WHITE PAPER

Talent Acquisition 2008:

Survey and Analysis
of the Changing
Recruiting Landscape
By Sally Millick, SPHR
Consulting Director
The Newman Group
TALENT ACQUISITION 2008:
SURVEY AND ANALYSIS OF THE CHANGING RECRUITING LANDSCAPE www.tng.futurestep.com

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Background: The Changing Talent Marketplace

While recent economic turbulence has changed the global business landscape,
the forces that drive talent acquisition remain in place. Companies must continue
to rely on talent as a core foundation for growth and productivity. At the same
time, the need for advanced, specialized talent and leadership will continue to
provide challenges for enterprise recruiting efforts.

The conditions shaping today’s talent acquisition environment are well-known.

The retirement of the U.S. “baby boomer” generation, the globalization of
markets and operations across all industries, and the shortage of talent in critical
areas such as engineering, healthcare and leadership are all important. The real
importance of talent acquisition, and the door-opener for talent management at
the proverbial seat at the boardroom table, is the recognition that a business
cannot grow without the right talent. Just as importantly, businesses cannot
reach the right talent without making a conscious strategic effort to do so.

Today, business leaders understand the strategic significance of talent acquisition.

They are carefully looking at how they are going to fill the gap in skills and
company knowledge left by retirees. They are applying new uses of technology
for virtual workplace options that can make them more flexible to employees,
more attractive to candidates, and open to talent from around the world. They
are adopting advanced strategies and tactics to evolve their talent acquisition
operations, and they are embracing a range of emerging best-practices, from
workforce planning to employment branding. In short, they are recognizing the
need to continue to advance their abilities not only in talent acquisition, but also
to support retention and employee development.
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The Survey: What’s Shaping Real-world
Talent Acquisition Today?
In the real-world business environment,
recognizing the need for improvement and
acting on it are two different ideas. Resources
are tight. Companies must invest in changes
needed to compete for talent in the future,
but they must also address the immediate
needs of the present. So, when it comes to
competing for talent, it’s natural that leaders
ask, “What are other companies doing?”
How well are organizations doing in relation
to their peers? Are they putting next-practice
strategies into place, or are they still planning,
waiting to do so in the future? What are the
priorities?
To shed light on these issues, The Newman
Group, in conjunction with the Electronic
Recruiting Exchange (ERE) conducted a survey
in July 2008 of practitioners and decision-
makers involved in talent acquisition. This is
the latest edition of what was formerly known
as the “Sourcing and Recruiting Survey” series
conducted annually by The Newman Group.
As no function truly stands alone in an
integrated environment of talent management,
we’ve re-titled the survey to reflect a more
holistic and strategic talent acquisition focus
taken by most companies today.
We polled approximately 500 staffing
professionals in companies ranging from
small and medium sized businesses to larger
enterprise organizations. Respondents included
recruiters, line-level managers, executive
decision-makers and consultants. Five main
areas were covered in the survey: sourcing,
recruiting operations, technology, recruitment
strategy, and metrics. In our analysis, we also
drew from our experience with clients at The
Newman Group.
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Not surprisingly, the picture that emerged
from their responses is one of progress, not
revolution. The issues and drivers are the same
each year: people, process and technology.
That is, there is a constant push to become
more competitive for talent by driving process
improvements and supporting them with
expanding technological capabilities. What
is changing is the extent to which companies
have begun to implement forward-thinking
talent acquisition practices. Few are
questioning the if’s of strategic talent initiatives,
and the focus now seems to be on the how and
when of implementation, whether of new
systems, revised processes or a combination
of both.
The result is an environment drawn between
the forward-thinking and status quo. Toward
that end, what follows is an analysis of each
area covered in the survey, and a comparison
of results-driven versus passive approaches
that are in practice in each of these areas.
The good news is that innovation continues.
Most organizations are a blend of both
characteristics, but understanding where you
are today can provide insight on how you may
improve your ability to compete for talent in
the future.
Sourcing
When asked about the most pressing pain point
in talent acquisition, the number one answer
among respondents was sourcing (See Figure 1).
Lack of available technical skill sets, along with
job location (or inability to re-locate) top the list
of challenges to sourcing candidates. So where
are companies sourcing to be successful in
their quest? Not surprisingly, the most effective
approach cited by respondents is through
employee referrals. Across all respondents,
68 percent rated employee referrals as either
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Effective (38%) or Very Effective (30%), so time
spent on marketing and enriching those
programs is well spent.
Recently, there has been much industry buzz
about companies who are using today’s
economic environment to strategically source
and hire “A-Players” from competitors. One
way to gain exposure to competitors’
employees is through participation in
professional organizations, and through online
social/business communities. Both of these
venues are effective sources according to our
respondents.
Once the door has been opened to top talent,
from competitors or otherwise, the challenges
have just begun. Meeting these individuals is
Figure 1: Talent Acquisition Pain Points
(Ranked Based on Respondent Feedback)
Candidate Sourcing 43%
