What Does Your Talent Acquisition Scorecard Look Like?

A report card will bring you back – way back. And for most of the working world it’s a measurement we’re happy to be rid of. Although the way we measure business processes tends to be a bit different, the report card concept has stuck around for business benchmarking.

When it comes to talent acquisition, an analysis of how a company’s current sourcing approach holds up in comparison to the competition and other top-choice employers is a good tool to inform future sourcing strategy. There are a number of sourcing-effectiveness criteria that we measure at Seven Step, and they are constantly evolving as new candidate communication channels and expectations arise.

Would your current candidate sourcing strategy fall in the “A” range, or come closer to a “C”? Check out some of the subjects that we think talent acquisition professionals might need to apply themselves to:

• Dedicated social media careers pages: Social is one of the biggest transformations talent acquisition has undergone in recent years. LinkedIn has become a top resource for sourcing candidates with unique skills, and social channels have become an important outbound communications tool for organizations looking to attract top talent. On the flip side, job seekers are using social media as a resource to learn more about available jobs and employer culture. Dedicating a specific Twitter handle, Facebook page, LinkedIn tab and even a Google+ page elevates the candidate experience and demonstrates a dedication and seriousness about talent acquisition.
• Mobile-optimized career pages: Consider this – CareerBuilder averages around 3.5 million page views per day across its mobile platform. When Careerbuilder first launched their mobile site, it quickly grew from 30,000 to close to a million users a month. Candidates todays are on-the-run and want the convenience of accessing jobs when and where it’s convenient for them. Building a mobile-optimized career page prevents potentially interested candidates from dropping off because of accessibility frustrations.
• Talent community opt-in:If you’re not giving candidates an easy way to receive future communications about job openings, you’re missing out on building a community of potential new hires. Marketers know: qualified leads have to be nurtured carefully. It’s no different in talent acquisition. By maintaining a database of resumes from those who have chosen to opt-in and receive career-related information, there’s an instant pool of prospects when new jobs come open.
• Easy apply path:If you’ve got a good candidate on the hook, you don’t want to lose them because your process lacks ease-of-application. On a typical career site, 90 percent of candidates don’t apply and 50 percent of candidates that start the ‘Apply’ process drop out. Most companies would likely be pretty disappointed in their grade on this as search features and a streamlined application process is lacking on most career sites. Improving this efficiency by minimizing the amount of pages a candidate must click through with an ‘Apply Now’ button and an easy way to upload a resume will score employers a higher grade.

These are just a few of the criteria we think are important to grade in the larger strategy. Let us know what you’re measuring and if you can claim to be in the “A” category in comments below.