Traits of Next-Gen Talent Acquisition Leaders

Recruitment is a challenging process in today’s ever-evolving, continuously-in-flux world. There are many solutions available for the talent acquisition leaders to aid the recruitment process, such as online skill assessment tools, cloud-based data management software, and interviewing tools, etc.  

What recruitment essentially needs is a leader. One who knows what the future of the company looks like and has a vision and knows how to bring the right talent on board. 

Recruiting and talent acquisition is often considered to be the same thing, but talent acquisition varies from recruitment as it is done while keeping the bigger picture in mind.  

Recruitment may fill vacancies, but talent acquisition is a strategic process done to hire specialists, industry experts, and talent acquisition leaders and, hence, requires a thoughtful approach. 

What Does Modern Leadership Look Like? 

Modern leadership comprises of many traits that include vision, mission, commitment, values, and other aspects. Talent acquisition leaders are skill-oriented, and focus on NextGen skills such as creativity, problem-solving ability, critical thinking, adaptability, etc. Talent acquisition leaders focus on long terms goals and, thus, need to have the following traits: 

• Visionary: Talent acquisition is always done with a vision in mind. A visionary leader meaningfully articulates the mission of the organization and recruits to serve the common purpose. Normally, the vision comes from the top-management in the company but is instilled among all employees, especially those who are working close with clients or serving customers.  
• Credible: It is natural that the leaders in organizations or the senior management are not impressed with the output of TA department when they fail to achieve the goals of the organization. Hence, credibility is an essential trait a talent acquisition person should possess to bring suitable talent onboard whose work and experience aligns with the company’s goals. 
• Strategist: The pace of change in businesses continues to accelerate, and hence the TA leader needs to be agile to match with the pace. As per some great HR leaders, recruitment needs to be fast, cheap, and good. To achieve these three things, a good TA leader needs to see the larger picture in order to strategize and recruit quickly, by using affordable tools, and without compromising the quality of candidate. 
• Tech-expert: A person involved in talent acquisition needs to be tech-savvy as it is difficult to determine which tool or software to use to hire an expert. Artificial intelligence, cloud-based software, etc. are all designed to improve the recruitment process. Thus, a talent acquisition leader needs to stay updated with the technological advancements and NextGen skills to make the process efficient. 
• Committed: Every talent acquisition leader needs to have a great commitment towards serving the organization and achieve the desired outcome. That is the only way to solicit the commitment of candidates that TA leaders are bringing onboard to fulfill the mission or goal of the company. 
• Motivated: A motivated TA leader can acquire the best talent as they know how to provide the correct incentive, reason, or compel the employees to work for the organization to get the desired output.  
• Has strong values: Values are the most important aspect of the personality of the leader and act as a guiding principle for the employees that are hired. They dictate how employees will work and conduct their business. They decide how the company will develop in future and also act as the foundation of the organization.

Process of Talent Acquisition:

The process of talent acquisition is crucial as it is mostly about recruiting people on whom the future of organization will depend on. Hiring experts is, thus, a detailed process and requires a lot of scrutiny.  

• Sourcing: Apart from sourcing candidates from online platforms, passive recruitment is also a good option. The best talent in industry does not necessarily looks for a job opportunity, rather people with a good job opportunity are looking for the best talent. Hence, to stay ahead in the competition, a recruiter needs an irresistible job description and a strong network which can be established via conferences, social networking, online forums, etc.  
• Assessment: To hire an expert, a strong and detailed assessment is required, which is possible only with a great skill assessment tool to curate competent Machine Learning tests. The assessment needs to be customizable, wherein the recruiter can decide how difficult the level of assessment should be depending on the level of the requirement of the role.  Interview Mocha has one of the largest skills libraries and enables the user to increase the level of assessment as hiring an expert requires the assessment to be equally difficult one. Along with a difficult assessment test, a detailed interview is normally done to validate the candidature.  

The requirement of a thoughtful, visionary, and forward-thinking leader has always been high and has now increased even more. A wise leadership is important in the area of talent acquisition as it has a beneficial and powerful impact on the future of the company. In these uncertain times, when the future of businesses is also dwindling, only a good talent acquisition leader can help the organization sail through and drive them towards their goals.