Candidate Qualification and Screening 15%
Requisition Approval and Initiation 14%
Interview Setup and Execution 11%
Offer/Pre-employment Processes 7%
Other 10%
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one thing, turning them into candidates is
another. Why would a passive candidate look
at the opportunity? If you are reaching out to
the candidate, what are the differentiators that
your company has to offer? What are the
elements in your organization that will move a
candidate’s career forward? In many ways, the
qualities that make an organization an effective
recruiter of passive candidates are the same
qualities that make it strong in retaining
employees. In this respect, a clear
understanding of your Employment Value
Proposition (EVP) is essential.
Toward that end, many companies are
conducting analyses to identify the unique
characteristics that comprise their employment
value proposition to their current employees.
Figure 2: Sourcing Challenges
(Respondents Selected “As Many As Applied”)
Lack of Available Skill Sets 61%
Job Locations 49%
Competitive Salary 47%
Lack of Direct Labor Pool 28%
Company or Industry Reputation 11%
Lack of Recent Graduates 9%
Benefits 6%
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They are realizing that it’s not the volume of the
candidate pipeline or the speed with which they
filter candidates that will determine their
success in competing for talent. The key
determining factor ultimately lies with their
ability to know the candidate. It’s not enough
to simply network with potential candidates;
recruiters must be armed with succinct
information that will appeal to those
candidates’ unique values. This is where
the concept of EVP applies.
Although a new concept to many organizations,
EVP is rapidly becoming an important
component of many companies’ talent
management strategies. By recognizing that
the ‘skills match’ is only half of the candidate
evaluation equation, companies are taking the
time to identify the other half: that is, the
alignment of the candidate’s employment
preferences with what the company represents
and supports as its EVP.
For example, two candidates may have similar
skill sets. One candidate, however, may place a
priority on stability, benefits and established
reputation, while another may be driven by
opportunity for growth, excitement, risk and
the potential for high earnings. Understanding
these priorities, and understanding how
candidates view your company, can make the
difference between a reactive recruiting
function and an effective recruiting operation.
Companies are engaging in focused activity to
understand their EVP and the values that drive
the candidates they seek. They are also looking
for a better understanding of how their EVP
differs from those of their competitors. After
determining what value proposition attributes
define a company’s competitive advantage,
that company can utilize those attributes to
identify the correct matches in the candidates
that they hire.
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A well-tuned talent acquisition effort will not
only help you turn prospects into candidates,
but candidates into employees who then stay
with the company. An effective employment
brand helps make that possible by matching
the reality of the company with the
expectations of prospective employees.
By aligning EVP attributes with employee
expectations, employees become more
engaged, more productive, and less likely
to leave.
Another sourcing focus, and one where EVP
often comes into play in attracting the right
candidates, is campus recruiting. According
to survey results, campus hiring has become
more competitive, with a majority of
respondents (67%) ranking this tactic as an
effective approach to sourcing. Again, the
question is, “How does a company differentiate
itself and entice a new graduate?” The
differentiators may be different with the
campus population than with the experienced
professionals, but in all instances an effective
communication of the EVP must be true. A
company that misrepresents its EVP in an
attempt to attract particular candidates will
ultimately pay the price with reduced retention.
Another area of note on the sourcing front is
the use of online databases. Searching online
databases was cited as an effective approach
by 78 percent of those surveyed. This strong
showing came as something of a surprise,
simply because such searching requires
significant effort from recruiters who are
commonly overstretched in their current roles.
Utilizing online databases involves searching,
contacting, and selling opportunities to
candidates who had not already indicated
interest in the company or a particular
geographical location.
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One notable passive sourcing practice revealed aren’t attracting as many candidates, yet
by the survey is the tactic of posting positions searching external resume databases is yielding
to a number of job boards and waiting for candidates, this highlights the need to reach out
candidates to apply. Although this tactic was to candidates rather than depending on them to
ranked as somewhat effective (43%) by find you. The highest quality hires can come
respondents, such a ranking seems to fall short from more passive candidates who are making
of expectations, considering that the approach the assumption
has traditionally been viewed by hiring that you are
SOURCING TACTICS
managers as the first “real step” in the searching a Web AND STRATEGIES
recruiting process. In the past, it was site’s resume
commonly believed that a job was not database for Results Driven
advertised properly without such postings; them. • Employee referral
programs (ERP)
however, as the survey shows, job board
The overall • Networking with
postings should not necessarily be the central
sourcing picture, professional organizations
focus of a sourcing effort. (in person and online)
the renewed
• Campus recruiting
While job boards may not be as effective as emphasis on
• Searching online
once believed, they remain a major part of the EVP, and the
databases
sourcing landscape, and can provide access to continued
a large volume of candidates. Companies are emphasis on Passive
recognizing that with some effort they can employee • Depending on job
improve the results of their job board postings referrals as the board postings

