Anil Dharni is co-founder and CEO of Sense, an AI-powered talent engagement and communication platform.
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There is no shortage of headlines about recruiting struggles right now. It seems all industries are struggling to find, hire and retain talent. Business leaders understand that having the right talent means stronger business growth. That is the right mindset for sure.
But if you read past the headlines, you will find that most of the emphasis is on recruiting as today’s “Great Resignation” panacea. Recruit more and you won’t have this problem anymore. It’s a numbers game.
Except it really isn’t at all. Why would you want to double down on what brought you to this point?
Reaching more candidates with the right messages is important; however, there is more to it than that. The real problem is not that you need more recruiting. The talent acquisition process you have been following all this time could be what has set you up for stalled growth at best and serious issues at worst.
The Talent Acquisition Funnel Problem
You have seen (and lived) the results of the talent acquisition funnel: Candidates ghosting you before the interview—or worse, before their first day—or employees jumping ship for that great offer that came from your competitor.
That is just the tip of the iceberg.
While the world has certainly gone through many changes over the past few years and there does seem to be a seismic, permanent shift in the talent mindset, these problems are not new. Their root cause has simply been exposed like never before. An examination of the talent acquisition funnel can help illuminate its flaws.
Sourcing
High-volume companies, in particular, have turned sourcing into almost a telemarketing arm. It is transactional, and talent outreach has in many ways become a “throw everything but the kitchen sink at them” affair.
Sourcing teams are often given bonuses based on volume, further adding to the “churn and burn” of talent that is common today. Many sourcing teams are struggling to bring in the same volume of candidates as they have in the past. That is where the “burn” of “churn and burn” comes in. Many professionals consider the type of outreach used by many sourcing teams today to be spam.
Hiring Process
What happens after talent is spammed by the sourcing team to get them to apply? They are often met with incomplete job descriptions and slow-to-respond recruiting teams—and who can blame them. They are overworked and deal with an extremely high volume of talent.
It is no wonder candidate ghosting is so prevalent today—they’re being treated like transactions by their prospective employers.
Activation/Onboarding
After you make an offer, talent is handed off to yet another representative of your company. This new department likely communicates in a different way, maybe even using different methods. They have different goals and are focused primarily on getting new employees to work and contribute to the bottom line as quickly as possible.
Onboarding may include an introduction to the company and its values. It may also include some training or at least a departmental overview—or it may simply include paperwork. This varies so incredibly widely between organizations that it is hard to define precisely.
Then What?
For most organizations, that is the end of any structure. What is wrong with this funnel, then, if that is how things have always been done?
There is no holistic focus on talent. It is all transactional, passing the buck from team to team without putting people first. These teams are separate pieces of a broken funnel, each one passing the buck to the other. It is no wonder budgets are at astronomical highs. Retention rates are dropping quickly, and data shows a high percentage of professionals are willing to leave for a better job.
You Should Be Prioritizing Talent Experience
Not only is the funnel broken, leaking budget and creating unsustainable growth, but it is also unnecessarily complicated.
From my perspective, there are three experiences that really matter in a talent journey. When you prioritize all talent within your organization and not simply candidates, your funnel becomes a flywheel. At my company, Sense, we call it the talent experience flywheel. That is because each talent experience feeds into the other organically and continuously.
Those three experiences that make up the talent experience flywheel include:
Candidate Experience
Of course, candidate experience is critical. From their first touchpoint (whether that comes from recruiter outreach, a job posting or ad, social media, etc.) to hire, you should be delivering a consistent, exceptional experience that respects talent throughout.
Employee Experience
Ongoing employee experience ensures your team is happy and fulfilled throughout their tenure with your business. By showing your employees that you value them, you increase productivity, improve retention, increase referrals and can even impact sales. At Sense, we have had employees and contractors who worked with us, only to later purchase our talent engagement platform. While that is a unique example, it is a very realistic one, particularly in today’s talent landscape.
Recruiter Experience
Recruiters are overworked and burned out. They, too, are in high demand, making a highly transient role even more so at the moment. Providing your recruiters with an exceptional experience feeds into the candidate and employee experience.
In fact, you can see how the positive experiences at every stage of the flywheel feed into the next. Rather than transactions and passing the buck, every level of the organization takes ownership and contributes. While this is a culture shift that starts with leadership, implementation and ongoing facilitation can be powered by the right talent engagement mindset. It is a powerful shift, but one that is sustainable and could have tangible impacts on success now and in the future. This is more than feel-good rhetoric. It is critical for continued business growth.
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