How confident are you in your team’s ability to meet current and future demands for talent? The current recruitment landscape is extremely challenging: the hiring workload is high, the candidate market is tight, and talent teams are still reeling from the breadth of global transformation in recent years. Recent research into the state of talent acquisition across Australia and New Zealand suggests that talent advisory solutions will be key to getting better hiring outcomes and achieving organisational goals. But, what are talent advisory solutions and how can smaller internal recruitment and HR teams move closer to a full advisory service model? 

What do talent advisory solutions entail?

Talent advisory solutions provide internal recruitment teams with the processes and systems they need in order to find the best talent. Talent advisory solutions include things like:

• Role configuration to meet organisational needs; 
• A focus on internal mobility; 
• An understanding of the wider talent landscape; 
• A strategy to upskill and re-skill teams; 
• The ability to outsource to specialists as needed; and, 
• The right automation tools to streamline processes. 

According to the State of Talent Acquisition Report 2021, internal recruitment teams who offer more of the above services to their organisation are better positioned to deliver the right talent at the right time. It comes down to actively anticipating your needs and planning your workforce in order to recruit well and foster growth. Strong labour market knowledge, talent sourcing processes, and talent pipelines are key to improving talent delivery. 

So, that begs the question: 

How can smaller teams implement talent advisory solutions? 

The talent advisory solutions above are closely linked to talent delivery and outcomes. But how can smaller internal recruitment and HR teams sustain themselves under the added pressure of the current climate? 

There are a number of steps your organisation can take to become more proactive and step towards a full advisory service model: 

Leverage talent technology 

If you want to reduce waste when hiring and create a streamlined, scalable talent acquisition process, then you should leverage recruitment automation tools. You’ll save time tracking applications, managing candidates, building talent pipelines, onboarding new starters, and upskilling teams. Not only will you reduce manual handling, but you’ll create better candidate experiences, strengthen your employer brand, and greatly reduce your time to hire. 

Try calculating the ROI of our recruitment software to see just how much a solution like this can do for your organisation. You can also read our recent article for advice on how to build a business case for a recruitment CRM and get a new solution approved by your executive team. 

Build internal recruitment data 

With a sophisticated recruitment CRM, you’ll gain valuable insight into your hiring process. Leverage detailed reports to track progress from vacancy to vacancy, identify bottlenecks in your recruitment process and report on its efficiency over time. Use this data to build business cases for new tools or support and inform decisions about your talent acquisition process and needs. Metrics from your candidate management system will also demonstrate time saved and goals achieved by your internal recruiters, gaining trust and confidence from the rest of your organisation. 

Facilitate upskilling and re-skilling 

Some of the biggest roadblocks to strong talent delivery are:

• Increased hiring demand due to growth; 
• Increased resignation rates; and, 
• Too much change and transformation at once. 

The opportunity to learn and grow is ranked the number one most important driver of great work culture. According to the LinkedIn Learning Workplace Learning Report 2022, “learning powers culture, and culture powers engaged employees who are energised to innovate, delight customers, and beat the competition.” 

A strong culture of learning and development will not only attract high-quality candidates to your organisation but keep them engaged and help them adapt to changing needs within and outside of the organisation. 

Importantly, a learning management system and extensive library of training materials also empower your teams to either upskill in their current roles or re-skill to meet new needs across the organisation. 

Lastly, a culture of learning empowers your organisation to: 

Emphasise internal mobility 

The rise of internal mobility comes as a result of closed borders and reshuffled priorities for workers around the globe. Without a reliable stream of international workers flowing in and out with fresh skills, the candidate market has become incredibly competitive. Plus, the Great Resignation proved that some things are more important to our teams than just remuneration. 

These conditions have made internal mobility the new focus for L&D efforts and workforce planning because, at a really basic level, internal mobility negates the global talent shortage. It also appeals to the desire of your teams to develop, grow, and try new things as their careers progress. Incorporating internal mobility into your culture will play an important role in your organisation’s growth, particularly if the market stays so competitive. 

External talent advisory solutions 

Part of being a proactive advisory function for your organisation is knowing what you can implement and drive internally, and where you need to lean on external support. There are a number of things that an external talent advisory service provider can help you implement that will save your team time and help you get better results going forward. For example: 

Recruitment Marketing and Advertising

Recruitment marketing specialists have their fingers on the pulse of the labour market and what makes one vacancy stand out from the next. Tailored recruitment marketing and job advertising will help you get more applications from high-quality candidates without taking your vacancy to market multiple times, thus improving talent delivery.

Employer Branding for Recruitment and Retention 

Working with specialists in this area helps you uncover your unique Employee Value Proposition and brand messaging. This is then used to distinguish your organisation as an employer of choice, supporting talent delivery and retention. A strong employer brand also leads to increased employee commitment and engagement overall. 

Employee Assessment Services

This refers to both pre-employment checks and ongoing skills testing. Leaning on an external talent advisory solutions provider helps you streamline the assessment process and leverage that data to make important recruitment and internal mobility decisions. Pre-employment checks help you hire candidates that fill existing skills gaps and add to your organisational culture. Similarly, skills assessments help you keep track of your team’s growing skills and assess their suitability for internal promotions and role changes. This kind of data will be incredibly useful for workforce planning in alignment with your organisation’s goals for growth. 

Talent Engagement and Pipelining 

Not many internal recruiters have the time and resources to build, maintain, and engage a talent pool. But, talent engagement and pipelining are key to improving your talent delivery and responsiveness to vacancies. A talent engagement specialist can help you set up systems to proactively engage candidates for future vacancies and create a pipeline of future team members. 

Why talent advisory solutions are the future of recruitment 

If your internal recruitment team is struggling with a reactive service model, a lack of talent pools and sourcing, and a dearth of talent outreach initiatives, then working towards these talent advisory solutions will be key to sustainable growth. 

Organisations that can adapt to change are the ones that succeed and outperform their competitors. Enhance your adaptability, resilience, and scalability with recruitment automation, a robust L&D strategy, and outsourced specialist solutions.

If you’re thinking of investing in talent advisory solutions, either talent acquisition technology or specialist services, connect with us to discuss our full advisory service model. Together, we can drive growth for your organisation.