McLean & Company, a trusted research and advisory partner of HR leaders around the world, has released its new blueprint Redesign the Talent Acquisition Strategy. The industry resource was developed to support HR leaders in understanding, analysing, and redesigning the TA structure to better support their organisations’ needs while adapting to the evolving hiring environment.
Ongoing changes in the economy and labour market continue to cause shifts in organisations’ approaches to talent acquisition (TA) landscape, according to a new report by McLean & Company. “TA teams that do not adapt to these rapid shifts risk structural misalignment and increased stress and burnout as talent pools shrink and candidate behaviours change.”
No universal structure for TA
In the new hiring landscape, Talent Acquisition structures have been categorically slow to adapt. McLean & Company’s research has revealed that HR departments are spending most of their time on TA, with a 25% increase over the past year. Coupled with changing candidate behaviours, including a 49% increase in candidate ghosting and a 57% decrease in applications for job openings, ensuring a streamlined, efficient TA strategy is in place is key.
“While changing the TA structure alone won’t solve all recruitment challenges, it does create a foundation which enables the organisation to address the challenge areas.”
“There is no universal or best talent acquisition structure”, says LynnAnn Brewer, director of HR research and advisory services at McLean & Company. “Redesigning the TA structure to be specific to the organisation’s needs is not, however, a quick solution, as it requires a thorough evaluation of the underlying issues. While changing the TA structure alone won’t solve all recruitment challenges, it does create a foundation which enables the organisation to address the challenge areas.”
Four-step process
In an an attempt to ensure their organisations are implementing the right TA strategy for the situation at hand, McLean & Company have offered their own four-step process to redesign a TA structure.
1. Define the desired outcomes of the TA structure
“The first step is understanding how best to engage core stakeholders, as well as gathering information about the current and future state of TA, creating a list of TA activities, and determining constraints and limitations. This is followed by the creation of design principles based on the identified strengths, challenge areas, and structural implications, including uncovering goals and metrics to track success.”
2. Determine the jobs required to meet needs
“Step two supports the establishment of how TA activities will be completed and the deciding of which activities will be completed by the TA team. Next, the workload for each activity is evaluated, TA activity groups are created, and adaptability is built into the TA structure.”
3. Design the TA structure
“Upon completion of step three, decision-makers in the TA redesign process will have determined the required quantity of positions for each role, updated the reporting structure, and gathered feedback to finalize the new structure. The new structure can now be developed.”
4. Communicate and implement the new TA structure
The fourth and final step guides HR leaders through creating a communication plan, which anticipates stakeholders’ reactions, supports team members through the transition, and enables planning for monitoring, reviewing, and iterating the TA structure. “A redesign may also be disruptive and may not result in a more effective TA function if the root cause of the challenges is not addressed, so it is critical to determine if underlying issues would be better addressed by changes to people, roles, processes, or culture, before moving on to structure.”
