I can’t believe 2014 is almost over, and a new year is upon us. We haven’t been idle at Brandon Hall Group this year. Over the last 12 months, we’ve added some big names to our analyst team, launched DataNow, and will host our first-ever HCM Excellence Jan. 28-30 – not to mention publishing countless pieces of new research in HCM. It truly has been a record year for us, and things show no sign of slowing any time soon.
You may think I would be content to “keep up the good work” in 2015 … but since I’ve been such a good boy this year, there are a few things on my wish list that are as ambitious as you can get as an industry analyst.
A Shiny New Framework for High-Performance Talent Acquisition
Talent acquisition is changing rapidly. As reactionary recruiting models give way to proactive attraction and engagement strategies, key practices are evolving to support a more holistic approach to the way we think about sourcing, assessing, hiring, and onboarding. Today, success in talent acquisition requires a new way of thinking – broadening efforts beyond “source, hire, repeat,” and embracing candidate relationship management, recruitment marketing, and other emerging key practices.
With this in mind, I’m developing a working model of how the most effective hiring organizations are tackling talent acquisition. To say the scope of this framework, and the accompanying report that drills down into its myriad pieces, is broad is something of an understatement – like any good framework, it serves as a working foundation for organizations of any size.
While Santa may not have this framework under the tree for me come Christmas morning, this labor of love is nearing completion!
Gifts of Frankincense, Gold, and Myrrh — I mean Measurement.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Measurement is the key to high-performance everything. This year, I built a model for measuring the impact of employer brand. I’ve asked Santa to bring me similar models for measuring impact in other emerging key practices in talent acquisition: Candidate relationship management, recruitment marketing, social talent acquisition, video interviewing … the list goes on and on.
A hiring organization’s ability to develop, implement, and maintain a model for measuring performance in key areas of talent acquisition will continue to grow in importance in 2015. But if effective measurement strategies were easy, everyone would be doing them. After years of reactionary recruiting processes, changing gears is a serious undertaking. I plan to do all I can to support this shift in the New Year – starting with models, and then developing tools our members can use to jumpstart their measurement initiatives and support ongoing success.
Joy – and a Positive Candidate Experience – to the World!
Thanks in large part to the work of friends and luminaries like Gerry Crispin and Elaine Orler, the importance and impact of candidate experience has gained legs over the last few years. But while few of us would argue against the value of a positive candidate experience, many of the talent acquisition leaders I’ve spoken with are still looking for black-and-white answers to some very simple questions (least of all being where to begin). So I’ve asked Santa to bring me a primer on candidate experience management that anyone can use to navigate these murky waters and make a big splash with candidates in 2015.
I’ve said before that I believe candidate experience is at the core of high-performance talent acquisition, and I dig into the meat of this in my forthcoming framework report. But, just in case his elves are too busy delivering toys to get around to it, I’ll be investigating key practices in candidate experience much further – so stay tuned!
–Kyle Lagunas, Talent Acquisition Analyst, Brandon Hall Group
