No matter the state of the market, sourcing, hiring, and retaining top talent is essential to a company’s success and longevity. In the face of a change cycle, hiring momentum can tend to slow down. 

However, companies still want to connect with top talent whether it’s to gain an advisor or to hire a new leader who will help them build a legacy brand. 

As your team looks to fill and retain pivotal roles, finding the right candidates is key to scaling a sustainable business. Here are 12 valuable trends to incorporate into your talent acquisition strategy in 2023:

1. Know the Difference Between Talent Acquisition and Recruitment
2. Hire With Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in Mind
3. Concentrate on Data-Driven Talent Acquisition
4. Utilize Network Recruiting
5. Leverage Automated Recruiting Tools
6. Develop a Talent Acquisition Strategy for Virtual/Remote Teams
7. Provide Salary Transparency
8. Take Advantage of Referral Programs
9. Include Social Media in Your Recruitment Strategy
10. Don’t Underestimate the Value of Boomerang Employees
11. Prioritize Hiring For Soft Skills
12. Focus on the Candidate’s Experience 

1. Know the Difference Between Talent Acquisition and Recruitment

What Is Talent Acquisition?

Talent acquisition is a proactive and continuous process in which you develop a pool of highly-qualified candidates you can draw from whenever you need to hire. 

Talent acquisition specialists rely heavily on several strategies, including networking, leveraging industry connections, industry events, and diverse social networks in order to curate a collection of the best candidates.

What Is Recruitment?

Recruitment is the reactive process used to fill positions as soon as they open. This process includes placing job ads and posting job descriptions to draw in candidates you can review, vet, and interview for an open role within a single timeframe. Full-cycle recruiting refers to the entire process, which starts from marketing open roles to hiring and onboarding.

Read more about the difference between recruitment and talent acquisition in our full-length blog.

2. Hire With Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging In Mind

Centering your hiring strategy around Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) helps drive better business outcomes. In fact, companies that build teams focused around DEIB earn 2.5 times higher cash flow per employee and are more productive by over 35%  than the average team that does not. 

Companies that hire with DEIB in mind are able to: 

• Attract diverse talent with inclusive job postings and descriptions.
• Foster a team that is diverse in thought by establishing a welcoming and dynamic workplace.
• Grow an expanding and inclusive network.
• Cultivate a customer base as unique as your team.
• Capitalize on different schools of thought, innovation, and creativity from varying backgrounds.

3. Concentrate on Data-Driven Talent Acquisition

In 2023, companies are hiring more specialized candidates to help restructure and refine their teams. Focusing on talent acquisition data, such as time to hire, quality of hire, and time to fill helps companies improve the hiring and onboarding processes. 

Implementing data into your hiring process leads to streamlined processes and increased connections to top, qualified candidates.

For more data-driven metrics to consider during talent acquisition, read our blog: 15 Essential Recruiting Metrics to Track

4. Utilize Network Recruiting

When hiring, people often say that your network can be your net worth. 

Research shows that upwards of 80% of open roles are filled through networking rather than traditional recruitment methods. As you hire in 2023, tap into your inner circle to connect with potential candidates or hire a network recruiting firm that already has a built-in and robust talent pool.

Sourcing talent with a network recruiting approach broadens a company’s scope of potential talent, giving you access to:

• Top candidates, faster
• Transparent candidate sourcing
• Talent and growth advisors

5. Leverage Automated Recruiting Tools

As companies restructure and rebuild teams in 2023, utilizing an automated recruiting tool to help you source candidates, manage your talent funnel, communications, and interview schedules provides your team more value-add activities.

With the time saved, your team can instead focus on new business initiatives, developing new products, service implementation, and more.

At Hunt Club, we take a technology and community-driven approach to talent acquisition. Our tech-enabled Search Platform automates as much of the recruiting process as possible, allowing our recruiters the time to build personalized relationships with clients and candidates to ensure they will be a positive addition to your company.

