Blogs & Articles

Is total talent acquisition right for your company?

Content Team

April 13, 2018

Hiring is changing at a dizzying pace and gathering the necessary pieces of the recruiting puzzle is a challenge. Would a blend of contingent and permanent employees offer the best ROI for your business? Which job boards and social networks most effectively attract talent in your industry? How do you leverage emerging technologies, such as recruiting chatbots and analytics, for improved hiring? Depending on your organization, total talent acquisition can put the pieces of the talent puzzle together.

What Is Total Talent Acquisition?

Total talent acquisition is a hiring and employee management approach that aligns workforce and business strategies to improve outcomes now and in the future. Total talent acquisition zooms out for a big picture view of an organization’s hiring needs and processes, and then zooms in to address geographic talent shortages, increases in product demand that are likely temporary, or employer branding needs.

How Does Total Talent Acquisition Work?

The traditional approach to talent management remains highly siloed, with permanent hiring, contingent hiring, sourcing, employer branding, and analytics often managed separately. Total talent acquisition takes a holistic approach where the need for contingent workers is considered in tandem with permanent workforce needs and industry projections. It also factors in the rising use of robots and artificial intelligence in industries, with an understanding that these technologies are shifting the roles critical to achieving business goals.

With this approach, cycles of hiring and layoffs are replaced by the expansion and reduction of contingent worker contracts. Folding in contingent workers is helpful to cope with market fluctuations, but also for specific expertise that isn’t permanently required. For instance, a logistics company may bring on temporary data specialists to pinpoint emerging markets only when the business is heading into an expansion phase.

The Benefits of Total Talent Acquisition

The workforce is changing, with the number of people filling contingent roles rising fast. By 2020, the number of U.S. workers freelancing part time or full time is expected to top 50 percent. The traditional approach no longer aligns with this fast-evolving hiring landscape, leaving gaps and inefficiencies that total talent tactics can correct. Some of the benefits of total talent acquisition include:

Lower hiring and recruitment costs through centralized management of sourcing, interviewing, applicant tracking systems, candidate management, onboarding, and employee engagement and retention.
Optimizing the balance between permanent and contingent hires in your workforce.
Increased internal hiring by shifting proven contingent hires to open permanent roles.
Improved productivity because this strategy takes a more qualitative approach to contingent hires.
Placing accountability on service providers for permanent and contingent roles, recruiting technology, employer branding, as well as for regulatory compliance issues.
Providing flexibility for shifting forces within your industry and the broader economy.

In the new business landscape, it isn’t just workers who must be agile and adaptive to stay competitive. Companies must also adapt to the new and still evolving hiring environment so their workforce composition spurs business in boom times and helps them weather downturns.

The shift to a total talent acquisition model is challenging but in no way insurmountable. It requires understanding and buy-in from decision makers from the CEO to human resources leaders to procurement managers. Step one? Getting the topic on the conference table.

Need assistance with your hiring? Contact us.

Hudson RPO

Content Team

The Hudson RPO Content Team is made up of experts within the Talent Acquisition industry across the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions. They provide educational and critical business insights in the form of research reports, articles, news, videos, podcasts, and more. The team ensures high-quality content that helps all readers make talent decisions with confidence.

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Blogs & Articles

The best non-monetary perks and benefits for candidates

Content Team

April 6, 2018

To entice candidates to say yes to the job, many companies focus on compensation—the salary, the bonus structure, stock options, and retirement [401(k) Plan or RRSP, for example]—and big benefits such as health insurance and paid vacation. These are important and are weighted heavily by prospective employees. But all other things being equal, non-monetary perks and benefits can make the difference when candidates are on the fence about taking a job at your company.

What are non-monetary perks?

Non-monetary perks are the nice-to-have benefits companies offer, though ‘non-monetary’ is a bit of a misnomer. Often these perks cost companies money, and they save workers time and money. Tech companies draw a lot of attention for their flashy perks, such as on-site chefs cooking free meals for employees, or concierge service to help employees manage personal errands. But non-monetary perks need not be expensive—or envy-inducing—to be valuable to employees and companies. A 2015 Employment Confidence Survey by Glassdoor found that 79 percent of workers prefer increases in perks and benefits to a salary increase, and many of their preferences focused on work/life balance rather than money.

Here are some non-monetary perks to consider adding to your benefits package:

Flexible Schedules and Working Arrangements

The days where all workers were expected to be in-office five days a week are fast disappearing in many industries. Online collaboration tools, such as Slack, and video conferencing apps keep employees up to speed at home, the coffee shop, or in shared workspaces. This approach alleviates employee stress because workers don’t have to cope with a daily commute, or worry how they will manage when a child is home sick from school.

Clear parameters and trust are critical in these arrangements. For example, clarify if the work-from-home option is available only two days per week and set your expectations for timely email responses. Then convey your trust that the employee will be available and get the job done.

Health and Wellness Programs

Busy workers often let fitness, health, and stress-reduction activities slip through the cracks when they have to squeeze them in at end of day or on the weekends. Many companies now offer wellness programs at the office such as yoga and exercise classes, meditation workshops, chair massages, and nutrition counseling. This helps workers de-stress and can lower future healthcare costs for the company.

Career Development

Employees are keenly aware that staying competitive in today’s changing economy means learning new things and adding to their skills. But it’s difficult for them to find time for that when they are busy working long hours. Offer training and workshops in the office that help build your employees’ soft and hard skills. Send them to conferences to keep up to date on the industry, and give them opportunities to network with peers. Offer tuition reimbursement and time for leadership programs and continuing education. This shows employees you are invested in their career growth, which is particularly important to younger workers.

Concierge Services

Let your employees truly refresh over the weekend by taking tedious and time-consuming personal errands off their plate during the week. It doesn’t cost much to hire a concierge company to manage laundry pick-ups, oil changes, and car washes for your employees. Workers usually pick up the cost of the price of the service itself, but the scheduling is managed for them and the service happens while they are working.

Affordable Perks, Big Dividends

The following are a few perks that improve employee satisfaction at little to no cost:

Bring Your Dog to Work Days
Celebrating the birthdays of employees and their spouses
Casual dress policy
Providing healthy snacks
Break room games and activities

How perks benefit companies

These added perks—even simply ensuring workers have fresh, high-quality coffee available through the day—are not insignificant. They make employees feel valued for their contributions to the workplace, and understood as individuals with interests and concerns beyond the office walls, which improves employee engagement and retention rates. Finally, these non-monetary benefits improve your company’s appeal to candidates by showing you are attentive to office culture and care about having happy employees.

Need hiring assistance? Contact us.

Is total talent acquisition right for your company?

What Is Total Talent Acquisition?

How Does Total Talent Acquisition Work?