6 Steps in Strategic Planning for Emerging Companies to Compete in Talent Acquisition

Corporate talent acquisition departments usually go through an annual process of strategically planning for the upcoming year. Small to mid-sized organizations are often competing against recruiting departments from major corporations with many more resources, so the following is a step-by-step guide to help these small to mid-sized firms in their strategic planning.

1) Analyze Data
Review recruiting data and examine the information looking for relationships, trends and patterns. It’s important to monitor data for the recruiting function on an ongoing basis, but going through the strategic planning process makes a thorough examination even more critical. There are plenty of ways to measure the recruiting function such as source of hires, cost-per-hire / cost-per-hire by source, percentage of openings/FTE, time-to-fill, conversion ratios for the ‘recruiting funnel’, but the most overlooked metric that every company should track Is QoH.


2) Evaluate Staff & Stakeholders
An evaluation of the recruiting team that includes their individual ability for each candidate source will reveal that some recruiters are better at job fairs, some cold-calling, screening, etc. Observation, data analysis and even some informal interviewing can help determine in which areas each team member will likely be the most successful. Evaluating company hiring authorities can also uncover how each one might be coming across to candidates, the level of their interviewing skills and how strong their decision making abilities are.


3) Complete a Recruiting S.W.O.T. Analysis
Many tools can be found online to help conduct a S.W.O.T analysis. S.W.O.T. stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats and has been long used in the field of marketing but can also give great insight into the talent acquisition function. This analysis is strongest when driven by surveys of existing employees, new hires, candidates that declined an offer of employment as well as public industry information on mergers, initiatives or other changes at competitors. The Strengths and Weaknesses are usually an analysis of internal abilities and processes, while Opportunities and Threats look more at the external marketplace.


4) Define Goals
Department goals of course need to be aligned with overall company objectives by working with senior management, but being proactive in this area will almost always produce better measurements. Using the S.W.O.T. analysis, department goals can be established that address some of the challenges facing the company. Team goals should be broken down by function within the department and using the earlier analysis to help determine what areas of concern that need to shored up.


5) Optimize the Recruiting Process
Insight from the earlier analysis should reveal which functions need to be prioritized and where in the process each contributor would be in the best position to succeed. The recruiting funnel ratios should expose any major bottleneck issues within the interview process, but there is a balance that needs to be struck between a strong processes and the empowerment of the recruiters. While a strongly structured process should limit errors there also needs to give enough freedom to allow exceptions when needed as to not slow down the hiring of a good candidate.


6) Establish Metrics
It’s best to keep a record of as much recruiting data as possible. However, based on the objectives of senior management and the earlier analysis only three to five department metrics and three to five goals for each individual team member should be public and emphasized. Goals should be actionable and have a direct effect the overall company objectives for the upcoming year. It’s much more efficient to use the best available software to automate the tracking of as much of the data as possible so that team members can focused on more productive activities. Optimally, these metrics will be reevaluated throughout the year to ensure the right measurements are being tracked to have the desired effect. Each recruiting team member should also have an individual career development plan every year that is also tied-in to their annual goals.

Even with a perfect plan in place, success will often come down to reactions to the unpredicted changes throughout the year. Going through this process of a full strategic analysis once a year should make it easier for the recruiting department to react quickly and more effectively to those unpredicted changes. Following these six steps during that process will greatly increase the rate that small to mid-sized firms will successfully compete with their more well-funded competition.