Conducting An Effective Talent Acquisition Audit – 3 Rules Of Thumb

Every business has been significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, majority of them in the unpleasant manner. Only a handful of industries like those related to medical, pharma, groceries, and daily necessities have seen rising sales. And, as every business suffers, every business leader has also personally experienced the adverse impact of the pandemic.

Even when it comes to recruitment, scenarios have highly been transformed. Certain industries like healthcare, pharmacy, and eCommerce are hiring large number of candidates for jobs, while others are by and large reducing the number of employees working in their companies. Many are left jobless amidst this disrupted situation, while others are trying to adjust with remote work arrangements and financial disruption. The way businesses are being conducted today and the way they are to be staffed is all undergoing significant change.

Companies who want to hire are streamlining and improving their abilities to rapidly hire diverse and high-performing talent. And, if you want to do the same, below mentioned are three rules of thumb that you must follow. These three important points have been decided upon after completing recruitment audits across a multitude of industries over the last decade.

Rule of thumb 1 – Working towards qualitative research in a structured manner

The goal of a qualitative research is to identify trends about how talent acquisition is working across the organization, or a targeted area of the business. The intent is thus to gain insights from individuals who represent key stakeholder groups, rather than to talk to or survey every individual who interacts with talent acquisition. An interview or survey can be conducted with a group of stakeholders representing senior leadership, hiring managers, HR partners, and the like. Doing so can help focus on gaining insights into what’s working well about talent acquisition and what needs to improve.

Rule of thumb 2 – Focusing on the right way to achieve quantitative data

It is often difficult to access data in the world of recruiting. Moreover, the data received is required to be perfectly accurate. Any unintegrated talent technologies, unused applicant tracking systems, and ill-managed requisitions can result in unclear hiring data. If you want perfect and accurate data for talent acquisition, you need to focus on some important facets such as –

Ø     Looking at trends over the last two years in hiring, termination, and internal mobility, so as to understand how people move across the business, in different locations or business units, and in critical functions.

Ø     Digging into the views like key geographies, business units, critical functional areas, and other employee classifications important to the business, in order to identify meaningful and actionable talent trends.

Ø     Calculating a general cost per hire, including overall talent acquisition spend, agency costs, and RPO, the sum of which to be divided by the number of requisitions managed by talent acquisition in an year, can provide a baseline to evaluate against industry benchmarks and prior year costs.

Rule of thumb 3 – Conducting a professional recruitment audit

How an audit is conducted is what decides on the upcoming important steps of a procedure. In the world of recruitment, an audit can decide on the steps of increasing headcount, changing technology, employer branding, and redesigning the recruiting process. It is thus better to avoid doing a DIY audit, and instead hire a professional team of experts who specialize in recruitment audits to bring the best outcomes. One such team of professionals who can help is WalkWater Talent Advisors, one of the top executive searchfirms in India, who have great skill and expertise in every field of the recruitment industry.