The worldwide coronavirus pandemic changed almost every aspect of our world, including recruiting and hiring. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reports that the pandemic has required significant changes to hiring. Virtual recruiting is now a permanent hiring practice. Internal hiring is a more important part of workforce development. And recruiters must make diversity and inclusion a priority in their organization’s recruiting strategy.

Talent acquisition (TA) leaders joining new organizations should expect to make changes to reflect these new recruiting realities. Recruiters need to be skilled in adaptability as the pandemic has taught us all. Rapid adjustments to emerging business conditions are the norm to stay competitive, deal with business challenges, and safeguard recruiting success.

New TA leaders recruiting in 2022 and beyond will be facing pandemic-based challenges. Those leaders will need to assess existing talent acquisition strategies and refresh and revolutionize them for their organizations’ successful workforce development.

Challenges of New TA Leaders

Talent acquisition professionals joining new organizations will face different challenges in 2022 than pre-pandemic recruiting. Big challenges will be in competing with the gig economy, keeping up with the latest HR technology, and shifting focus to a great candidate and employee experience.

The pandemic-fueled gig economy offering flexibility and remote work, as well as the opportunity to add to main income sources, makes up 36 percent of the U.S. workforce and 56 percent of employment in India. With this many workers engaged in gig work, employers have to compete with the perks and attractions that gig work offers. Flexible hiring has to be added to conventional hiring methods to recruit short-term and contract candidates, along with non-traditional work conditions attractive to pandemic-affected individuals in the job market.

TA leaders new to their organizations need to keep up with the newest HR technology. The pandemic made digitization a priority and need the latest tools and techniques to stay competitive in the job market. Cloud solutions rather than on-site and manual tactics reduce costs and increase efficiency and scale recruiting efforts among a TA team. TA leaders should look at implementing apps for mobile recruiting for maximum results.

Candidates and employees alike have different expectations from employers after ongoing pandemic woes. TA leaders have to focus on the experience of their target candidates and the employees they become for recruiting success. Improved communications, career development, and wellness offerings are just a few ways TA leaders can improve the recruiting experience.

Assessing Existing TA Strategies

To be able to make improvements to recruiting strategies in a new TA leadership position, TA leaders need to understand the hiring history and business needs. Turnover issues and rates, monthly and yearly hiring loads, and business goals are all areas to evaluate for existing success and need for improvement. With this information, TA leaders can begin to recommend and implement recruitment strategy changes.

This kind of evaluation calls for collaboration with departments and leaders directly involved in recruiting needs and processes. TA leaders should partner with marketing, accounting, and current employees to understand and improve recruiting materials, get recruiting budget and spending insights, and know what kind of candidates to target. This kind of collaboration provides the perspectives and insights needed to assess current recruiting strategies and develop changes for improvement.

Revolutionizing Existing TA Strategies

To revolutionize existing TA strategies, new TA leaders should take a page from the chemical corporation BASF. The multinational giant’s Talent Attraction team significantly improved the company’s candidate experience during the global pandemic. Facing tough competition from other strong companies, BASF TA leaders knew they had to create a sustainable positive candidate experience.

BASF head of talent acquisition Crystal Lannaman says it’s important to inform candidates about who and what the company stands for, as well as personalize the employee experience and work for continuous improvement. She says companies have to compete for talent the same way they compete for customer business. BASF talent acquisition teams continuously work to improve the interview process to make candidates feel welcome.

BASF employees like Mohammed Mohammed say the company culture is very welcoming, open-minded, and willing to teach and share knowledge, which he hadn’t experienced at other employers. He recalls his onboarding process, where he was in continuous communication, which he appreciated. Another happy BASF employee, Sohan Nair, describes BASF as a great place to work, with helpful teams, rewarding work, and far better benefits than other companies.

Those TA strategy efforts and improvements are what earned BASF seven Candidate Experience Awards and improved overall ranking from the Talent Board during a global pandemic. The Talent Board describes winning a Candidate Experience award means improvements in recruiting and hiring that translate to “positive candidate sentiment and perceived level of fairness.”

What TA Leaders Need Now

Joining a new organization as a TA leader means assessing current strategies and making meaningful changes for improvement and recruiting success. TA strategies in 2022 and beyond have to change and improve to keep up with pandemic-fueled challenges to the economy and the workforce. Recognizing the need for evaluation and continuous improvement is the first step to revolutionizing an organization’s recruiting strategies now and during evolving business challenges.

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