In Healthcare, What Makes Talent Acquisition Leaders Tick?
By Luke Morris and Daniel Young The role of a Talent Acquisition (“TA”) leader is critical in healthcare—we speak from experience, having both held the...
By Luke Morris and Daniel Young
The role of a Talent Acquisition (“TA”) leader is critical in healthcare—we speak from experience, having both held the position prior to becoming executive search consultants. But the TA leader is often pulled in many different directions and it can be a highly rewarding and thankless job at the same time.
Therefore, in this article we look to examine what keeps these TA creatures motivated to keep plugging along. From system selection to implementation to job fairs, to phone screens to interviews to meetings about “staffing strategy”, the TA leader’s day is usually a mix of project work and firefighting. To learn what makes these leaders tick, we reached out to several current talent acquisition leaders to ask more about their role and how it has changed. During our interviews several key themes began to emerge related to what’s really important right now:
- Keep tech in check: Technology should be leveraged to reduce variation in simple processes, but will not be a substitute for personal connection between recruiters and candidates.
- Find inspiration in multifaceted work: Second, talent acquisition leaders are always working on a variety of strategic initiatives, all of which have a huge impact on the business. It is this impact that motivates TA leaders to engage and strive for excellence.
- Prioritize passion: Third, people considering a career in TA leadership should be energized and passionate about the organization and the industry and should be students of that industry. They should be inquisitive, creative, engaging and should enjoy the opportunity to sell their organizations to others.
- Remember that the candidate is king. Lastly, candidate experience is and will be the differentiator for successful recruitment at every level of an organization. Inevitably, the experience a candidate has in interacting with an organization will translate to overall brand reputation. TA leaders should inspire their teams and their organization to fully commit to providing an exceptional candidate experience.
