Human resources is a department that is forever under the scanner. Aside from being tasked with filling in job openings with the right candidate, HR must look at salaries, appraisals, and other employee issues too. And coupled with the dynamism of the market, this has meant a number of new terminologies, technologies, and more in the HR domain.
For someone working in HR, there is often the question of the difference between talent acquisition, talent management and HR itself. All three are distinct terms with different meanings, but there is some overlap between all. Let us understand the differences and similarities.
What do these three mean?
Talent acquisition essentially refers to recruitment and hiring i.e. everything that is done to find talent. Tasks here include:
- Strong employer branding to attract top talent
- Finding and hiring top candidates
- Interfacing with past candidates for future job openings
When it comes to HR and talent management, the lines get a little blurred. Talent management includes the following:
- Finding talent
- Developing talent
- Onboarding
- Training and development
- Rewards and recognition
- Retrenchment
- Matching talent with future roles and with internal culture
For an HR professional, talent management and HR are quite similar. The difference is that while HR was traditionally believed to look only at the fit of a candidate with a particular role, talent management also looks at the fit with future roles as well as with the organizational culture.
What are the essential steps to successfully acquire talent?
For HR and talent management professionals, the process of acquiring talent needs due attention to be given to:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Interest
- Application
- Selection
A number of steps are required before successfully acquiring talent. These include:
- Establishing a strong employer brand to attract candidates
- Building talent channels to fill current and future needs
- Maintaining connections with past candidates for future job openings
- Diversifying and expanding recruitment by choosing candidates from different backgrounds
The top methods HR professionals use to acquire talent are:
- Referral programs: considered reliable as employees understand the nature of the company and the work, and their recommendations could help get a candidate on board fast
- Careers section on websites: a good reflection of the employer brand, and a poorly designed site could turn away good candidates
- Campus recruitments: a good source of talented people whose thinking is not limited by workflows or convention
- Social media recruiting: offers wide reach and low cost of hiring
What else is handled as a part of talent management?
Aside from talent acquisition, talent management also includes other tasks done to effectively handle employees. Some of the key processes here are:
- Onboarding: helping new hires adjust to different aspects of the job and pick up requisite skills and knowledge
- Employee engagement: efforts made by the HR and talent management professionals to maintain a positive work environment conducive to good performance
- Employee retention: tasks discharged by HR professionals as part of retaining employees in the firm. This becomes especially important in the light of the efforts made to get them on board in the first place, as it would be unfortunate to then lose them for whatever reasons.
Does a company require separate teams for these tasks?
This is a question with no universal answer, as the choice depends upon the scale, budget, priorities and other concerns of the particular organization. This is what will determine if one set of people can handle everything or if further subdivision is needed.
The best bet would be to have proper synchronization between all tasks. When the right talent is acquired, it becomes easier to manage it such that its skills come to the fore and help in attaining organizational goals. This is essentially the goal of a good HR policy too.