Your C-level executives typically head up your strategic workforce planning efforts. However, they are not the only stakeholders who are involved in this annual process.

Departmental leaders, people managers, DEI directors, and human resources team members who run learning and development programs and other talent management initiatives also have a seat at the table during planning sessions in which leaders prepare for the future.

“Organizations can access the shared real-time insights they need to simplify complex challenges, respond to change in the moment, make the best strategic moves for the workforce, and share a mission that supports strategic growth” KPMG and Workday wrote in a joint white paper.

Mapping out the exact number of people your business needs to hire to make the desired level of progress with your overall business strategy may sound daunting.

The reality is this strategic human resources management exercise can be executed efficiently when all key decision makers meet to discuss future business needs together and make intelligent, data-backed decisions as a team instead of separately.

What the modern strategic workforce planning process entails for enterprises

The common strategic workforce planning model used by enterprises features two stages C-suites and other business stakeholders must complete together. Here is what this process typically involves.

1) Factoring in long-term goals and market conditions

Your workforce planning committee must factor your business goals into your hiring strategy.

Consider your diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. What are your strengths and areas for improvement with diversity hiring? What initiatives can positively impact your work environment and further position your enterprise as one that cares about meaningful DEI progress?

Revenue targets, your product roadmap, recent business performance, and insights from your company’s board and investors also inform your future workforce planning.

However, external factors must also be accounted for when determining your headcount needs.

Two of these outside factors include the:

• Level of workforce supply and demand. Are there many active job seekers applying for your open roles? How responsive are passive candidates to your messaging regarding open roles? Understanding whether it’s a candidate-centric market or one that favors employers will impact your recruitment marketing and outreach approach in the year ahead.
• State of the economy and labor market. What kind of competition do you face for top talent? Are macroeconomic conditions strengthening, worsening, or stagnant? Knowing how many other employers are looking to hire qualified candidates and whether the overall economic environment is forecasted to improve soon also affects which and how many requisitions your C-suite approves and your talent team budget.

Whether external factors are viewed positively or negatively by your business leaders, just remember having to account for these elements is nothing new for enterprise employers.

“Today’s recruiting challenges are the same as those previously associated with competition during times of strong economic growth,” WorkTech Founder and Principal Analyst George LaRocque noted in the 2023 Employ Recruiter Nation Report.

2) Identifying gaps and needs in terms of talent company-wide

Once internal and external factors are considered, hiring decision makers discuss the exact types and total number of roles they need or prefer to have filled in the coming year.

This requires a skills gap analysis of their existing workforce to determine which roles, teams, and locations merit the most immediate recruiting attention from talent acquisition.

It also means seeing if there are people with the right skills already in-house who can fill roles.

Yet, recent Josh Bersin Company research found just 24% of all hires made by surveyed employers in 2023 were internal. That is 16 percentage points lower than the 2020 figure.

To address skills gaps and fill key roles quickly, your company must diversify its recruiting approach. That said, your enterprise leaders must be careful not to sign off on reassignments of existing employees elsewhere in the organization just because a manager recommended the change.

To combat talent shortages, many executives at large-scale companies are also turning to non-traditional prospects who may not have the conventional background and education as employees with college degrees and certifications when planning their workforce needs.

“With more employees charting nonlinear career paths and organizations having trouble meeting their talent needs through traditional sourcing methods, now is the time to act,” Gartner HR practice leaders recently wrote for Harvard Business Review.

Using enterprise recruiting software to execute on your strategic workforce planning

Let’s fast-forward. Your key business stakeholders have met. Your company’s strategic workforce planning framework is done. Your hiring blueprint is ready to share with your talent team.

Now, it’s on your talent acquisition specialists and hiring managers to translate this hiring strategy into specific recruiting activities that will help your business hire the right people.

With Jobvite’s TA technology that seamlessly integrates with popular human capital management systems like UKG Pro and ADP Workforce Now, your hiring team can effectively merge candidate and employee data to make data-backed decisions across your recruiting process that can help you:

Research potential internal mobility candidates

“Talent is critical to every organization,” McKinsey workforce experts recently wrote. “Investment — through development, hiring, and empowerment/inclusion — is the lynchpin to executing strategic priorities and giving an organization the best chance to thrive in an uncertain future.”

The Employ Recruiter Nation Report found 16% of recruiters are stressed out by the lack of organizational focus on internal mobility. To rectify this, 36% of HR decision makers said they will include career mobility programs in their business plans moving forward.

Using Jobvite’s Evolve Talent Acquisition Suite, your sourcers can more easily identify internal candidates. You can also store information and data tied to external job seekers, while building dedicated profiles for existing employees.

These can be profiles you already have for employees because your talent team helped hire them in the first place, or ones you create in Jobvite, based on their interest in open roles.

Connect with passive talent via targeted outreach

Sourcing passive candidates will also be essential to your talent acquisition success.

The key to piquing their interest in job openings at your business is to deliver personalized candidate engagement messaging that compels them to reach out to learn more.

“Passive talent may not have a particularly interesting reason to stay at their existing job, but they’ll need a compelling reason to leave,” RecruitGyan Founder and CEO Neha Naik wrote for Forbes. “The key is to tailor your outreach to resonate with their unique motivations and career ambitions.”

