How to Hire a Talent Acquisition Specialist?

Finding and hiring the right talent is extremely testing in today’s competitive landscape. Amidst rapid innovation and fast-paced growth requirements, over 60% of company leaders say recruiting and retaining employees are the two biggest challenges they face in business.

So having a well-versed and experienced talent acquisition team is a necessity for your organization. Not to forget – we are in the middle of a candidate-driven market with a huge difference between the demand and supply of talent. 

The stepping stone to hiring success is building a capable team with deeply skilled talent acquisition specialists. But the big question is – how can you assure hiring the right TA candidates? What should you look out for in talent acquisition specialists while hiring?

In this blog, we will discuss the ins and outs of how to hire a TA specialist and the things you need to consider while hiring and building your recruitment team. 

What is The Role of a Talent Acquisition Specialist?

A talent acquisition specialist manages the entire recruiting cycle. The responsibilities distributed among individuals in a TA team vary as per experience, skills, seniority, and company requirements. The role of a TA specialist is largely determined by the size of the company and the overall recruiting team. 

The role can be broadly defined as sourcing, attracting, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding employees for your company. By analyzing the long-term business goals, talent acquisition specialists work closely with stakeholders and hiring managers to fulfill talent needs of an organization and support business success.

At a ground level, everything it takes in between finding the most suitable candidates to onboarding them is the job of a TA specialist.

• Creating job descriptions
• Creating job posts 
• Posting jobs to job boards and portals
• Sourcing passive candidates
• Reviewing and shortlisting Resumes
• Conducting phone screening and interviews
• Guiding candidates about the recruitment process
• Collaborating with hiring managers
• Scheduling interviews for candidates
• Keeping candidates updated about recruitment stages
• Negotiating payroll with candidates
• Creating job offers for the candidates  
• Extending offers to selected candidates
• Onboarding candidates 
• Assisting in succession plans
• Advising hiring managers on interviewing, hiring, and candidate evaluation
• Handling candidate experience

How to Hire a Talent Acquisition Specialist: Step-By-Step? 

Talent acquisition specialists are instrumental in enabling businesses to source and hire top talent. As you already know about the generic role of a talent acquisition specialist, it’s now time to create and implement a hiring action plan.

Prior to brainstorming, sourcing, and evaluating TA candidates, you need to comprehensively analyze your company’s recruitment requirements and the current hiring team’s capacity. 

Suppose you have enough people who screen candidates well. In that case, you need to hire someone specialized and experienced in sourcing candidates. Early-stage startups, on the other hand, need someone who can wear multiple hats. 

Having a crystal clear conception about your talent acquisition requirements and organizational goals helps you focus your efforts in the right direction. Let’s now dive into a step-by-step approach for hiring a talent acquisition specialist and building a strong recruitment team.

Step 1: Create an Ideal Candidate Persona

First things first, decide the type of candidates you want to recruit. From extraordinary communication skills to relationship building, negotiation, engagement, strategic sourcing, and more capabilities must be taken into account. Identify and break down the skill requirements for talent acquisition specialists.

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• What are the educational qualification criteria for the role?
• How many years and what type of work experience do you want in candidates? 
• What are the specific skill sets you’re looking for?
• Which industry experience would you primarily prefer?
• Are there any tools your candidates should be hands-on with?
• What are some personality traits that will fit your company?
• Where do they look for a new job?
• What are their career and life goals? 

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Forming a candidate persona by answering all these questions would ensure you are not shooting in the dark while sourcing candidates. Further, it helps you determine the traits of the ideal candidate, and plan your sourcing and recruitment strategy further.

Step 2: Analyze Role Requirements and Document Your Recruiting Process

Next up is identifying and analyzing your role requirements specific to organizational needs and business goals. A talent acquisition specialist is expected to handle any task from sourcing to onboarding successfully – you already know this.

But what about your company’s unique requirements? You might need someone comfortable with tech hiring, or sourcing great sales candidates based on your business status. 

Additionally, you can also be asked to fill in the gaps in your current talent acquisition team. SO be prepared for business-specific analysis and plan of action. Before you enter the recruitment funnel, outline your talent acquisition process. Identify various strategies, channels, and other informational insights you would need – and maintain a collaborative document.

As you update the tactics and tweak your recruitment process for meeting hiring requirements optimally – keep your document up to date.

Step 3: Prepare a Talent Acquisition Job Description 

Once you have finalized the role requirements with respect to your current talent acquisition team and business, you can start sourcing candidates. Preparing the job description is the first task you’ll need to do.

Here are the necessary components you must have in your job description:

• Job Title: The position you’re looking to fill. For example - Senior Talent Acquisition  Specialist. 

• Roles & Responsibilities: An outline of the candidate’s day-to-day activities. From ideation to implementation and the impact on the organization, everything should be covered.  

• Skill Requirements: Skills and abilities a candidate must have to perform the job successfully. 

• Perks and Benefits: The compensation details, perks of the job, and any other benefits. 

• About the Company: Why should a candidate consider working with your company?

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Talent Acquisition Specialist Job Description Template

Role

A Talent Acquisition Specialist is responsible for the sourcing, screening, and hiring of skilled and qualified candidates to fill different positions. They communicate with potential candidates via online and offline platforms and use negotiation skills to help staff bright and talented people. They need to ensure that the company attracts the best experts and professionals in the industry.

