Speaker 1: What does a talent acquisition specialist do? Hey friends, Josh here, founder of HR University. And in this video, we're going to talk about the role and responsibility of a talent acquisition specialist. And every business, whether small or big, needs employees. Talent acquisition specialists focus on finding and recruiting these candidates. Even though they are not the final decision makers, they have a tremendous influence over the entire talent acquisition process. In smaller businesses, the managers or even the boss are in charge of hiring new employees. But the situation is different in larger businesses. Larger companies have a whole team of people dedicated to locating and hiring new employees, known as talent acquisition specialists. And people who work in this role assist companies, especially in highly competitive sectors and industries, in finding the best candidates for their vacancies. They have a keen eye for detail and are able to read people quickly and have excellent communication skills. All of which help to identify the ideal pick. A talent acquisition specialist is responsible for ultimately sourcing, attracting, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding employees into a company. They factor in the long-term goals of an organization and acknowledge that people play a huge role in a company's future success. And talent acquisition is important because finding and hiring the right people is the most crucial element of an organization's business plan. Without the right employees, a business is likely to struggle with poor productivity, bad decision-making, and unmotivated staff. And that will ultimately lead to failure. These factors make it difficult for a business to remain stable in any type of competitive market. So, what are the qualifications a talent acquisition specialist needs to have in order to solve this problem? Well, those selected for this position usually need to have a lot of HR expertise, typically a bachelor's degree or a professional certification in HR. In addition, most companies search for people who have experience already in the field and with working throughout the onboarding process in order to get new employees onboarded into a company effectively. They also require experience devising various techniques for networking. Another big plus is if the person has worked on branding strategy before. Talent acquisition specialists need a strong understanding of their company's brand identity as well as how to convey that identity to future prospects. Another important ability is attention to detail. They need to know what kind of person a company is looking for and to be able to express that effectively in a job posting. They also need to use an applicant tracking system to stay organized. And finally, experience working with a diverse group of people is a must as strong interpersonal skills are required for the diverse group of candidates that they talk to. Now, let's go ahead and discuss the responsibilities of the talent acquisition specialist with some key details. So their job differs based on the size of the company. However, let's start with the preparation for the job description since it's one of their most important tasks across any size company. Both the hiring manager and the talent acquisition specialist should write the job description since they are both experts in their fields and collaboration greatly helps put together the best job description that will match the candidate that they're looking for. A job description must adhere to all applicable laws, use inclusive language, and include relevant details about the open position. It should also include all the information that a job seeker should be aware of before applying for the position. And furthermore, once they have completed the job preparation, the next task is to recruit candidates. This can be a simple chore if they just post a job description and wait for the candidates to apply. But sometimes they have to go out and actually find them. So the talent acquisition specialist job could involve scouting at career fairs or trips to schools or universities. After the talent acquisition specialists may have a list of prospects and then they must decide which ones to fulfill the criteria and which one should be considered for the position. And when there are multiple applications, they must determine which ones are acceptable for further consideration and which ones they need to reach out to and let them know that they didn't make it past that line of interviewing. They then reach out to give an additional personal screening once they have a smaller circle of people. And after the specialists have chosen a screen candidates, they inform the hiring managers that they'll choose from the list who will be interviewed. However, the hiring manager may make recommendations for candidates who apply in unconventional ways. In such cases, the talent specialist task is to investigate these recommendations and find out if they fulfill the requirements. It's important to note that recommendations from hiring managers should always be taken seriously. After the candidates have been chosen, talent acquisition specialists are in charge of scheduling interviews. But that's not all. The talent acquisition specialists have additional responsibilities. Since changes in leadership positions are unavoidable, companies always need to plan ahead. As a result, preparation is made including not just training and development, but also hiring. The talent acquisition specialists are there to find someone who can progress to the next position while also filling the first one. After that, what they do is they have a new task to complete and that is advising managers. They should guarantee that any hiring manager is interview ready before assisting the manager in evaluating the prospects. Because many managers are not used to hiring and they need to understand the process better. And this is where the talent acquisition specialists can really get them up to speed. So that includes training and guiding them through oftentimes the whole process of what employee onboarding looks like as well. Also during the onboarding process, the talent acquisition specialists are hand-in-hand to help the new employees. They need to assist them from paperwork to making them feel at ease at their workplace and everything in between and they are the new employees first point of contact with HR. Hence why they play an important role in establishing new employee expectations. At this point you may have a question, which is is there a difference between a recruiter and a talent acquisition specialist? While there are some similarities between the two, there are also some significant distinctions. Recruitment is concerned with immediately filling unfilled positions, whereas talent acquisition specialists are concerned with something more. They're concerned with developing a long-term strategy for identifying the precise individuals required to complete job roles. And typically talent acquisition needs advanced planning while recruitment doesn't need that as much. The recruiters operate primarily outside the company and focus on applicants in a given field rather than a specific company. And to summarize, all we have discussed so far is talent acquisition specialists are members of the human resource department. They select workers who already meet all job standards, ideally. However, they are responsible for much more. They're involved at each stage of the hiring process. And they're the ones who post jobs, search for candidates, analyze resumes, and applications to determine the best candidates. And because these experts are so important to a company's success, those who are hired for this position usually have a lot of HR experience. And most job postings for this position require candidates with a bachelor's degree or relevant certification in HR. And there we have it. In this video, we cover the roles and responsibilities of a talent acquisition specialist. If you enjoyed it, make sure to go ahead and like this video and subscribe to our channel for more HR University content. And that way you can learn what it takes to become a great HR professional. And I'll go ahead and see you in some of our following videos. Cheers.