Jobvite’s enterprise-grade recruitment software offers out-of-the-box nurturing capabilities that can help you more effectively connect with passive prospects. Our ATS allows you to create automated campaigns that send bespoke emails and texts to individuals and groups of candidates so you can scale your outreach while maintaining a personal touch.

Enhance your recruiting through ongoing analysis

Lighthouse Research & Advisory Chief Research Officer Ben Eubanks recently told SHRM how human resources and talent acquisition leaders “are in front of a brighter spotlight than ever before and they need to know what’s going on” with their talent attraction and retention efforts.

That is where hiring analytics comes in.

Jobvite provides TA teams rich analytics and reporting capabilities that help them dive deep into their data to unearth insights into the past hiring performance. They can see dashboards that reveal:

• The total number of applicants and passive candidates in their system
• How many diverse candidates they have engaged, advanced, and hired
• Which sources produce the highest quality and quantity of candidates
• The stages where engaged candidates exit their funnel most often
• What interview process bottlenecks exist and lead to candidate drop-offs
• How long their full-cycle recruiting process typically takes by role and team

Connecting Jobvite’s hiring technology with HCM software offers even richer insights for your hiring team and HR leaders. This direct sync can reveal quality-of-hire data for employees who were sourced by your recruiters and used to inform candidate sourcing and engagement changes.

With integrated candidate and workforce analytics, you have rich insights that can help you make progress with strategic goals and adjust your hiring plan as needed.

Learn how Jobvite’s enterprise recruitment technology can help you attract, engage, and convert top talent at scale. Schedule a demo of our Evolve Talent Acquisition Suite today.

The post Strategic Workforce Planning: Expert Advice for Enterprises first appeared on Jobvite.

Many talent acquisition, human resources, and recruiting professionals turn to HR experts and influencers to get ideas and insights that can help them improve their work and grow their careers.

Today’s top human resources leaders have lots of knowledge and expertise. They know how to:

• Streamline their employee onboarding processes
• Drive and optimize workforce training initiatives
• Routinely optimize talent acquisition approaches
• Execute successful internal mobility programs
• Positively and consistently impact business growth

You might be an HR specialist solely focused on analyzing employee experience insights. Or perhaps you are a talent acquisition manager who oversees the recruiting function in your organization. Or maybe you are a sourcer who mainly handles candidate sourcing.

Whatever your human resources job title is, reading articles, listening to podcasts, watching webinars, and attending events that feature today’s top HR experts can help you grow your career.

While there are an incredible number of HR experts and talent authorities to learn from, let’s take a look at 10 well-known influencers you should consider following in the coming year.

Start learning from these 10 HR experts in 2024

Listed in no particular order, and in no way exhaustive, here are 10 human resources experts with years of experience in HR and human capital management (HCM) who can provide inspiration for your employee experience efforts and recruiting strategies.

1) Josh Bersin

• Founder and CEO, The Josh Bersin Company
• Founder and Dean, The Josh Bersin Academy

Josh started Bersin & Associates, his first HR advisory firm, back in 2001. After selling the venture to Deloitte in 2012 and leaving the firm in 2018, Josh founded a new professional development academy in 2019 and consulting business with other leading industry analysts in 2020.

In addition to providing guidance to CEOs and CHROs at companies worldwide, Josh’s new firm also regularly releases HR-centric and talent research. These reports cover the latest trends and best practices that can help organizations transform their human resources and talent functions.

2) Madeline Laurano

• Founder, Aptitude Research

Madeline runs a Boston-based human capital management research and advisory firm that specializes in technology investment recommendations for HR leaders.

Strategic guidance provided by Madeline and her team helps business leaders discover which human resources and talent acquisition solutions, including applicant tracking systems (ATS), will help them improve their talent management, employee engagement, and hiring strategies.

3) D.K. Bartley

• Global Chief Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Officer, Hill+Knowlton Strategies

D.K. currently owns and executes DEI programs, including those centered around diversity recruiting and hiring, for Hill+Knowlton Strategies, a global public relations consulting firm.

This work follows tenures in similar roles at Moody’s, where D.K. won several awards for internal and external DEI initiatives, and Dentsu International, where he advised the diversity hiring efforts for Microsoft, Facebook, and other Fortune 500 companies.

4) Ben Eubanks

• Chief Research Officer, Lighthouse Research & Advisory
• Founder, HR Tech Awards
• Host, We’re Only Human Podcast

Ben educates HR professionals on best practices for improving the workplace experience. He also helps technology vendors learn how to provide valuable products for HR teams.

Ben’s popular podcast and speaking engagements at industry events have positioned him as a go-to HR expert. He is well-known among his peers and is sought after for workforce management advice and software insights into solutions that help HR and talent functions thrive.

5/6) Trish Steed & Steve Boese

• Co-founders, H3 HR Advisors and HR Happy Hour Media Network

Trish and Steve have built a renowned human capital management research and consulting agency that helps CHROs make savvy, data-driven decisions regarding various business needs.

The HR experts’ advisory firm offers advice on strategic working planning, talent management, compliance, and technology investment decisions. The pair also provides actionable reports and insights with human resources leaders via their consultative work and podcast.