by simply making their postings more clear.
For example, they are posting jobs with easily
recognizable titles, such as “Database Analyst”
rather than “Analyst II, IT.” They may also
create a company summary paragraph to
include in the posting. Anyone looking to
improve posting results should also be
mindful that the posting clearly conveys
responsibilities, qualifications, and future
career opportunities. Finally, there is a need to
track the effectiveness of these sources, or gain
access to recruitment advertising research so
that the right sites are selected for posting.
Carefully choosing where you are posting and
ensuring clear communications can go a long
way toward improving job board effectiveness.
best source of • Waiting for candidates
to find job postings or
candidates all advertisements
point to the
need to replace
the more-is-better approach to sourcing with
a know-the-candidate-better approach.
Companies are beginning to focus on reaching
out to the right candidates with the right
message rather than large numbers of
candidates in the hopes of filtering down to the
high-quality choices. The employee-referred
candidate is already known (by the employee).
The company that understands its EVP is giving
itself the knowledge to understand who the
right candidate is for the company. In both
areas, knowing the candidate is a central theme.

The job board issue may not just be a reflection The knowledge-based approach to sourcing
of the medium itself; rather, it underscores the also includes use of Web 2.0 and social
shortcomings associated with the underlying networking to actively reach out and know
philosophy of passive sourcing. If job postings more people. It is a continuous and proactive
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approach. Recruiters can’t wait for the job to
come open to start building a network of
candidates. Companies have realized this,
and they are actively engaged with a variety
of resources to help them build networks of
candidates. As in the past, LinkedIn remains a
leading resource used by respondents, with 85
percent of respondents using it as a key sourcing
tool. Professional networks as well as other Web
2.0 resources such as MySpace and Facebook
also play a large part in sourcing activity.
These results underscore the growing
emphasis on the need to build networks to
source candidates. As with anything that yields
higher quality results, building networks
requires more time and effort. The results, in
terms of improved quality and the ability to
reach the right candidates for the job, are worth
the effort in a competitive talent environment.
Recruiting Operations
When it comes to recruiting operations, an
analysis begins with the question of structure.
Are your recruiting processes centralized or
decentralized? In previous annual surveys, the
general trend has been toward centralization.
Companies that previously relied on disparate
RECRUITING OPERATIONS TACTICS AND STRATEGIES
Passive
Results Driven
• Tactical—Optimizing • Tactical—Recruiter job
recruiter time for postings
recruiting, not • Tactical—Recruiter
administration interview-setup and
• Tactical—Improving hiring coordination
manager engagement • Strategic—Static
• Strategic—Balancing need decentralized or
for consistent global centralized structure
processes with localized
recruiting needs
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localized processes and resources to find
and hire candidates were moving to create
consistent, centralized processes utilizing
resources and technology available across the
enterprise. Centralized talent acquisition helps
companies measure, manage, and improve
processes across the company. It also affords
economies of scale.
In this year’s survey, 43 percent of respondents
had a centralized model, but the most
interesting trend revealed in the responses
is a marked shift toward a hybrid model.
Companies are increasingly moving to
centralize processes and technology while
accommodating decentralized aspects of the
recruiting process in certain areas. The
supporting technologies allow configuration
to multiple scenarios required by business or
regional units—all supported by a central
repository for tracking and reporting on
hiring activity. In the survey, 38 percent of
respondents categorized themselves as
“hybrid.” In a later question, 17 percent
reported they are moving to that model. This
is a forward-thinking approach, as it maintains
centralized processes and technologies while
enabling the company to tailor delivery to the
needs of the business.
One enabler of the hybrid trend is the
evolution of technologies for sourcing,
managing, and communicating with
candidates. Using systems and tools
that support and drive the process,
hiring managers and HR generalists can
take a deeper role in requisition and
recruiting activities than ever before.
Many companies have implemented a
talent acquisition system and as a result
have centralized the staffing function.
For those companies, the question is,
“Can the staffing organization now give
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up part of its previous role to concentrate on
more productive activities, or will it feel out of
control of the process?” Can others take on
administrative activities to allow recruiters to
focus on their main task of recruiting? Do hiring
managers and HR generalists have the time,
attention, and interest in recruitment tactics to
take ownership of tasks such as inputting the
requisition, conducting phone interviews, and
updating the status of candidates in the
system? How will the change be implemented?
