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.

States all across the U.S. are briskly moving to hire hundreds and thousands of contact tracers very rapidly. According to a recent NPR story, states nearly doubled their plans for contact tracers within a ten-day period. As states ramp up to build their contact tracing programs in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus and reopen the country, they are faced with monumental challenges. RPO offers a unique solution for building a contact tracing workforce. 

With the advent of modern recruiting technology there are tons of data at the disposal of organizations. Are organizations catching up to the data potential? What is the role of outside experts in bringing greater insight to an organization?

Recruiting practices that once were tested and proven no longer work today. In his recent Harvard Business Review article, “Your Approach to Hiring is All Wrong,” professor Peter Cappelli explains why.

Selecting a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) provider is a big decision for any organization. Recruitment process outsourcing can be a comprehensive talent acquisition solution with big business impact. Previously, we explained how to determine if RPO is right for your smaller organization and how to make the case for top executives. Here we zoom in on the challenge of choosing an RPO provider.

According to the National Center for The Middle Market, “In the third quarter of 2017, middle market companies continue to report strong growth, confidence, and optimism. At 7.0%, year-over-year revenue growth remains steady and the 6.4% growth in employment is well above the historical average. While confidence in the U.S. economy is down slightly from the first quarter of the year, global and local economic confidence remain near peak levels.”  

We wanted to investigate what the current state of the middle market means in terms of hiring and recruiting, and what the business drivers are affecting talent acquisition. To find out, we recently interviewed talent acquisition expert, Pam Verhoff, president of Advanced RPO, a recruitment process outsourcing company based in Chicago, IL.  Here is an edited excerpt of this interview.  

Filling open positions as need arises for an organization is no longer effective. Staying competitive in today’s job market means building candidate pipelines and managing candidate pools among other talent acquisition strategies.

While analysts and practitioners might have different views on the new role of human resources, they all agree that HR has evolved from the basics of employee managing and hiring to serve a more strategic function. Some of the new responsibilities of HR include succession planning and data analytics, creating better processes and training protocol, and attracting and retaining top talent.