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Building A Case For TA Investment

January 16, 2020

Posted by Rebecca Grover

The focus on talent acquisition (TA) ‘maturity’ is prevalent, directly connecting the level of TA sophistication to organizational growth, revenue and productivity.

Broader disruption in the talent & HR space makes time and spend investment a prioritisation challenge for organizations, and us as practitioners.

Every organization’s journey towards “TA utopia” is situationally unique – I have found agreeing on strategic design principles before formalising your plan of attack really helps pinpoint critical programs of work.

Over the next few weeks, I will release a series of recommended programs of work to help provoke thinking & create that required step change towards a higher level of TA sophistication – whatever the starting point!

​Trailer for what’s to come …

To Improve Functional Impact;

Recommendations will resonate if your current TA maturity model is deemed transactional. Suggested programs of work will create a step change towards a more focused and impactful level of functional maturity.

To Accelerate for Strategic Impact;

Recommendations will resonate if you require a noticeable shift in mindset and TA approach to meet accelerated business growth needs. Also relevant if your organization is entering new markets and needs to make a rapid competitive impact.

To Modernize for Commercial Impact;

Recommendations will resonate if you already have a performing TA function and now need to demonstrate bottom and top line commercial impact. Further integration into your organization and thinking laterally will ensure your TA function delivers competitive advantage at every touch point of the talent supply chain.

The question then turns to RoI – how do you get that much-needed investment to drive required programs of work?

Firstly, I focus on the cost of not doing anything! My 7 ‘go to’ commercial pitfalls for consideration …

  1. Current ‘recruitment’ spend – typically increases as a result of ‘just in time’ / reactive hiring and is fuelled by high attrition.
  2. The cost of a bad hire – employees never reaching their potential + rehire costs typically stems from; limited clarity on what success looks like and/or substandard evaluation of success potential during the hiring process.
  3. Productivity cost – weak or non-existent on-boarding and development practices impact workforce productivity and/or extends time to productivity for new employees.
  4. Business revenue cost – staffing gaps due to extended time to hire and slow time to develop (over and underinvestment).
  5. Opportunity cost – minimal workforce mobility and development so preference is to ‘buy’ versus ‘build’.
  6. Resource cost – ineffective and inconsistent processes & service delivery, some activity not even adding value to hire experiences & outcomes.
  7. Brand cost – poor candidate and employee experiences negatively impacting employer and corporate brand.

Talent acquisition food for thought!

Contact me through our contact page if you would like to request program recommendations now or if you would like to discuss further.