How will training and compliance of hiring
managers be sustained? It may make sense as
a process improvement, yet the success of this
approach will depend on company culture and
hiring managers’ time and attention.
Whether or not recruiters can gain more focus
remains to be seen, because in most cases they
still handle broad responsibilities. In last year’s
Figure 3: Recruiting Models of Respondents
Centralized 43%
Decentralized 10%
Hybrid 38%
Outsourced 4%
Don’t Know 5%
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survey report we highlighted the fact that the
majority of recruiters were managing all
aspects of the recruitment process. This year,
85 percent of recruiters in the survey reported
managing the entire lifecycle of the requisition,
and it is a situation that has a negative impact
on recruiting. Valuable recruiter time is not
being spent with candidates or hiring
managers. Recruiters will give different
opinions of whether they want a sourcing
specialist on their team, citing the potentially
awkward hand-off between the sourcer and the
recruiter. However, recruiters spending time
posting jobs or scheduling interviews may not
be the best allocation of those resources.
Specializing recruiting and administrative
functions is somewhat dependent on the size
of the overall organization. Smaller companies
may not have as many options for offloading
Figure 4: Who Handles Job Postings?
Handled individually by the recruiter 48%
By the recruiter using posting services 23%
By support staff 27%
Don’t know 2%
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recruiter administrative tasks, but companies They are concerned with making sure their
can explore this resource allocation as an systems are configured to their processes, and
opportunity to become more aggressive in they are looking at new functionality offerings
their search for talent. as a way to drive further process improvement.
When asked about focusing on improvements
in the coming year, 61 percent of respondents
Technology
indicated that they are considering
When it comes to talent acquisition systems
improvements in recruitment technologies,
and solutions, the key question driving the
and 67 percent pointed to career Web site
competition for talent is, “How well are
enhancements.
companies equipped to foster continuous
improvement?” There is no single perfect What types of improvements can technology
solution for any company, and the assumption offer? As a simple example, consider the need
that the “right” systems are in place or that for hard-copy signatures on some documents,
there is no need to review performance or such as offer letters or job applications.
consider improvements is misleading. The In some cases these documents are sent
company that waits until next year to make electronically, printed out for signature, and
needed sent as a PDF or faxed back to the company.
improvements Many entities accept electronic signatures on
TALENT ACQUISITION
runs the risk more sensitive documents (for example, the
SYSTEMS AND SOLUTIONS
of driving users IRS accepts electronically signed income tax
Results Driven to utilize fillings). Some companies continue to resist
• Optimizing current workarounds to implementing electronic signatures, causing
technology
cumbersome several extra steps on the part of the candidate
• Balancing technology processes. Once and the hiring organization. Some background
capability, new
opportunities for data stops check vendors are no longer requiring hard-
improvement and possible making its way copy signatures for the candidate’s
process changes into the system, Authorization and Consent form, which has
• Continuous review and the path back traditionally been treated as a fax-back form.
improvement to optimization These are just a few of the potential features
Passive grows that can help organizations streamline their
• Periodic review and exponentially recruiting operations. Today, companies have
improvement vs. constant longer. an opportunity to take a proactive stance in
optimization
improving their system effectiveness by
• Adherence to old Optimizing
allowing technology enhancements to lead
paradigms such as posting current
and filtering vs. new process change. The key to staying on top
processes and
opportunities such as of the technology evolution is to review all
social networking and systems is
functionality for potential implementation
active candidate outreach an ongoing
as it becomes available. An open-minded
• Lack of integration, process at the
perspective is important here.
allowing disparate systems most successful
to remain unconnected
recruiting Even if the functionality doesn’t appear to
organizations. apply, it is important to ask why. Old process
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Figure 5: Talent Acquisition Functions
Used Regularly (by Survey Respondents)
Leading areas of technology-related planned
improvements. Multiple answers possible from
respondents.
Searches within the company database 64%
Employee referral submittals 63%
Reporting of staffing metrics to management 54%
Conceptual search within the database 44%
Pre-screening questions for Internet applicants 43%
Integrated job posting mechanism to outside
career Web sites 46%
OFCCP compliance saved search tools 33%
Agency/search firm direct submittals 31%
Candidate score or ranking based on responses
to pre-screening questions 34%
Interview scheduling tools 35%
Electronic interview feedback capture 24%
Ability to allow candidates to check their status 23%
Integrated third-party candidate assessment tools 19%