6. Develop a Talent Acquisition Strategy for Virtual Teams

Virtual and hybrid teams are becoming the norm for companies around the world. When you hire remote employees, not only is your hiring pool exponentially increased, but remote work also empowers your team members to create a flexible schedule that allows for higher productivity. 

While having access to such a wide range of candidates can lead to a greater amount of new hires, it’s imperative that your team hone in on when and how your company wants to achieve specific objectives.

When hiring for virtual teams, consider: 

• Your business’s workload
• The technological tools and resources at your disposal (e.g., Zoom and other virtual working tools)
• The timezones your teams operate in
• Your primary customer base’s geography
• Quality over quantity
• A standardized onboarding process
• Compensation packages custom to specific regions 

7. Provide Salary Transparency

One key way to attract and retain the best people is through salary transparency. Not only does it build trust between candidates and hiring managers, it also creates a larger sense of trust among current employees since they have access to salary ranges and opportunities for growth. 

8. Take Advantage of Referral Programs

An employee referral program is a great way to connect with high-quality candidates who already come with something of a stamp of approval. 

Additional benefits include: 

• Pre-vetted candidates
• An instant point of connection for the new hire
• Higher retention rates among referred employees
• Access to a larger talent pool
• Increased employee engagement

Implementing a referral program can be as simple as asking your teams to reach out to their networks or joining a pre-existing network. Either way, referral programs are an excellent way to gain a competitive edge as your company scales. 

9. Include Social Media in Your Recruitment Strategy

Social media creates a unique opportunity for companies and talent to connect in a way that was previously unavailable. 

For candidates, social media allows them to: 

• Showcase past projects
• Post work from their portfolio
• Learn more about the company on a more in-depth level
• Discover current employees and learn about their experiences working at the company recruiting them

On the other hand, social media allows employers to:

• Highlight open roles along with the characteristics and expertise they are looking for in a new hire
• Conduct social media backgrounds checks to ensure candidates are a good cultural and team fit
• Promote company values and increase company exposure to candidates 

10. Don’t Underestimate the Value of Boomerang Employees

Welcoming back a former employee can be advantageous for a variety of reasons. Not only do they already have a relationship with existing teams, but they can be onboarded more quickly than a new hire. Once onboarded, boomerang employees can begin projects more quickly and re-immerse themselves in the day-to-day tasks and cross-collaborative projects. 

11. Prioritize Hiring For Soft Skills

The best leaders are emotionally intelligent and not only prioritize their team's productivity but also well-being. Finding a remarkable leader who can do this means looking beyond their technical skills and diving into their ability to manage a crisis, how they approach giving and receiving feedback, how they empower growth among their teams, and more. 

Here are a few soft skills to look out for:

• Self-awareness
• Collaborative mindset and teamwork
• Consistent curiosity
• Resourcefulness
• Problem-solving and critical thinking
• Organization and time management
• Excellent verbal, written, and even non-verbal communication

Today, soft skills are a key factor in whether or not a candidate will be able to provide the support and tenacity your company requires. 

12. Focus on the Candidate's Experience 

As your organization hires more specialized talent, it’s important that your candidates understand how much your team values them throughout the entire hiring and onboarding process. 

Here are just a few examples of how you can show focus on your candidates to strengthen your overall hiring: 

• Allot time for your candidates to ask their hiring manager questions
• Make sure your team has the right people on each call or email who can provide thorough answers
• Schedule calls based on their availability, versus your own
• Send your candidates automated gifts for reaching the final round of interviewing 
• Provide candidates a survey asking for feedback on the process
• Be transparent about timelines and when to expect responses

Connect With Talent Who Will Shape the Future of Your Business

Hiring the right people at the right time can transform an organization. As your company plans for future growth and new talent to join the team, Hunt Club can help guide you through the talent acquisition and onboarding process, connecting you with your ideal candidate. 

Our talent-sourcing technology, world-class recruiters, and Expert Network of 20k+ industry leaders will connect your team with a leader who will help shape the future of your business.