7) Vernā Myers

• Founder & President, The Vernā Myers Company
• Former VP, Inclusion Strategy, Netflix

Vernā is a thought leader in the diversity, equity, and inclusion space, with two decades of experience. She spent five years as head of Netflix’s DEI strategy, where she created and curated culture-centric initiatives that positively impacted the company’s international operations.

Add on a TED Talk on how to overcome biases, two best-selling books on improving workplace culture and diversity, and a LinkedIn Learning course on allyship that has been viewed and syndicated widely, and it’s evident Vernā is an HR expert worth following.

8) Meghan M. Biro

• Founder and CEO, TalentCulture
• Host, #WorkTrends Podcast

Empowering recruiters at hundreds of prominent organizations, including big-name brands like Microsoft and Google, has been at the heart of Meghan’s human resources and talent acquisition services at TalentCulture since 2008.

Meghan’s work centers on establishing strong, human connections with top talent.

On her podcast, Meghan regularly shares her take on the latest news and trends in the HR space and engages with other industry experts in lively conversations. Recent topics covered include planning for business resiliency, building workplace trust, and leveraging people analytics.

9) Tim Sackett

• President, HRU Technical Resources
• Author, “The Talent Fix: A Leader’s Guide to Recruiting Great Talent“

Tim runs a successful IT and engineering contract staffing firm and has more than 20 years of experience working in various recruiting and human resources roles.

Insights from Tim’s tenure in the HR industry can be found in his best-selling book and widely read blog, where he shares what it takes for employers of all sizes — from SMBs to enterprises — to reinforce their organizations with top talent and future-proof their businesses.

10) Sarah White

• Founder and Head of Strategy & Insights, Aspect 43
• Advisory Board, Future of Talent, HR.com

As SHRM noted, Sarah is “dedicated to revolutionizing the way we work” by helping business leaders discover the technologies that can help them attract, hire, and retain top talent.

Sarah and her team at Aspect 43 polls employers to unearth their recruiting challenges and hiring needs, then plans bespoke strategies and recommends strong-fit software solutions to empower clients to transform their talent acquisition and human resources approaches.

Learn how you can improve your recruiting speed, quality, and efficiency with Jobvite. Book a demo today to take the tour of our recruitment software for enterprise organizations.

The post 10 HR Experts and Influencers to Learn from in 2024 first appeared on Jobvite.

Nearly half (46%) of human resources leaders plan to invest more in HR technology in the coming years to improve daily workflows and become higher-performing HR teams, per Gartner.

It’s encouraging to see CHROs getting budget to bolster their team’s tech stacks.

However, it’s important to remember the best tools can only help human resources departments carry out their day-to-day tasks and contribute to high-level business goals when they have a structured, well-planned HR strategy in place. Specifically, one with two key objectives in mind:

1. Centralize all workforce information to make it easy for HR team members to track insights tied to employee engagement, satisfaction, output, and retention, and use those insights to recommend data-backed actions and adjustments to leaders and managers.
2. Develop an analytics-oriented talent acquisition strategy that helps the recruitment side of human resources operations enhance every element of their hiring efforts.

It’s this second objective some CHROs neglect to factor into their annual HR strategies — but one that deserves just as much attention to ensure HR helps drive the business forward.

Essential elements of a successful HR strategy

High levels of burnout and fatigue, a candidate-centric market, and adjusting to the transition from mostly in-office work to remote and hybrid models have all made work more difficult for human resources over the past few years.

It’s understandable that HR strategy planning, execution, and optimization isn’t always top of mind with CHROs. On the talent acquisition side of HR teams, the 2023 Employ Recruiter Nation Report found there are many reasons TA leaders and recruiters are experiencing high levels of stress today: 

• Not enough qualified candidates (45%)
• Competition from other employers (35%)
• More open roles to fill (34%)
• Fewer resources to support hiring (33%)
• A lack of AI-powered recruiting technologies (30%)
• More employees leaving the organization (30%)

Despite these stressors in human resources departments — particularly those at enterprises such as yours — these teams are still tasked with developing an HR strategy for their businesses that helps them achieve important goals.

So, what do human resources teams, including CHROs and other talent leaders, need to establish a well-coordinated HR strategy that ties back to organizational objectives?

Across your enterprise, chances are human resources is one of the most malleable departments. That’s because HR team members often have multiple roles and responsibilities.

Some HR generalists may focus on workforce management activities, like payroll, but that doesn’t mean these individuals work solely on the same set of limited tasks and initiatives year-round.

Look at leading, large-scale organizations today, and you’ll typically see human resources practitioners focus on both sides of the HR strategy coin: workforce planning and talent acquisition.

“[Human resources] must partner with executive leaders to manage future talent risks,” Gartner analysts recently wrote. And the best way to do this is assign specific HR team members to both tasks: some to focus on retention and turnover, and others to focus on recruiting and hiring.

Regardless of the distinct HR processes and activities you’re tasked with, you need top-rated, easy-to-use tech that streamlines your work and enables you to find the info you need to succeed.