flows and norms can cause organizations to
hold back from taking advantage of new
features. One example of this is with resume
formatting. In many cases, resumes lose their
formatting when sent on for review through a
talent acquisition system. Hiring managers then
ask the recruiters to send formatted copies
through email, or worse, print them out and
send them through interoffice mail. The right
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Figure 6: How effective is your talent acquisition
system in supporting your hiring requirements?
Very Effective 13%
Effective 28%
Somewhat Effective 30%
Not Effective 10%
Don’t know or don’t have system in place 19%
application of functionality can eliminate this
cumbersome and off-system facet of the talent
acquisition process. Another example is the
outdated requirement of approvals for the
requisition or the offer; these requirements in
the system can usually be reconfigured to more
closely meet a company’s needs.
Despite the opportunities for streamlining
processes and continued advances in
technology functionality, a certain percentage
of survey respondents are not satisfied that
their systems are meeting their needs (10
percent claim their systems are not effective,
while 30 percent claim that they are only
somewhat effective.) Experience shows that, in
many cases, such dissatisfaction can be traced
to three main causes:
a. Process points are not adequately
supported by the system
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b. Users of the system have not been trained had to go back and update the status of all
in how the system can support talent candidates to a requisition before closing that
acquisition processes requisition. In this case, planners evaluated
c. Companies have changed their talent the potential payoff in terms of candidate
acquisition processes to reflect adoption experience as well as recruiter experience, to
of what they were told would be an confirm their solution and, ultimately, leave
enhancement to their system the feature turned on. The lesson from this
experience is that each feature may have a
Just as range of positive or negative impacts on
RECRUITMENT STRATEGY companies can various users throughout the process. It is
Results Driven unnecessarily important to consider all of them to make an
• Workforce planning ignore effective decision regarding features and
• Workforce planning results opportunities functionality.
for sourcing and hiring for using new
forecasts features, they Today’s solutions now afford companies the
• Recruitment as an can also rush ability to leverage the high success of
improvement initiative, Employee Referral Programs (ERP) with
to adopt
not an overhead process
innovations that supporting technology. Many companies now
Passive may not suit have moved their referral program online, or at
• Over-focus on reactive their least have jobs listed for employees to view for
recruiting/empty position possible referrals. Traditionally, resumes were
organizations.
firefighting passed directly from an employee to a hiring
A danger on
• Lack of realistic attrition manager or a team lead. The continuation of
metrics the technology
front is that, such a process would effectively bypass the
• Lack of vision for the future
external talent marketplace with the system. The challenge, then, is one of change
and internal talent needs introduction of management. An organization must make it
new features, easy for employees and hiring managers to
organizations are often tempted to allow the change how they handle referrals—i.e. using
technology to force unwieldy process changes. the system to transfer resumes and other
Each functionality change should be evaluated supporting info.
against specific client needs and workflow; a
Within the system, referrals can be time-
feature that may seem beneficial at one phase
stamped as they come in. The system can
may add steps later in the process. For
accurately capture and track the referring
example, a feature that deposits all candidates
employee information. Another benefit is that
who submit resumes into a requisition file or
the system can take the resume handoff
folder in the system can be a big timesaver for
responsibility out of the referring employee’s
recruiters who would otherwise have to search
hands entirely. Instead, the system will invite
the database for each person who responded to
the referred candidate to apply, even to the
a requisition.
point of having the candidate answer pre-
In the experience of one company, turning screening questions. The referring employee
on this feature was a positive, but it had an gets a confirmation that the submittal was
unexpected impact on recruiters—they now received. Fewer steps means improved ease
TALENT ACQUISITION 2008:
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of use, and that translates into the possibility
for more employee referrals, a prime source
of high-quality candidates.
Although there are many smart options for
improving processes and technology, the
reality is that many organizations lack a
formalized structure for systems review and
optimization. This lack of an improvement
process is detrimental. Even those
organizations that do not rely on an end-to-end
talent acquisition system require some level of
consistent periodic review.
In this review, it’s important to examine, or re-
examine, hiring processes and practices. For
each step in the talent acquisition process, such
a review should ask, “Does this step add value,
or does it detract from the primary goal of
hiring excellent candidates? Is there a solid
