Talent Planning and Acquisition
Talent planning and acquisition begins with workforce planning: forecasting demand, assessing supply, and closing gaps through build, buy, borrow, or automate decisions. Job analysis is the foundation; it produces job descriptions (tasks, duties, responsibilities) and job specifications (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics). Competency models translate strategy into observable behaviors. Recruitment should be evaluated with metrics such as time to fill, cost per hire, source effectiveness, offer acceptance, and quality of hire. Selection must be both reliable-consistent-and valid-job-related. Structured interviews, work samples, and validated tests generally outperform unstructured interviews. Candidates should screen for adverse impact and know that a selection tool can be reliable but invalid, or valid but impractical.
Traps: confusing job description with specification; treating a popular interview style as legally safer; using yield ratios without defining the stage; and assuming a high offer-acceptance rate proves good sourcing. Onboarding is part of acquisition because early turnover often reflects poor role clarity, equipment, or manager support.
Worked example: 200 applicants produce 40 interviews, 10 offers, and 8 accepted offers. Interview yield is 40/200 = 20%; interview-to-offer is 10/40 = 25%; offer acceptance is 8/10 = 80%; overall applicant-to-hire yield is 8/200 = 4%. If the role needs 20 hires, at a 4% yield you need about 500 applicants, not 200. Rule of thumb: calculate each stage separately and use the stage with the biggest drop to target recruitment fixes.