The two tiers of technology for your HR strategy

“[Human resources] technology has become increasingly sophisticated and intelligent,” HR tech and business expert Josh Bersin recently shared with SHRM. And, of course, he’s right.

The HR software marketplace continues to grow, with new artificial intelligence tools and human capital management systems making it easier than ever for companies of all kinds to develop, track the performance of, and improve their HR strategies.

Building a best-of-breed HR tech stack requires your business leaders to factor in the two talent management approaches mentioned above — and to distinguish HR software leaders from laggards, so they don’t regret their eventual investment.

1) Human resources management software

Within this tier, there are three subsets of tools that drive modern enterprise HR strategies.

Human capital management (HCM) software

Your HR department needs to manage payroll, track compensation and benefits, set up and routinely update org charts, monitor employee engagement and productivity, and generally keep an eye on workforce-related trends. These workforce patterns, in particular, can help execs with SWOT analysis and inform workforce planning changes in the short and long term.

Consider the HCM software Jobvite connects with. Our customers sync their UKG, ADP, and BambooHR instances to transfer data tied to hired candidates into these systems to automatically create official employee profiles and records and, in turn, automate a once-laborious, manual task.

Culture, learning, and feedback tools

An equally critical tier of human resource planning technology is one that:

• Helps strengthen the company culture through proactive messaging and community-building
• Provides training and development to employees to aid their career advancement efforts
• Enables HR to send eNPS surveys and use results to realize both a better working environment and better business outcomes

The common thread among these kinds of HR solutions? They help human resources work with business leaders and people managers to help employees realize internal mobility goals.

“Pursuing a mobility- and retention-centered model will mean finding ways to integrate hiring and talent management databases to better match internal candidates with interdepartmental needs,” Employ SVP People & Talent Corey Berkey wrote for Forbes. “These tools can also help provide channels that support employees through the internal application process.”

Other niche workforce technologies

There are too many niche workforce tools to list here that enterprise HR professionals need to execute their human resources strategy. That said, some increasingly popular technologies focus on:

• Tracking the mental health and well-being of their workforce, particularly in times of disruption
• Analyzing the effectiveness of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives
• Executing change management plans with their C-suite during periods of structural change
• Creating a corporate “wiki” to act as a single source of truth of company info for employees

The effect of using tools like these is they help your HR team keep tabs on and improve workers’ well-being and aid the enterprise in achieving company goals tied to the overall business strategy. That includes improving workforce diversity and showing a commitment to employee wellness.

2) Enterprise applicant tracking system

“Besides streamlining your recruitment processes, technology can also improve the candidate experience while driving speed and efficiency,” Corey wrote for SpiceWorks. “However, there are too many shiny objects … that will fail on some core level to deliver what recruiting leaders actually need.”

“Take as objective a view as possible on what your team needs from your [recruiting and hiring] technology and where you can optimize current tools,” Corey recommended. “Then, search for a [talent acquisition] partner with the expertise and knowledge to work collaboratively with you.”

One of the most common partnerships CHROs and TA leaders form are those with their applicant tracking system vendors. Notably, those that not only offer a world-class ATS, but also provide ongoing, hands-on support to help HR recruiting orgs thrive with their platforms.

Once you’ve secured tools from the first tier, turn your attention to enterprise recruitment technology. For example, with Jobvite’s Evolve Talent Acquisition Suite, your HR team can:

• Realize more predictable hiring outcomes, thanks to built-in recruitment analytics
• Brand your career site with highly optimized messaging and visuals to boost applications
• Execute a high-volume hiring initiative using our advanced recruitment marketing features
• Leverage AI and automation to put a variety of formerly arduous tasks on relative autopilot
• Source, nurture, and convert candidates at scale to speed up hiring and close reqs faster
• Provide exceptional recruitment experiences for your HR staff and engaged candidates
• Make more data-driven decisions across your full-cycle recruiting strategy

Your HCM software may offer some applicant-tracking functionality. But, what your enterprise really needs to take your talent acquisition approach to new heights in the years ahead is built-for-purpose recruitment technology intended for large organizations like yours.

If your business is included in the half of large-scale companies struggling to identify and engage qualified candidates today, a holistic solution can address this part of your HR strategy.

Learn why strategic human resources teams continue to invest in Jobvite — and how our enterprise recruiting platform can accelerate and improve your hiring efforts.

The post Developing an Effective HR Strategy for Your Enterprise first appeared on Jobvite.

A comprehensive and integrated talent management strategy is critical for the success of any organization. Particularly for C-suite executives at enterprises who need to collaborate with one another regularly to discuss both sides of talent management:

1. Talent acquisition: Attracting qualified candidates through savvy recruitment marketing and passive sourcing, and turning the best-fit prospects into new employees
2. Workforce empowerment: Ensuring high performance for all staff members by aligning their KPIs with business goals, and working to develop (and retain) said employees

In short, the effectiveness of your talent management strategy has long-term implications for your bottom line, employee productivity, and overall growth. The challenge for business leaders such as yourself is to strike the perfect balance in terms of resource allocation. That is, you need to:

• Set your entire TA team up for success to make sure they’re able to consistently add premier prospects to their talent pool, advance those individuals through their recruitment funnel, and help hiring managers decide which ones deserve job offers
• Enable managers and human resources to help new hires hit the ground running from day one, regularly engage employees to ensure they have everything they need to thrive, and monitor their contributions to organizational performance over time

It’s clear talent management includes a lot of moving parts.

