Report on “Decoding the Talent Code and Challenges in Talent Acquisition”

Event Flow:-

“Don’t Just Survive. But win.”

These were the precious words by Prof. Lekha Sishta, Global Talent Strategist who was invited by the HR- Department to conduct a guest-lecture on “Decoding the Talent Code and Challenges in Talent Acquisition” for the first-year batch of HR students. The lecture started with a discussion on the intricacies of the VUCA world and how Recruitment as a function is emerging as a novel genre, different from the traditional HR-functions. 

The discussion shaped its course into Prof. Sishta defining the 18 major characteristics-cum-challenges in the recent trends in Talent Acquisition. The first feature described Recruitment shifting its persona from an HR to a Marketing and furthermore to a business-strategy function. The second concept talked about Inbound Recruitment which emphasizes on proactively and continuously attracting candidates with the goal to make them choose you as your next employer. The third concept focused on Employer Branding as a newly emerging HR-trend, wherein the market is shifting from a CVP to EVP. The fourth concept was that of Candidate Experience and why it is important for recruiters to ensure that the present, past and potential candidates return home with a positive opinion about the company. The fifth point highlighted “Talent Pool” concept wherein high-quality database for all future estimated needs to be maintained. The sixth point focused on ‘Candidate Relationship Management’ wherein she talked about the concept of Key Account Managers, Quality Marketing Tools, Pareto Optimality and best practices. 

The seventh point talked about Social Recruiting through platforms like LinkedIn, twitter, blogs, forums etc. Its scope goes much beyond job-posting. The social media is proactively being used for searching potential candidates and building a relationship with them. The eighth point dealt with automation in recruitment while the ninth point discussed was General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)- a piece of EU regulation that replaced the current Data Protection Act (DPA) with the goal to unify data regulations within the EU. The tenth point on HR analytics gave insights on how and what needs to be improved. The eleventh point talked about how Employee Referrals are the most productive and efficient way to get good performers on board. The twelfth point focused its approach on Talent Sourcing.

Prof. Lekha addressing to the Students

The thirteenth point discussed was about how HR team along with the other departments are working collaboratively to hire good talent. In the fourteenth point, ma’am differentiated between structured and unstructured interviews. The fifteenth point discussed was about choosing the ‘fit’ talent over the ‘best’ talent. The sixteenth point discussed majorly about how gig economy is gaining grounds, while the seventeenth point talked about Contract Staffing. The eighteenth point focused on strategic alignment of HR and how the recruitment and hiring should be aligned with the overall business strategy. 

A group picture with the HR Students and Faculty