Talent acquisition aims to find the best possible employees to fill positions within a company, but talent acquisition strategies are not synonymous with recruiting. Recruiting can be more about posting jobs on sites and job boards to find candidates actively looking for a new job, while talent acquisition involves more relationship development and long-term strategies to drive talent to your company. Here are some factors that will make your company’s talent acquisition strategy swim instead of sink. 1. Spending more time on fewer high-level positions. Although fewer positions exist at higher levels of management, more time should be spent filling those positions because they require more specific skills and new hires in high-level positions will be overseeing key aspects of the company’s operations. 2. Meeting candidates’ needs will help meet your needs. In general, it works well to approach business from a service standpoint, and this is particularly true when sourcing top talent. In order to win over a candidate so they choose your company over a competitor, you should make sure the candidate experience is positive and that you are meeting a desired candidate’s needs as well as you can. 3. Engaging in employer branding leads to a favorable impression. Companies that are successful in sourcing top talent have engaged in an employer branding process that leads to a favorable impression by candidates before they even interview with your company. Branding can be accomplished on the company website, on social media platforms, and through all your communication with potential candidates. eBook: How to Attract Top Talent Using Inbound Recruiting – Find out how to harness the power of an inbound recruiting strategy in order to attract, hire, and retain top talent. 4. Simplify the process to avoid drop-offs. For positions that generate large numbers of leads and candidates, a cumbersome recruiting process may help to weed out those who are not serious about the position, but for top talent, the onus is on the company not to make the process too difficult. Top talent has other opportunities, and will not have the patience nor the inclination to jump through a lot of hoops for your company; they will just go elsewhere if you make them work too hard just to get hired. 5. Self-evaluate to maximize effectiveness. Part of any effective process always involves evaluating and changing what is not working as well as it could. Get feedback from candidates, both those that were hired and those that were not, as part of the evaluation process. Looking at data is also a valuable tool. How many candidates did you have to interview to find the right one? How long did candidates stay (retention)? Where were the best candidates found? Evaluation refines the process over time. 6. Use software to streamline and track your strategies. Speaking of analytics and other ways to manage the talent acquisition process, the right software can enable you to track every aspect of a complex talent acquisition process, freeing you up to focus on relationship building and other ways to attract top talent. ThriveTRM supports your talent acquisition strategies by streamlining the process without making it less personal and hands-on. You can keep multiple members of the hiring team in the loop about every detail of the process and can keep candidates involved in the process so they do not lose interest while decisions are being made. Discover solutions for VC / PE firms that will improve your private equity firm’s talent acquisition process.