That said, your C-suite can establish a strong talent management system that addresses both sides of the talent coin, so to speak, by keeping your TA and HR leaders in the loop regarding workforce planning efforts (and changes) and providing them with world-class tech that helps them hire high-quality talent at scale and ensure all employees help the org realize the desired business outcomes.

What a strong talent management strategy looks like

What’s needed to build and sustain a well-oiled talent management machine today is straightforward:

• On the human resources side, HR “must partner with executive leaders to manage future talent risks while addressing workflow risks,” according to Gartner.
• On the talent acquisition side, TA must “be an ambassador for the company who shows others why they would want to be part of the team” and use “effective recruiting strategies [that] … help [them] find the right people,” Forbes contributor Kimberlee Leonard recently wrote.
• On the people managers side, team leaders must “expand career development beyond those employees who are considered ‘high potential,'” per MIT Sloan Management Review contributors George Westerman and Tony Gigliotti.
• And on the executive leadership side, C-suites must enable all three aforementioned stakeholders to succeed with these respective tasks on their plates and achieve OKRs assigned to them to ensure a steady stream of strong talent “enters the door” and is empowered to excel in their respective roles.

Before your enterprise can realize this vision, you first need to implement a holistic, sound, well-coordinated talent management strategy. Once you do, you can realize substantial benefits, including:

Increased employee engagement and satisfaction

When employees know they’re valued and have opportunities to learn and grow within the company, they’re more likely to be engaged and satisfied with their work. Plain and simple.

The key is ensuring you regularly address issues with and constantly improve your company culture — an oft-forgotten element (and a critical one at that) of successful talent management strategies.

“Company culture is often a leading driver in whether an employee feels like they’re a good fit with the business or if they choose to look for employment elsewhere,” human resources expert Jordan Nottrodt recently wrote for HRMorning. “Offering competitive wages is not enough.”

Improved workforce efficiency and communication

A major advantage of establishing linkages between your TA and HR systems (more on that shortly) is your newfound ability to centralize processes and streamline communication channels.

This, in turn, enables human resources generalists, people managers, and (you guessed it) executives such as yourself to coordinate and collaborate more effectively.

Increased efficiency as it relates to syncing insights tied to prospective hires and current staff members can lead to better decision-making (e.g., TA using quality-of-hire data to inform sourcing improvements). Moreover, it can help shorten hiring cycles and contribute to smoother onboarding experiences — both of which positively impact employee satisfaction and time to productivity.

Better employee retention rates across each team

A well-executed talent management strategy reduces turnover rates by creating a strong employee value proposition (EVP). When employees understand the long-term professional and personal benefits of staying with the company, they’re less likely to look for opportunities elsewhere.

“Is [your company’s purpose] the reason potential employees are interested in getting to know your organization?,” Prescient Strategists Managing Partner Dr. Curtis Odom wrote for Forbes. “Does it energize your current employees? Are you doing your best to encourage curiosity and a willingness to go the extra mile? If the answer [to these] is no, redefining your purpose is a necessity.”

Ensuring only the “right” talent is engaged and hired

One of the most critical aspects of a robust talent management strategy is attracting high-quality candidates who are well-suited for job openings and deemed likely culture-adds to the business.

These long-term initiatives around career mobility and learning programs are essential in attracting top-tier talent who would be more inclined to remain with the company for a longer tenure.

By providing opportunities for continuous learning and skills upgrades, your company can boost its resilience and ensure long-term success. Meanwhile, your workers are able to reskill and upskill — something many likely have long desired and that will set you apart from other employers.

The key components of a modern — and successful — talent management strategy

To realize the above benefits of a talent management approach, your must ensure your org has:

A highly scalable and repeatable talent acquisition approach

Aside from well-defined processes and routinely optimized recruiting tactics and techniques, your TA teams also needs an advanced applicant tracking system (ATS) built specifically for enterprises to streamline the end-to-end hiring process and build a strong candidate pipeline.

Only with such a recruitment platform in place can all your talent specialists see real-time statuses of all active opportunities, understand what actions are needed to advance these individuals in their funnels, and make data-backed decisions using actionable, always-up-to-date candidate insights.

A concerted focus on ongoing employee development

As noted, key element of a successful talent management strategy is a perpetual workforce training program. Your e-staff must invest in learning and development initiatives to enhance organizational capabilities and institutional knowledge, bridge critical skill gaps, and support professional growth.

“Access to … comprehensive skills data can help leaders make much better strategic decisions about talent management,” RedThread Research Cofounder and Principal Analyst Dani Johnson told SHRM.

A dedicated strategy around performance management

A strong performance management process helps gauge employee performance and provide timely feedback, fostering open communication channels and driving continuous improvement.

Only when this is executed can you and other business leaders and managers capably discern strengths and areas for improvement in terms of your existing human capital.

Refining your talent management processes

At the end of the day, to fully reap the benefits of talent management, your must integrate your talent acquisition and HR systems to realize more structured processes, enhance cross-functional comms, and improve data-driven decision-making.