communication and action plan between all
parties—candidates, hiring managers, human
resources, and recruiters—in identifying,
sourcing, and selecting new hires?” Candidates
are moving targets, and there is an implied
sense of urgency to these activities. Has the
company leveraged the technologies that are
available? If there is a talent acquisition system
in place, there should be a plan for reviewing,
assessing, and implementing new features, and
turning off features and processes that have
become obsolete.
Recruitment Strategy
A realistic and detailed talent acquisition
strategy can make the difference between a
reactive talent operation and one that stays
effective even as company goals, market
conditions, and the capabilities of competitors
change. Companies have long since recognized
the need to treat talent acquisition as a critical
driver of long-term business success, and so
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the link between talent acquisition strategy
and core business goals is well known. As with
other parts of the talent acquisition process, the
challenge lies not with knowing what is right
for business, but instead on finding the time
and resources to put best-practices into place.
It’s good news that more companies are
engaging in workforce planning and feeding
that data into recruitment forecasts. Workforce
planning has recently gained much press in the
discussion of recruitment and retention
strategies. It is seen as a way to gain
competitive advantage by clarifying and
quantifying future talent needs and attrition,
and helping to define employee development
needs. As the workforce planning concept takes
hold with HR and non-HR audiences, there is a
need to clarify what workforce planning is,
what information and direction the planning
Figure 7: Does Workforce
Planning Play a Part in
the Development of Your
Organization’s Sourcing
Strategy?
Yes 54%
No 36%
Don’t Know 10%
Figure 8: Are Recruiters in
Your Organization Notified of
Upcoming Hiring Initiatives (as
from Workforce Planning Results)
Before Receiving a Requisition?
Yes 52%
No 40%
Don’t know 8%
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will provide, and most centrally, how a
company goes about creating a plan.
Although quantifying empty seats and new
hire needs based on current conditions may
be important, true workforce planning requires
another dimension of development. It includes
an analysis of business objectives, balances
those objectives with current conditions and
maps out specific timeframes for meeting the
talent needs to
support those
RECRUITMENT STRATEGY
business
Results Driven objectives.
• Focusing on actionable Finally, the
metrics more effective
• Applying metrics to drive workforce
improvement planning efforts
• Capturing trends provide
Passive recruiters
• Too many metrics with advance
• Measuring processes, knowledge of
not results their hiring
• Over-focus on irrelevant needs, giving
metrics to drive behavior
them the
opportunity
to put that
workforce planning data to work through more
proactive recruiting. At many companies this is
not the case, and the recruiter may actually be
the last to know when a hiring need emerges.
This is an immediate disadvantage in terms
of sourcing and meeting timeline objectives.
Understanding the importance of the recruiter,
companies will increasingly bring the recruiter
closer to the workforce planning process.
On a related note, many survey respondents
indicated success with sourcing through
campus channels. This indicates that their
companies had identified their talent needs for
the next several years and are reaching out to
the campus to begin addressing that need. As
campus recruiting has also become more
competitive, companies are finding that long-
term relationships with colleges and universities
are necessary to cultivate the best graduates.
Overall, the focus on workforce planning and
related efforts such as campus recruiting
underscore the need for a systematic strategy
to maximize proactive recruiting. Toward that
end, smart organizations are viewing their
hiring as an initiative. It is a single active
project, rather than a collection of individual
requisitions. Contrast this approach with the
status quo and the difference in recruiting
effectiveness becomes obvious. Lacking a
unified recruiting strategy or planning effort
to forecast hiring needs, organizations remain
stuck in a reactive firefighting mode when it
comes to talent acquisition. They have little
grasp of their attrition situation, the future
employment marketplace, or how the
company’s talent requirements fit within it.
Once again, a deep level of understanding
is important here. The recruitment strategy
should include the planting of many seeds
across the target audience, not simply focus
on an open requisition and the need to fill it.
Knowing that even the best workforce planning
can be derailed in an uncertain environment, it
pays for a company to cultivate candidates with
just as much rigor as it applies to cultivating
customers.
Metrics
The cliché is true: You can’t improve what you
can’t measure, and in talent acquisition the
right metrics can mean the difference between
passive operational functionality and real
business impact. Most companies continue to
seek better ways of quantifying the business
impact of talent acquisition as well as pinpoint
TALENT ACQUISITION 2008:
SURVEY AND ANALYSIS OF THE CHANGING RECRUITING LANDSCAPE
the areas that represent the greatest
opportunities for improvement.
Of all the options we provided, the top metrics
reported upon were Open Positions by
