Identifying the best recruitment tech for your needs is only one part of a long battle to build a game-changing stack.
Last week, we were invited to be guests on a special webinar hosted by our vendor partners eArcu on how to convince your c-suite to invest in a best-of-breed strategy.
We covered a lot of ground from L&D to budgeting to CX and UX strategy…and, critically, what a best-in-breed strategy looks like, and how TA leaders can position themselves in the best way possible to create meaningful change further up the management chain.
We wanted to summarise the main takeaway points from our webinar with eArcu for some quick-fire BiB strategy building!
What is a best-in-breed strategy, and what do Talent Acquisition leaders need one?
A best-in-breed strategy is simply a plan of action to achieve a goal – in this instance, we’re referring specifically to the strategy you use to acquire the best talent for your business.
At the very highest level that includes: your team, and the people you involve in hiring, the processes you follow, the technology you use, the way you present yourself as a business, and the HR policies and practices that you adopt internally.
When you start to detail out your strategy, you need to consider every element of TA, from how you define your hiring needs to how you onboard new hires, even beyond that into how you measure the effectiveness of your TA strategy.
In today’s market, it’s not just about following a TA process – there’s so much more that can be done to stay ahead of the competition, and so many innovative ways to acquire talent. A best-in-breed strategy ensures TA efforts aren’t in vain, and that companies have proven, effective methods in place to keep hiring outcomes all moving in the right direction.
Whatever BiB strategy you decide to implement, it needs to be carefully considered. So, ask yourself;
- What does your strategy need to deliver?
- What does a win look like for your business?
- Are you looking for increased output, efficiency gains, cost savings, or are you just out to hire the best talent in the market at any cost?
It’s also absolutely essential that your strategy considers candidate experience… If you don’t meet the expectation of your candidate in today’s market, you’re probably going to lose them.
What are the biggest barriers facing Talent Acquisition professionals when it comes to building a best-in-breed strategy?
In our view, TA leaders being blindsided by CIOs and CFOs, who making system consolidation decisions without consulting their teams.
This often leaves TA with a solution that doesn’t meet their requirements. As a result, they end up having to contract with additional solution suppliers to provide the functionality they need and/or hire additional resources to make up for the lack of tech functionality and automation.
Measuring the effectiveness of any tool is also vital. TA is rarely a quiet place in a growing business, and establishing a best-in-breed strategy in itself can also be a time-consuming task. But it’s time well spent. Essentially, if you don’t have the right tools in place to measure how effective things are then it’s going to be difficult to follow your strategy.
From your experience, how can we avoid those barriers?
TA leaders need to be proactively demonstrating the success of their strategy to the business, in order to ensure they have a seat at the table when it comes to influencing key decisions.
Review as you go – the fundamentals of TA have been the same for years, but the market moves fast. That means that you not only need to ensure that the correct strategy is implemented from the outset, but you also need to be conducting regular reviews of your strategy to ensure success.
This comes back to what I said earlier about what winning looks like for your business. If you’re looking to reduce time to hire, then you need to be measuring how long the process takes, not just from application to hire, but between every stage in the process so that you can pinpoint any issues or bottlenecks that might exist.
You also need to be making data-driven decisions, so technology plays a key role in this. It’s not just about making sure that you have the right tools in place, but also that you’re using them effectively.
How can you put in place plans to help TA teams avoid being blindsided by CIO/CTO decision making?
Our two cents is that TA leaders need to understand whether a CIO’s aim is system consolidation for efficiency, or cost saving. For CFOs, it’s most likely budgetary – but it’s always worth confirming.
- If the aim is system consolidation, will losing this functionality mean you have to integrate with another solution in order to supplement your ERP or HRIS? This would therefore mean another integration for the CIO to maintain and defeat the purpose of system consolidation.
- If the aim is budgetary, will the loss of this functionality mean you have to hire additional resources to make up the shortfall? Or will it mean you have to assign more budget to resourcing in order to get the same number of quality applicants? If so, how do the numbers stack up with the current state?
Internal relationships are essential. I’ve worked with many people in the past who see their C suite as an obstacle. In our opinion, the C suite only becomes an obstacle when they’re not getting what they need.
You may wear different hats and have different priorities, but if you view other stakeholders in the business as allies and not obstacles, and you can demonstrate your successes while building strong working relationships, then you’re far more likely to get buy-in and support when you need it.
Is there anything that TA leaders need to start doing right now to guarantee better tech stack reviews and a healthy relationship with the c-suite?
TA leaders need to be constantly on the case in defining their current strategy, based on performance and adapting to business change.
Measuring success is a key item for the weekly agenda. You need to take a magnifying glass to your entire process, and refine it at every opportunity, not just in terms of speed and efficiency, but in terms of experience and engagement as well.
If you’re going on a journey of change, then you’re not going to succeed alone. Engage with your peers and make them feel involved in the entire process. Getting your team involved and energised about any change that you’re planning to implement, will really help you in getting the buy-in you need from your C-suite.
At Rectec we help organisations to find the best recruitment and talent acquisition technologies to suit your needs.
From Applicant Tracking System and Recruitment CRM comparison, to vendor snapshots, and technology showcases in our unique technology marketplace, we provide fee-free tools to help you build the perfect recruitment tech stack for your business!