Here’s how an integrated approach can be implemented:

Ensure strong collaboration among executive, HR, and TA teams

Enhancing communication across the org is a ceaseless endeavor. Nevertheless, your C-suite must be the ones to drive an ongoing dialogue with TA and HR teams to ensure they’re aligned on key goals, challenges, and needs so they can plan their recruiting and evaluation efforts accordingly.

Regular meetings and data-sharing can promote transparency and encourage collaboration.

Connect key human resources and talent acquisition tech

With a best-in-class enterprise ATS at the center of your TA tech stack, you can then connect said system into your HCM and HRIS for seamless data transfer and real-time synchronization.

That means recruiters can access data tied to performance reviews and quality of hire, which can tell them which employees who were once passive prospects they sourced turned into low- and high-performing employees. In turn, these insights can help them adjust their sourcing approach.

Develop a competency framework for each business role

And finally, implement a uniform set of metrics to assess employees’ skills, knowledge, and abilities across teams. This type of framework can serve as a foundation for performance evaluations, training programs, and succession planning, fostering consistency and cohesion across HR and TA.

Learn how you can improve one half of your talent management efforts — attracting, engaging, and hiring qualified candidates at scale — with our ATS. Book a demo today.

The post Building an Enterprise Talent Management Strategy: A Guide first appeared on Jobvite.

In the competitive world of hiring, enterprises must prioritize the development and progress of their existing employees. Put another way? It’s just as vital to give appropriate attention to the talent already at your org (i.e., give them the chance to grow at your business) as it is to attract new, external talent to join your company. 

Adopting an internal mobility strategy is one proven way to help employees advance professionally, retain top performers, and reward the talent you already spent time and resources to develop.

However, the (many) benefits of internal mobility and its significance in the growth and success of your enterprise org bare repeating. (Especially in today’s volatile and uncertain labor market.)

What is internal mobility? A breakdown

Internal mobility refers to employees’ ability to move into new roles on or outside their current business unit. Internal mobility programs are typically owned by human resources, but require regular input from people managers to refer team members for active and upcoming roles.

These managers make said suggestions based on their direct reports’ recent performance long-term contributions. (That is, their team members’ recent and historical work that both helped achieve team and company goals and drive business growth, either directly or indirectly.)

Other times, recruiting team members identify existing employees based on assessment of these internal candidates, so to speak, via their ATS and/or HCM profiles.

And, sometimes, employees themselves proactively seek out info on new and future roles (usually by speaking with colleagues) across the business and request to be considered for those jobs.

Regardless of how internal talent (i.e., members of your workforce) become potential candidates, internal mobility is essential to helping employees realize their professional goals, gradually advance in the “right” direction in terms of their desired career path, and — ultimately — entices them to want to stay at the business long term, given they get the opportunity to grow in new roles.

At its core, there are three distinct types of internal mobility:

• Vertical movement: Promotion to a higher-level position, often with increased benefits
• Lateral movement: Transition to a different team or department with similar job functions
• Role enhancement: Taking on additional responsibilities in one’s current position

Implementing a solid internal mobility program helps employees grow their careers, engage in professional development, and acquire new skill sets that align with the enterprise’s goals.

Creating an internal mobility program is about more than filling open positions with existing team members. It’s about tapping into your current employees’ potential, allowing them to navigate career paths, hone skill sets, and contribute to the company more meaningfully.

The main benefits of internal mobility

More than half (54%) of professionals who noted they were actively looking for a job said they hadn’t looked at their current employer for a new role, per Jobvite’s 2022 Job Seeker Nation Report.

This data point — well — points to the most common issue facing orgs who build internal mobility programs. Those who own said programs don’t make them known to their existing employees.

Assuming you avoid this pitfall, your company will realize a variety of benefits from creating an internal mobility strategy. At the same time, you’ll offer your staff the chance to explore new roles and evolve their skill sets. (Something many job seekers want to see from employers today.)

Here are some key pros of internal mobility for both your business and employees.

New professional development opportunities

Thanks to internal mobility, employees have the opportunity to engage in professional development. By working on projects beyond their usual workflow, team members can develop new skills and enhance their existing expertise. This could even involve paying for employees to become certified.

Encouraging employees with diverse interests and career paths can help motivate your workforce. And a motivated workforce often leads to greater innovation, efficiency, and output.

Increased employee retention and satisfaction

The TA process is costly and time-consuming, making it all the more important for organizations to maximize the talents of their current employees. Encouraging internal mobility contributes to long-term growth by using the skills, knowledge, and expertise already present among team members.

Fostering an environment where every employee feel empowered to apply their unique skill sets creates a sense of loyalty, which leads to a higher retention rate among high performers.

(That is to say, the odds of employees moving to new companies decreases markedly.)

Per Deloitte’s 2021 Global Human Capital Trends, employees are more likely to stay with a company if they believe their career development needs are met. This is especially true for top talent in a given business who want to continuously learn, grow, and excel professionally.

Greater internal knowledge and skills transfer

A successful internal mobility strategy promotes the development of valuable skills across the org.