Recruiter, Aggregate Time-to-Fill, Number of
Hires Per Period, and Cost Per Hire. Only a third
of respondents differentiate between Time-to-
Fill for professional versus direct labor/
non-exempt positions. In reality, the estimated
Time-to-Fill for these groups can vary greatly.
Combining the two provides a result that is
inaccurate for both categories, and therefore
not actionable. This fact highlights one potential
shortcoming in the way many organizations
measure the performance of their talent
operations—when measures are too broad, the
data is not specific enough to provide a clear
Figure 9: Top Recruitment Metrics
Used By Respondents
Open Requisitions by Recruiter 70%
Aggregate Time-to-Fill 69%
Number of Hires Per Period 60%
Cost Per Hire 57%
Functional Time-to-Fill 47%
Internal Placement Percentage 47%
Offer-to-Accept Ratio 45%
Interview-to-Offer Ratio 44%
Decline-to-Offer Ratio 35%
Diversity 33%
Time-to-Fill by Exempt and Non-exempt
Requisitions 29%
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PAGE 13
case for action. Conversely, when considering
ways to make a measurement more relevant,
one option to explore is breaking that metric
down into its components (in this case, time-to-
fill by profession and time-to-fill by direct
labor/non-exempt).
In searching for relevant measures of success,
the idea of quality-of-hire immediately comes
to mind. After all, quality hires are the end
result all organizations seek from their
recruiting operations. Unfortunately, measuring
quality-of-hire continues to be a challenge. It is
a metric that is difficult to capture. The leading
components used for quality of hire metrics
by survey respondents were Performance
Appraisal within First Year, First Year
Performance Rating, First Year Retention,
Figure 10: Top Means of Measuring Quality of Hire
First Year Retention Rate 36%
Performance Appraisal within First Year 35%
None 35%
Post-hire Manager Feedback 31%
First Annual Performance Appraisal 26%
Revenue Per Employee 12%
Other 5%
TALENT ACQUISITION 2008:
SURVEY AND ANALYSIS OF THE CHANGING RECRUITING LANDSCAPE
PAGE 14
and Post-hire Manager Feedback (See Figure
10). Thirty-five percent of respondents do not
have quality-of-hire metrics in place.
Source of hire is another elusive metric. It
appears to change as the candidate is asked
at different points of the process. This is
understandable, as most candidates are led to
opportunities for multiple reasons or through
multiple methods. For candidates submitting
interest through an online system, it is not
always easy to answer the simple prescreening
question, “How did you hear about us/this
position?” The system often presents a drop-
down menu of potential sources that can be
mind-boggling. Anecdotal evidence points out
that many candidates just pick a choice so they
can move on. Not surprising given the integrity
of the data, only 14 percent of respondents
regularly analyzed their hires in light of the
sources of those candidates.
A smart approach to metrics is to focus on
making them specific and actionable. As
companies apply a supply chain model to
recruiting, it is desirable to measure time
parameters of each phase of the recruiting
process for all parties involved: recruiter, hiring
manager, and candidate. Specific actions can
be taken to address bottlenecks or potential
challenges. With technology available today,
there is the danger of tracking too many
metrics, getting wrapped up at the granular
level. Avoiding this requires planners to
understand what the metrics are revealing
about the organization and the processes.
Do the metrics indicate areas to improve,
and will they then effectively measure the
improvements? Are they actionable, or
retroactive/trend metrics? If a company is trying
to capture the reasons why candidates are
turning down offers, is anyone looking at that
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data and following through to improve the
offer/acceptance ratio?
There is a place for retroactive metrics. They
are useful for looking at trends and possible
causes of recruiting challenges for a given time
period. For example, a company may look at
the requisition load of recruiters and see how
that may correlate to resumes presented or
offers accepted. The results may reveal
opportunities for improving the “day in the
life” of an overburdened recruiter, and they
may provide the hard evidence needed to
make the case for action, whether that involves
expanding resources or re-allocating certain
roles and responsibilities.
Sifting the Results: Smart vs.
Not-So-Smart, Real vs. Ideal
In sifting through the response data from this
year’s respondents, it becomes apparent that
companies generally understand the strategic
priorities that drive effective talent acquisition.
For the enterprise respondents, the need for
effective workforce planning is accepted, as is
(generally) the need to have an effective
employment brand. It can be noted that in
every category, companies continue to engage
in activities that are “smart” as well as “not so
smart.” In fact, this report was originally
prepared to highlight tactics with that
designation.
The problem here is that such nomenclature
is slightly inaccurate. Companies may have
“not so smart practices” in place (i.e. reactive
sourcing, lack of workforce planning, no
technology improvement process), but that
doesn’t mean that they are not smart, or that
they don’t understand their needs. Often it is
simply a matter of priority. They may not have
TALENT ACQUISITION 2008:
SURVEY AND ANALYSIS OF THE CHANGING RECRUITING LANDSCAPE www.tng.futurestep.com

