He makes a strong case for the global head of TA joining the board, or at least keeping in close contact with them. “They [TA] can bring a real competitive edge by accessing labor market insight and best practices,” he told us.

He’s also frustrated by companies that waste time pointing the finger of blame instead of using the tools at their disposal to effect change.

A significant portion of the currently unemployed population was likely impacted by the pandemic, whether as a parent who can no longer commute to an office, a primary caregiver, or a person whose health or ability won’t allow them to travel. Adrian suggests that companies look inward instead of outward to see how they might adjust and expand their hiring to a broader market.

When we asked Adrian what “great” looks like for recruitment, the first thing he said was, “Agility.” The ability to adapt to problems quickly and effectively, regardless of the location, is the mark of a successful talent acquisition team.

But there’s more to it than global insight. Adrian heartily recommends proactively working to prevent staffing problems in the first place—looking at market perception and retention planning to ensure that your employees stay on and you hire less often.

In today’s market, the Job For Life is more or less extinct. It used to be that when a company hired someone, that person would stay until they retired. Retention was a lifelong act. 

That’s no longer the case, but great TA still means optimal staffing. Most organizations Adrian works with are in what he calls “replenishment mode.” He coaches them to slow the drain by emphasizing retainment. You’ve probably heard that it’s far less expensive to keep a client than to land a new one, and the same goes for your employees. Even a small difference goes a long way. As Adrian puts it, it’s a bit like that old adage about how to outrun a lion. (You don’t have to outrun the lion, just the slowest person you’re with.) If you can outperform your competitors in retainment by even a narrow margin, you’ll finish miles ahead.

Until now, organizations could get away with ignoring retention strategy. It was an employer’s market, and companies made the rules. Today, that old system has been flipped on its head. For the modern TA team, preventing recruitment is just as important as perfecting recruitment—if not more so.