By challenging employees with new roles and projects, enterprises can improve the workforce’s overall expertise, agility, and adaptability. This translates into increased productivity and efficiency for the company, as well as bridging skills gaps that could arise within the organization. 

When employees transition between roles, departments, or locations, they share their acquired knowledge with new colleagues. This internal knowledge transfer can help teams innovate, standardize best practices, and stay informed about industry developments.

Internal mobility best practices to know

The pros of employing an internal mobility program are clear. But, that begs the question:

The short answer? By abiding by these three best practices.

1) Establish clear career pathways

Transparency is key when it comes to internal mobility. Provide your employees with well-defined career paths that illustrate opportunities for growth and progression within the organization.

Your C-suite and HR leadership must work with your department heads and team managers to define upward mobility paths for each (or at least most) roles across your business.

Once these are defined, employees can learn what tasks they need to take on, skills they need to gain (or improve), and goals they need to achieve to be considered for other roles by their manager.

2) Encourage skills development

Speaking of skills, equip your workforce with the necessary expertise to excel in new, prospective roles.

Your HR team needs to work with managers to carry out training and development programs that ultimately educate employees in various facets of business that could bolster their resumes, so to speak, and provide support to them throughout their career progression journey.

3) Utilize the right hiring technology

The best TA and HR tech stacks feature a powerful yet intuitive applicant tracking system that syncs directly and shares data with human resources systems.

By integrating your ATS and HRIS/HCM software, your recruiters can easily assess internal talent by viewing all historical details and data tied to their unified employee profile:

This holistic view of all info tied to internal candidates allows talent specialists to reach out to staff members they think would be good fits for open or upcoming roles. What’s more, it reduces your talent acquisition team’s need to proactively source every time a new requisition opens up.

Learn how Jobvite can help your hiring team better identify and engage existing employees for internal mobility opportunities — and enhance your talent acquisition efforts at large.

The post Internal Mobility: Essential for Organizational Success first appeared on Jobvite.

A positive candidate experience makes job seekers eager to apply, expanding your talent pool and increasing your chances of finding the perfect fit. Meanwhile, a negative experience can send talent running straight to your competitors, damaging your brand reputation and even your bottom line.  

Job seekers have high expectations for your hiring process. If your application is clunky, communication is inconsistent, or your interview process feels impersonal, you risk losing great candidates.  

Here are six expert-backed strategies to improve the candidate experience, making every step feel personal, engaging, and seamless.  

1. Create a Standout Career Site 

Your career site is often a candidate’s first stop — and first impressions matter. Balance showcasing your company’s personality with providing clear information about your organization and open roles.  

This is your chance to highlight your company’s values, culture, and what makes it a great place to work. Consider giving candidates a look at day-to-day operations by featuring photos and videos of your teams in action.  

How to build an attention-grabbing career site:  

• Make it user-friendly and easy to navigate  

• Highlight employee experiences and success stories 

• Write clear, compelling job descriptions (ditch the jargon!) 

• Provide simple, straightforward application instructions  

An engaging, informative career site will make candidates more likely to see themselves thriving at your company. 

2. Simplify Your Application Process 

Ninety-two percent of candidates never click ‘submit’ after viewing an application. Why? Lengthy, time-intensive, and complex applications discourage candidates from completing them.  

How to boost your submission rate:  

• Cut out unnecessary fields and duplicate questions  

• Let candidates autofill using LinkedIn instead of manual form-filling  

• Provide a clear timeline on what happens after they apply  

A quick, intuitive application process improves completion rates and leaves candidates with a positive impression of your brand. 

3. Communicate Clearly and Often 

As a candidate, there’s nothing more frustrating than radio silence. Lack of communication can leave job seekers feeling ignored or undervalued, which can harm your reputation as an employer.  

Whether candidates are progressing to the next stage or not, they appreciate clarity. Transparency and regular updates keep them engaged and invested in your hiring process, while also supporting your employer brand.  

How to improve communication: 

• Acknowledge applications immediately with an automated but personalized message 

• Provide updates on next steps and expected timelines 

• Offer constructive feedback when possible (even to those who don’t get the job) 

Candidates who feel valued and respected — even if they don’t land the role — are more likely to apply again in the future or recommend your company to others. 

4. Use Consistent Hiring Practices 

A positive candidate experience isn’t just about efficiency — it’s also about fairness. A structured, unbiased hiring process helps ensure every candidate gets a fair shot. 

Unstructured interviews, inconsistent evaluation methods, or lack of clear criteria can introduce bias and make hiring decisions less effective. Instead, ensure your hiring process is objective, inclusive, and data driven. 

How to reduce bias:  

• Use standardized interview questions and evaluation criteria 

• Train hiring managers on structured, inclusive interviewing  

• Leverage data-driven assessment tools to focus on skills and fit  

By making sure every candidate feels evaluated fairly, you build trust and reinforce your company’s commitment to equitable hiring. 

5. Continuously Improve Your Processes 

Your candidate experience directly impacts your reputation. Gathering feedback helps refine your hiring process and strengthen your employer brand.  

Every touchpoint reflects who you are, and candidates aren’t shy about sharing experiences — both good and bad. A poor experience can deter future applicants, while a positive one can turn candidates into brand advocates.  

