The Power of a Talent Acquisition Strategy: Insights from Andre Boulais

On the heels of our recent webinar- 3 Sourcing Strategies for the Now, Andre Boulais, VP of Recruiting and Sourcing Solutions at Rival, formerly SilkRoad Technology, takes 5 minutes to answer 5 questions that dig even deeper into what it takes to create a talent acquisition strategy that delivers superior results.

Why is it so important to understand the differences between talent acquisition, talent sourcing and recruiting? Aren’t they one in the same?

One of the reasons we wanted to include this key talking point came from my ongoing strategic conversations with CHROs and VPs of Talent Acquisition asking how they can ‘modernize’ their organization. The traditional model has a team of recruiters that do it all: sourcing, phone screens, applicant screens, sourcing intake forms, coordinating interview, managing hiring manager feedback and even typing up offer letters. That model worked 20 years ago but to tackle today’s modern workforce, we’re seeing the evolution of the organization. This is essential to survival as recruiters now are seeing on average 2x the number of applicants and job requisitions making the old model one that is not only untenable but a clear path for burnout.

One positive outcome is we’re seeing the trend in talent acquisition organizations to add or increase specialized talent sourcers to offload the burden from their teams to remain laser-focused on: sourcing passive talent, engaging that talent and performing the initial phone screens.

In the webinar you do a good job of talking about what you’re hearing both good and bad in terms of the current state of talent acquisition. What’s the one thing that really resonates?

Thank you and the biggest thing that stood out is that today’s talent acquisition leaders are feeling the burden of their teams being understaffed and overworked. As painful as it is to hear this repeatedly, it sheds light on how important it is to be strategic during these times. Everyone is so pressed to do more with less.

How does that create an opportunity for talent acquisition professionals?

I love this question and one of the common positive threads of my conversations with 20+ TA leaders is that there are several orgs leaning into proactive sourcing and talent programs that help them run faster and execute quicker. There are several companies thriving in this environment by doing this.

I’ve been fortunate to see that working with several of our existing customers that have partnered with us to build talent programs that accelerate and augment their most important hiring goals. In short, in this environment TA leaders are truly looking for strategic partners versus technology vendors.

What is a common mistake TA professionals make when it comes to candidate engagement?

By far the number one is not having a strategic plan for engagement. Many companies are doing ad hoc reach out but we’ve found from our experience launching thousands of successful candidate engagement campaigns that the majority of interaction and response comes from the 2nd or 3rd touch in a targeted campaign.

Campus recruiting is a fantastic example. Most organizations are focused on the actual event and follow up which is the traditional ‘reactionary’ approach. The reality is the organizations truly thriving are the ones that are stepping back to make their campus events part of a 12 month campaign. This allows them to stand out from their competitors and often pull in additional talent pools from campus referrals. Look for a future webinar solely focused on this from Rival, formerly SilkRoad Technology in August.

If there was only one thing a TA professional could do today to elevate their early in career sourcing plan, what should it be?

As a former head of sourcing responsible for campus recruiting programs for Salesforce, I’d offer this one piece of advice to any company that recruits on campus – Build a talent pool of everyone you interacted with from 3-5 years ago on campus that you didn’t hire (there should be quite a few). Then build a targeted re-engagement campaign. This is an excellent way to create a qualified talent pool of the next generation of impactful employees for your organization.

Andre has spent the last decade building and executing talent programs across companies ranging from high growth start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. As Vice President of Recruiting and Sourcing Solutions, Andre partners with C-Suite HR leaders from Fortune 500 companies to create and drive unique global talent acquisition and employer branding initiatives. Connect with and follow Andre on LinkedIn.

To gain more insights on creating a world-class sourcing program, Watch the webinar- 3 Sourcing Strategies for the Now on-demand here.