In early 2020, with the U.S. economy at its highest expansion points in history, I spoke with three leading talent acquisition experts about the state of total talent (TT) and where they saw it heading. Obviously, a lot has happened since we held that panel discussion!

Recently, I wanted to revisit the topic and find out the current state of total talent in light of the pandemic. In particular, I was interested to know what effect the pandemic’s had on the adoption of TT in the marketplace. I caught up with two original panelists, Kim Pope of WilsonHCG and Zach Chertok of Columbia University, and also spoke with Jen Spicher of LevelUp to get their insights and thoughts on the current state and the outlook for total talent in 2021. Here's a summary of the experts' insights and outlook.

The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc throughout all industries, including talent acquisition. Many business and human resource (HR) leaders had to adapt to the unexpected chaos of the coronavirus quickly. Nearly all recruitment operations went virtual.

However, despite the coronavirus chaos within the talent acquisition space, technology sparked a fast shift to new recruiting and hiring practices.

Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association (RPOA) explored this paradox of crisis and transformation during its inaugural virtual conference in October: Talent Acquisition Transformed Conference 2020. The conference gathered top thought leaders within the TA and technology space to discuss the pandemic's impact on talent acquisition and give messages of hope for the industry as we move into the future.

The conference opened with Ben Eubanks, author, speaker, researcher, and podcaster, giving an inspiring keynote speech. After the keynote, there were three sessions, each addressing different areas of talent acquisition transformation. Eleven TA industry leaders spoke on employer branding, remote work, fluctuating hiring demands, recruitment marketing, and the state of job seekers and employers in the era of COVID. The virtual conference ended joyously with Slash Coleman, founder of Laughter Yoga Richmond, providing the power of laughter to improve our health, energy, and attitude.

Staffing agencies and RPOs around the globe are always on the look-out for creative and cost-effective ways to meet their client’s hiring goals. Today’s economic climate has made it imperative to help clients run sustainable businesses with reduced budgets. Programmatic job advertising (PJA) is an innovative solution that helps recruitment providers improve candidate quality, enhance client satisfaction, and increase margins at each stage of the value cycle.

As COVID-19 continues to impact the economy and our way of life, companies struggle with the surge of tech problems needing solutions. Some companies are planning tech projects to better prepare and manage for things like this in the future. And other companies are not.

All of this means that there will be a surge in demand, which is already happening, for tech talent. But, the demand for tech talent still outstrips the supply of skilled talent. In other words, the tech talent war is still raging. Companies will need to have a strong employer brand to win the tech talent war.

A common interview wrap-up is to ask a candidate “Do you have any questions?” In this post, we’re flipping that on its head and drilling down on the questions those on the talent acquisition side in RPO may have. If you’ve never known where to turn for answers to your RPO questions, we’re here to help. Besides, no matter how much you know about RPO, there’s always something new to learn!

The COVID-19 pandemic has made companies turn to virtual recruiting. The Acceptance of HR professionals to the changes is mixed. Pam Verhoff, President of Advanced RPO, pointed out, "Some clients are adapting better than others." While Jennifer Cooper, Senior Vice President at Hueman RPO, reported, "Most clients have quickly adapted to the virtual world."

The question is whether virtual recruiting will create a positive candidate experience. Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) providers are subject matter experts (SMEs) on virtual recruiting as they are some of the early adopters of this approach. In this post, RPO leaders express the positive and negative effects virtual recruiting has on the candidate experience. These leaders also provide strategies to ensure your virtual recruiting program gives candidates the best experience possible.

As we move into the fourth quarter, we see glimmers of hope despite the coronavirus still impacting lives and the economy. The unemployment rate has fallen from 8.4 percent to 7.9 percent. The economy is showing signs of recovery. A sign of this recovery is the ISM Manufacturing index. This index measures purchasing managers' behavior to find out data about the production, shipment levels, and inventories. Based on that data, it creates a monthly numerical rating. A rating of 50 or above shows economic growth. The ISM has been above 50 since June of this year. Dr. Sime Curkovic, professor of management at Western Michigan University's Hawthorne School of Business, said that if this trend continues, the American economy could recover fully in the third quarter of 2021.

Like marketing in general, recruitment marketing is brand building. As Al Ries and his daughter Laura Ries point out in their book 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, marketing is not about selling; it's about building brands. The Rieses are talking about building consumer brands, but recruitment marketing is about building employer brands. 

Building an employer brand for an organization can be a daunting task for internal human resources and talent acquisition teams. Bringing outside expertise on employer branding can be a strategic approach to solving this challenge, and recruitment process outsourcing providers (RPOs) are typically a great option. This post explores some of the fundamental laws of employer branding and what you can expect from an RPO partner. 

Standing out in a crowded market isn’t always about having a completely unique product or service to sell. Take RPO, for example. All RPOs work with their clients to forecast staffing needs, drive candidate exposure to jobs and employer brand, source and engage talent, and provide candidate assessments and care. Yet, the best talent acquisition leaders have found ways to differentiate themselves and become experts in what they do.

There are many paths to get to differentiation, but what it all boils down to is this: It’s not how unique your approach is, it’s how unique people think your approach is. And according to Rob Navarette, how people view you—and your approach—depends a lot on how you see yourself.

“All creative, talented people recognize the value of process, and have no concerns about revealing to others that it takes many bad ideas to obtain good ones.” So says Scott Berkun, speaker and best-selling author of multiple books on design including The Year Without Pants about his time with Microsoft, and his latest, How Design Makes the World.

When Berkun first started at Microsoft, he was embarrassed to share (or even document) what he considered his bad ideas. But he kept a notebook filled with them and along the way discovered something that has served him well throughout his career: each bad idea revealed some other way of thinking about the problem. And eventually he learned being transparent about his bad ideas with others created a collaborative environment that encouraged good—or even great—ideas to emerge.