Talent Acquisition vs. Recruitment: Key Differences and Similarities

They sound like different terms for the same process, and to some extent they are, but recruitment and talent acquisition (TA) also have some key differences. Simply knowing the difference between these two processes can help you make better hiring decisions. Heres everything you need to know about talent acquisition vs. recruitment.

Recruitment is becoming more challenging as we head into the future of work for several reasons. One, the labor market is tight due to the low unemployment rate. Two, not many candidates have the skills companies need to fill gaps in their business process. Three, there is still a lack of synergy between business heads and recruitment and talent acquisition specialists about merging talent requirements with business goals.

While reason three is something that must be resolved at the organizational level, problems one and two can be resolved by building specific strategies to hire the right people in the short term as well as the long term. To do this, lets look into the key differences between talent acquisition and recruitment.

What Is the Difference Between Talent Acquisition and Recruitment?

Recruitment refers to the process of filling a vacancy as the need arises. For instance, your star employee may have to relocate to another country, and you need to fill their position during their notice period. To do this, you will recruit another employee during that period, who you hope will be a star performer too.

Recruitment is a subset of talent acquisition. It involves the five stages of candidate sourcing, lead nurturing, candidate selection, interviewing, and onboarding.

Talent acquisition is a broader hiring strategy. It involves developing a specific hiring strategy, talent or candidate relationship management, employer branding, creation of a talent pipeline, and finally, recruitment.

TA specialists foresee the recruitment requirements of the future by keeping a close watch on the companys human resources and its growth. For example, 68 months down the line, your organization is expected to expand into a new service. This service will require employees with a range of skills, say digital marketing to sales and public relations professionals to IT professionals.

The TA process will begin with a collaborative meeting between leadership and HR to first understand the skill requirements of the positions. Then, TA specialists will formulate a plan to hire the employee to fill these positions.

Then a recruitment specialist will leverage this talent pipeline to begin the search for the required candidate based on the talent acquisition strategy.

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The Elements of Talent Acquisition and How They Enable Recruitment

Talent acquisition is an organization-wide effort. It does not just rest with the small talent acquisition team in the HR function.

For instance, as a TA specialist, you will collaborate with the in-house marketing team to improve your employer branding efforts. Collaborate with the IT team to gather data about past hiring strategies and the skills of employees who have done well in certain jobs. Use this data to define the employee persona you are targeting and build your strategy accordingly.

Heres what defines the talent acquisition process and how these elements simplify recruitment.

1. Assessing the current workforce and the business needs

TA specialists must have in-depth knowledge of the business they serve and the workforce requirements of this business for example, how it is segmented and which segment has the highest demand. They must remain in touch with this workforce and its expanding needs to fulfill talent requirements as and when they arise.

To do this, they must identify key metrics or parameters they need to assess for example, skills gap and culture fit. Then, they can use analytics to identify where the skills gap lies and whether hiring externally or training internally may be a better option for workforce optimization and talent management.

All this data can be sourced from IT and respective line managers and built upon using AI-powered predictive analytics tools to simplify the process.

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2. Engaging in recruitment marketing to build an employer brand

The importance of having a positive employer brand in an era when practically all information is transparent cannot be stressed enough. Candidates may need jobs, but they are also aware of how they want their experience at work to be.

A talent acquisition strategy will use the data from the workforce evaluation mentioned above and design a well-thought-out recruitment marketing plan to create a memorable employer brand.

This means considering generational differences and catering to the needs of each generation. For instance, millennials place importance on career development, so that will be the USP of the employer branding strategy. For the Gen Z workforce, being part of a sustainable organization may be important. Use the USPs of your organization to attract the right talent.

3. Building a talent pipeline for strategic, leadership positions

Nurturing relationships with active and passive candidates is essential to build a talent pipeline. TA specialists must forecast the needs of the organization and use succession planning to determine which leadership gaps can be filled internally and which gaps need external hiring.

Building a relationship with such candidates requires time and an active candidate relationship management strategy. At this point, using the technology available for such a process becomes imperative if TA professionals want to build a pipeline they can harness as the need arises.

Several platforms are available that improve the candidate experience and help recruiters and talent acquisition professionals build positive relationships with candidates.

It is these processes that lay the foundation of quick, results-oriented recruitment efforts.

When to Engage in Talent Acquisition Vs. Recruitment

As mentioned earlier, recruitment is a rather reactive process. You recruit in reaction to an existing vacancy. Talent acquisition, on the other hand, is proactive. You prepare to recruit even when you have a fully optimized workforce because you are predicting the future needs of an organization.

As a practice, having a TA strategy in place regardless of the age and size of your organization is imperative. But it is far more important to have one in case of the following situations.

1. When starting a new business segment or a new business

Hiring for the future involves hiring for new positions, new skills, and new technologies. So, when an organization starts a new business segment and you need to find people to run that segment, you must have a TA strategy in place.

Similar is the case with a new business altogether. The workforce must be built from the ground up. This means working to attract the right talent that will stay.

Recruitment takes over from talent acquisition when the strategy is in place and when it has begun to attract candidates.

2. To hire for skills, but not a specific role in the organization

Keep in mind that building a talent pipeline based on skills can help you tremendously when hiring for your organization. It may not be necessary to know exactly which role a certain candidate may fill. But having a set of skills that can be matched with a role that may arise in the future is one and a highly valuable way to go about it.

As a result, a TA specialist will focus on the skills someone brings to the table, regardless of their educational background. They may even assess the potential for skills development on the job. A recruitment specialist may, however, focus on experience and certifications to fulfill the immediate requirement of the business.

When you have performed a skills gap analysis and know exactly which skills you need to hire for, you need a strategy that will help you find these professionals and close those gaps.

The strategy to hire marketers will be different from the strategy to hire coders. The strategy to hire finance professionals will be different from the strategy to hire writers. Often, recruitment and talent acquisition strategies fail because the hiring method does not change with each role.

For example, your strategy to hire coders may be to invite them to the now popular method of finding them hackathons. On the other hand, your strategy to hire writers may be to give them the end of a story and have them build their way backward into a well-planned and written paper.

Recruiters will then work on shortlisting candidates for these activities, assessing their fit for the role along with line managers, and proceed to interview and hire these candidates.

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3. To increase diversity hiring efforts

Diversity is a compliance regulation you must meet, but it is also a way to get the most innovative minds working for you. Short-term recruitment alone cannot meet your diversity hiring goals. This requires a well-planned strategy to hire diverse professionals in various roles across the organization.

It is here that candidate screening technology can truly help you because it can help screen for skills and experience rather than people. As humans, we harbor a lot of unconscious biases we dont notice, and that can show up in the way we hire. Once a candidate screening software has evaluated candidates for the skills they can bring to the organization, you can then go on to build healthy relationships with them.

Both Recruiters and Talent Acquisition Specialists Must Collaborate With Tech to Stay Relevant

Recruitment and talent acquisition are not separate from each other. And they both serve very specific purposes at different times. A talent acquisition strategy considers recruitment technologies in place to enable efficient recruitment. Recruitment involves using this technology to then go ahead and hire.

What both TA specialists and recruiters need is skill development to collaborate efficiently with artificial intelligence and other technologies. The outcome of using AI in recruitment and TA is well-known. As we head into 2020 and further, AI is expected to become the mainstay of all aspects of the HR function. This is essential as the talent and technology landscape both evolve, and greater effort is needed to devise unique talent acquisition and recruitment strategies.

Learn More: What is Full Cycle Recruiting? Definition, Process with Examples

The key is to upgrade your knowledge of the technologies available and use them effectively to stay relevant and deliver success.