How to improve your hiring process: 

• Send post-interview surveys to candidates for honest feedback 

• Monitor employer review sites for trends in candidate sentiment  

• Make adjustments based on feedback to enhance future experiences 

Companies with the best candidate experience understand that hiring isn’t just about filling roles — it’s about creating meaningful interactions that leave a lasting impression. 

Start Winning Talent Today  

Now it’s your turn. Use these expert-backed strategies to optimize your candidate journey, making it more engaging, streamlined, and personalized. You’ll outperform the competition and build a winning team. 

But you don’t have to do it alone. Jobvite’s talent acquisition software automates tedious admin tasks, giving recruiting teams more time to focus on creating top-notch candidate experiences. Request a demo to learn more about our world-class technology.  

The post How to Improve the Candidate Experience: 6 Expert-Backed Tips first appeared on Jobvite.

More and more enterprises are ditching their dated applicant tracking systems (ATS) in favor of more complete and advanced talent acquisition suites today. Specifically, their onboarding recruiting technology that helps them better identify, engage, convert, and analyze candidates.

It can be difficult to discern exactly how effective your recruitment software is in helping you hire high-quality talent. Thankfully, there are several questions you can ask yourself that can reveal the efficacy of your current ATS — and determine if it’s time to upgrade to a better solution.

8 questions your hiring team members should ask about your recruiting technology

Automation capabilities. Candidate relationship management functionality. Analytics dashboards. A simplified application process. Integrations with other helpful HR and recruiting tools.

If you’re applicant tracking software lacks said offerings, it may be a sign to move on from it.

Ask yourself these questions to determine if you are getting the best possible results from your current TA tech or if you need to eliminate your current ATS in favor of a better one.

1) What are our current candidate conversion rates?

On average, companies convert only 30% of applicants. Jobvite defines the candidate conversion rate as the process of transitioning a career site visitor into a known candidate or applicant by either completing the job application process or joining a talent network.

First, figure out your candidate conversion rates. And if you aren’t achieving conversion rates of at least 70%, check out the Fortune 500 Candidate Conversion Audit report to see what common mistakes other companies are making and where you might have opportunities to improve quickly.

2) Are we automatically sourcing qualified talent?

According to Aptitude Research, recruiters spend up to 16 hours per week scheduling calls and 10 hours looking for candidates in their ATS. Recruiters can reduce time spent on sourcing by around 30% using automated technology.

Not only does automation cut down on time and effort, but AI finds the right candidates for the role by pre-screening for you and directing them to recruiters or hiring managers when the time is right.

Your talent team needs to source top talent with the aid of automation in the years ahead.

3) Do we deliver strong candidate comms with texting and chatbots?

Intelligent messaging helps pre-screen and answer candidate questions – recruiting teams are using chatbots and texting to pre-screen candidates and answer their questions automatically.

Texts to candidates boast an impressive 98% open rate, compared to email (20%). Intelligent messaging keeps candidates engaged in all stages of the hiring process. Texting and chatbots should be part of your core talent acquisition suite.

4) Is our onboarding process helping or hurting?

All employees need high-quality onboarding to start with your company to have a chance of succeeding. Provide a consistent onboarding experience for every employee using onboarding software as part of your talent acquisition suite and retain that top talent you just hired.

5) Do we have visibility to know what is working and what is not?

Strategic TA teams constantly measure their processes and work to improve them.

A robust talent acquisition analytics platform empowers agile recruiting orgs to keep an eye on key metrics tied to pipeline management efforts and make data-driven changes as needed.

The analytics built into your recruiting technology should enable you to easily, efficiently, and quickly measure results as it relates to applicants, nurtures, interviews, offers, and other facets of your day-to-day effort and improve hiring outcomes.

6) Are we getting as many employee referrals as we can?

It’s a known fact that referrals are a great source of candidates and often make the best hires. If you aren’t managing referrals from within your talent acquisition suite, you are missing out on this great source of candidates.

7) What about internal candidates? Can we easily identify them?

Internal candidates make great candidates for new roles. Having an internal mobility program not only helps to retain top talent for longer, it gives you a great career path story for future hires. And that goes for your recruiters as well.

Per Aptitude Research, 32% of recruiters are looking for other career opportunities.

8) Do you have a strategic plan to continually improve your TA process?

None of us can make immediate improvements to current processes or technologies overnight. If we try to do too much too quickly, we’ll fail. So, get strategic and thoughtful about how mature your current processes and technologies are and where you can improve and get better results.

Need help getting started? Take 10 minutes to complete the EVOLVE Talent Acquisition framework to identify and prioritize areas for improvement — including with your recruiting technology.

According to recent research from HR expert Josh Bersin, leading recruitment technology is helping TA teams retain top talent and market a strong employer brand to source high-quality candidates.

The sooner you consider areas to recruit smarter, the sooner you can enjoy the benefits.

Get a glimpse into how Evolve, our complete Talent Acquisition Suite, helps enterprises streamline their recruiting and scale their hiring. Request a one-on-one demo today.

The post How to Know When to Upgrade Your Recruiting Technology first appeared on Jobvite.