PAGE 15

the appropriate means to address those

flawed practices at the moment.

This year, we see that companies do recognize

the smart “results driven” approaches that
can help them compete for critical talent in
the future. They understand that the passive
approaches to reaching talent are usually
relics of the past. The overriding challenge
moving forward is for companies to act on
that understanding. If a company knows that
it needs to mature its workforce planning
process, how willing is that company to devote
the time and resources to make it happen? Like
most aspects of talent management, talent
acquisition will evolve within companies when
those companies treat it as a priority.

For many organizations, both large enterprises

and small and medium businesses alike, talent
has already risen to the top of the priority list.
As competition continues to grow, that need
for improved talent acquisition operations will
only become more pressing, and recruiting will
continue to grow smarter. That’s good news for
anyone involved in the recruiting process.
Regardless of economic conditions, companies
will still need to compete for talent—and
smarter recruiting will continue to drive core
business success.
TALENT ACQUISITION 2008:
SURVEY AND ANALYSIS OF THE CHANGING RECRUITING LANDSCAPE www.tng.futurestep.com

PAGE 16

This report was developed by

The Newman Group.
The Newman Group, a Futurestep
company, provides talent management
consulting services for today's Fortune 500
global enterprises, including one out of
three Fortune 100 companies and
recognized industry leaders such as
MetLife, Northrop Grumman, General
Motors and McKesson. Our consultants
combine next-practice vision, practical
solutions and an unparalleled level of
commitment and integrity to help our
clients translate their talent management
strategies into measurable business
impact. From workforce planning, to
competency management, talent
acquisition strategy and execution, and all
vital talent-related initiatives, we help you
align people, process and technology to
achieve talent management success.

To learn more, visit

www.tng.futurestep.com

1-877-639-6262 (1-877-NEWMAN2)
Email: tng@futurestep.com
www.tng.futurestep.com 1-877-639-6262 (1-877-NEWMAN2) Email: tng@futurestep.com