Responsibilities

• Communicating with hiring managers to identify future job openings and the technical requirements for those jobs
• Writing and posting job advertisements and descriptions
• Sourcing and screening potential candidates via professional platforms, (e.g. Linkedin, Indeed, Monster, Github, Stack Overflow)
• Arranging telephone, video, or in-person interviews
• Performing background and reference checks
• Presenting the resumes of the most suitable candidates to the hiring manager or customer
• Offering job positions and completing the relevant paperwork
• Keeping track of all applicants as well as keeping applicants informed on the application process
• Forecasting recruitment budgets
• Staying aware of new recruitment tools as well as the latest trends
  

Requirements

• Minimum X years of experience
• Ability to source candidates through job portals, social networking sites, referrals, etc
• Experience with resume databases and Applicant Tracking Systems
• Experience with various sourcing methods (e.g. Boolean search, social media recruiting, etc.)
• Sound knowledge of all labor regulations and HR practices
• Sound knowledge of full-cycle recruiting
• Must know about recruiting through cold calling, as well as lead generation, interview preparation, placement, and closing
• Should have prior experience in handling clients and other key stakeholders
  

Soft Skills

• Strong verbal as well as non-verbal communication skills
• Exceptional time-management and organizational skills
  

Nice to Have

• Proven experience in hiring from multiple geographies
• Ability to work independently in a fast paced environment & should meet the target

Step 4: Source Talent Acquistion Candidates

Now that you have the JD ready and you understand the role requirements, drafting a job post would be easier. Remember it’s an immensely competitive market and your job post needs to stand out in order to attract quality candidates.

• Start with what is it like to work at your company
• Why should candidates apply to the position?
• Include the learning and growth opportunities in the team
• State the company vision and mission
• Tell them about the recruitment process

Prepare an impactful job post and job advertisement assets if required. The next step would be posting your jobs on various job boards and hiring platforms. You can leverage the following platforms for hiring talent acquisition specialists:

• LinkedIn
• Indeed
• Instahyre
• ZipRecruiter
• Monster
• GlassDoor
• CareerBuilder
• Dice

Additionally with over 73% of the workforce being passive candidates, you cannot miss out on passive talent sourcing as well. Reach out to qualified candidates on LinkedIn, Twitter, and even Facebook and offer them lucrative opportunities. However make sure that you are networking and building rapport first, and selling your job second.   

Step 5: Interview Shortlisted Candidates

This is one of the most crucial steps of talent acquisition. Assess screened and shortlisted candidates based on various aspects including skills, experience, and personality traits.

Here are 3 of the most common subjects covered in interviewing talent acquisition specialists

• Communication abilities: Analyze how well they communicate and if they are able to convince someone on the other side.

• Relationship Building: This is a must-have skill for talent acquisition specialists. No matter the results of the interview, the candidate must initiate and form strong relationships with people.

• Talent acquisition strategy: This is a tricky one, but you can focus on the approach to building a talent pool, sourcing candidates and trying out some sample scenarios for analyzing the TA specialist candidate’s abilities. 

Step 6: Extend Offers to Selected TA Specialists 

Reach out to selected talent acquisition specialists and decide on the compensation. Your negotiation skills come into the picture here. 

Next, extend your offer letter to all the candidates who have been selected. In the case of passive sourcing, extend to only those who were aligned with you on the compensation and are willing to move forward. 

Ensure having a deadline for the joining date and mention the necessary documents required by your recruiting team. 

Step 7: Onboard Candidates Who Accept the Offer

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• Get the required documents and set up the offer agreements with candidates
• Organize an orientation session for the onboarded candidates 
• Introduce them to the entire team and the teams they will be working with
• Guide the new candidates about your HR tools and communication channels
• Provide candidates with forms for benefits and perks like Health Insurance.

Things to Keep in Mind While Recruiting Talent Acquisition Specialist?

Hiring talent acquisition specialists is a critical job as the candidates hired would be driving the recruitment and hiring of your organization. The entire business depends on the talent that you acquire and hence the people interacting and assessing with your candidates must be skilled, experienced, and adaptive enough.

1. The candidates you shortlist must be pro communicators and ace relationship-building exercises by remaining composed in all situations.
2. Analyze the candidate’s ability to adapt to multiple role requirements.
3. Gauge their talent sourcing and niche-hiring experience.
4. In case you want to hire a TA specialist who will be taking upon technical hiring, check the candidate’s technical knowledge.
5. Make decisions based on the success of previous hires and a unique approach toward convincing talent.

Accelerate Your Hiring for Product Manager with Nurturebox 

Hiring talent acquisition experts is not a piece of cake today. With new-age companies growing astoundingly fast and scouting for skilled recruiters, you need to take a step ahead. To find the best talent acquisition candidates who would further drive your hiring, leverage automation for accelerating passive talent sourcing and engagement. 

Nurturebox is a one-stop talent sourcing and engagement automation platform. Take a look at how you can source talent acquisition specialists from LinkedIn using Nurturebox:

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• Install the Nurturebox Chrome plugin and sign up.
• On your LinkedIn profile, begin searching for talent acquisition specialists with boolean searches stating the required experience from targeted locations and including other criteria.
• Add qualified candidates to your sourcing campaign pipeline with just a click.
• Automate candidate engagement through email, Whatsapp, and LinkedIn direct messages for reaching out and nurturing candidates at scale.