Learning outcomes • Discuss importance of talent recruitment • Identify sources of talent • Describe attracting talent from within and outside organisations • Explain the talent acquisition process

1. Talent Attraction and Acquisition
Learning outcomes
• Discussimportance of talent recruitment
• Identify sources of talent
• Describe attractingtalent from within and outsideorganisations
• Explain the talent acquisitionprocess
War for talent
• In this knowledge-basedeconomy, asignificant crisis hasemerged in termsof attractingthe right
people, at the right time, in the right place and at the right cost
• Declining birthrates and ageing populationmeansthatskilled talent is becoming scarce
• Recruitment is filling vacancies while talent managementis a long-termandon-goingactivity to
find leaders, specialists andfuture executives
Importance of talent attraction – recruitment
• Winningthe war for talent is all aboutattracting andselecting the right talent for the
organisationin this“employee’sera”
• Talent attraction is the engine of winning the war for talent
• Organisationsthatare able toattract a large pool of talent have a two-foldstrategic advantage
over their rivals
• Ability to be more selective in their hiring which increases the effectiveness of their overall
staffing systems
• Ability to enjoy a higher return oninvestmentby acquisition anddeploymentof humantalent
• Talent recruitment could take place in two forms
• Attracting talent from outsideof the organisation
• Attracting talent from within the organisation
Attracting talent from outside of the organisation
• When attractingtalent from outside of the organisationthe following aspects need tobe well
takencare of
1. Communication
2. Creating an organisationalimage (Employer/organisationbranding)
3. Employerof choice – topfive workplace needs of the new generation
• Work-life balance, workplace culture, variedjob profile, managementstyle, training
Attracting talent from within of the organisation
• Insteadof attracting talent from outside, talent can alsobe attractedfrom within the
organisation – serves as a strategy for retaining existing talent
• Organisationcouldcapitalise onthe cost that it hasinvested onrecruiting, selection andtraining
existing staff

2. • Promotionsandtransferscan be introducedas successionand career planningstrategies for
existing staff members
Attracting talent from within of the organisation
• Promotionsareoften viewed as rewards for employees’ pastperformance and they give hopeto
other employeesto perform better
• Internaltransfers are notas motivatingas promotionsforemployees
• However, they have benefits for workersand organisations
• Fromorganisation’sperspectivean internal transfer will save the cost of inductiontraining,
learning curves or makingemployeesfamiliar with organisationalenvironments
• The level of performance of the transferee is knowntothe managementand they could organise
work accordingly which is notthe case with total outsiders
• Froman employee’sperspective: projected as ‘broadeninganemployees’ scope of work’, ‘multi-
skilling’ or ‘career-pathing’ whichwould be well received by transferees
• For internal transfers tobe successful in large scale organisations, the‘silo-mentality’ needstobe
broken
Limitations in attracting talent from within of the organisation
• There couldbe instances where bringingtalent from outsideis required
• For ‘rare category’ jobs or to find ‘industry experts’ whomay notbe available within
organisations
• May lead to ‘employeecloning’ or ‘inbreeding’ which could be dangerous –
• e.g. badpractices may continue
• Also, attractingtalent from outside of organisationsmay help organisationsto makeuse of
competitors’ strategieswhich is commontoday
Methods of locating qualified job candidates from within the
organisation
• Electronic record systems
o Humanresource informationsystemswould often allow the managementto screen the
entire workforce within minutesto identify potentialcandidates available for openings
o These systemswouldcontain upto date informationon employeessuch as career paths
suitable for them, their qualificationsand employeedevelopmentprogrammesthey have
undergone
• Intranet
o Internaljob openingscould be postedon the intranet of the organisation
o However, the success dependsonto what extend internal employeesare familiar with
the intranet, how my usethe intranet and the visibility of the advertisement
o In addition, internalvacancies could be postedin newsletters, internal magazines, and
other publications
o The mostsuccessful methodis to advertise vacancies duringcareer
development/successionplanningworkshops, trainingsorprogrammes

3. Methods of locating qualified job candidates from outside the
organisation
• Advertisements
• Recruitment consultants/executivesearch firms
• Educationinstitutes
• Employee referrals
• Online methods/social networkingsites such as LinkedIn
• Outsourcethe talent attractionprocess
Talent acquisition
• Applications• Backgroundchecking• Testing • Selection interview • Medical • Decision
Talent acquisition - Applications
• Applicationsprovide a quick and systematicmethodfor organisationstogain a variety of
informationaboutapplicants
• Applicationscan havetwo negatives
• Froman applicant’sperspective, applications can lead to an initial rejection (organisationsnot
liking minorities suchas ethnic groups, female employees)
• Froman organisation’sperspective, thoughapplicationscanbe elaborated, the reality could be
muchdifferent
• For example, A study of 1277 Australianworkers aged 18-63 showedthat
• 39% of managerslied in their CVs
• 18% exaggerated or made uptheir level and range of experience
• 25% of employees(mostly Gen Y) submittedan applicationwith nointentionof taking up the role
butto check the job markets, brushuptheir interview skills or negotiate a higher salary thantheir
current
Talent acquisition – Preliminary interviews
• Preliminary interviews are often conductedto gather informationabout applicants
• These are generally conductedwith referees providedin the application/CV
• It is very importanttoconductthis auditbecause
• Applicants often providefalse informationof their qualifications, experience or other
achievements
• Pastperformance can be an indicator of one’sfuture performance andones whoworked with
applicantswould knowtheir pastperformance
Talent acquisition – background checking
• Backgroundcheckscan often be conductedby reviewing a candidate’ssocial profiles such as
Linked in or Facebook
• However, it shouldbe done withoutviolatingthe privacy of applicantsand throughreliable
sourcesunlike Facebook
Talent acquisition – testing
• Employmenttestscan be groupor individual

4. • Typesof testscan be
• Commercially available tests
• Jobknowledge tests
• Jobsample tests
• A pitfall in employmenttestingis cultural biasness
Talent acquisition – selectioninterview
• Different typesof interviews could be usedbased onthe requirement of the job
• Non-directiveinterviews
• Directive interviews
• Behaviouralinterviews
Talent acquisition – reaching a decision
• Can dofactors (knowledge, skills andattitude) x Will do factors (motivation, interests, personality
characteristics) = JOB PERFORMANCE
• Decision strategy
• How close in the job fit, organisationfit?
• Shouldindividualsbe hired according totheir highestpotential/needsof the organisation?
• At what grade/salary level shouldtheemployee start?
• Shouldoverqualified employeesbe hired?
References
• Dutta, D. (2014). Tweet Your Tune — social media, the New Pied Piper in Talent Acquisition.
Vikalpa, 39(3), 93–104.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0256090920140307
• Nankervis, A., Baird, M., Coffey, J., & Shields, J. (2014). HumanResource Management:Strategy
andPractice. Cengage Learning.