Talent Acquisition vs. Recruitment: Learn the Difference

15 of December, 2022

In the present days, many work processes have been seeing change in comparison with the past. One of the most used terms is talent acquisition and management. But what isn’t it the same as recruiting?  

The conventional HR recruitment process has turned digital. Just as work at C-level suites is now done over a single dashboard which allows for remarkable system integration. That’s why HR departments are urged to step up their digital game. So, let’s dive into the differences between TA and recruitment.

What is Talent Acquisition (TA)

The new and current generations look for work very differently, and choose jobs for different reasons. The applicants can search the net, find opportunities and apply with one click. 

All with an eye on the company’s reputation and willingness to share personal values, work-life balance, physical and mental well-being. Alongside with feeling valued, hybrid or remote work models and financial well-being. 

In a way, your employees have become customers of your organization. They will evaluate you against other opportunities in the varied online groups to which they belong.

Talent Acquisition should be mastered in HR departments before the work is outsourced to specialists adept at reaching out through digital means, and attracting by personal exchange a likely candidate for the position.

The goal of talent acquisition is to identify candidates whose skill sets and experience, or talent, can help a company fill a need fast. That can only be done with online searches employing dedicated HR instruments. Very similarly to the ones that managers use to assess customer experience. 

Talent Acquisition vs Recruitment: What’s the Difference?

HR can’t work in this age of constant dislocation with blunted tools. Not long ago, it was possible to go through the cumbersome process of strategic job description, verifying candidates, etc. Only then, start a series of structured interviews before onboarding with its many complexities.

All these were designed in another, more stable era. Way before work had gone hybrid and the coming of a new generation. The generation which leads their lives online and leaves digital footprints at every step in their journey through life.

Talent acquisition specialists work seeking social networks and forums. This means LinkedIn and virtually any source of talent among those. Winning prizes at universities, maintaining personal websites, publications, resumes, and all kinds of mentions in various contexts. 

The list is endless, but requires more than just finding a potential candidate to attract them by means of personal engagement. It can be a very short process of Zoom interviews and verification. Always looking for new hires who can hit the ground running. Skill tops all other considerations

Tips for Effective Talent Acquisition

Talent acquisition is a data-driven talent strategy that aligns with today’s shifting workforce trends in a much-transformed playing field. It requires new talent strategy rules tracked by real-time talent analytics. We need Talent Analytics because it replaces the conventional hiring sequence with a lot of moving parts.

Keep in mind how customers are found and tracked for their experience by marketing. It’s much like it. You need to create excitement and literally sell the job.

People should be excited about joining a company even before they apply. Marketing can help highlight an organization’s stellar reputation, amazing people, and first-class product or service. Really, it’s just branding, well known to marketing.

Examples of Talent Acquisition Strategies

Talent acquisition software is essential to keep record of online transactions, identify specific skills above other employee attributes, and in general greatly expedites the hiring cycle.

The primary goal of the HR system in organizations is to attract, motivate and retain talented employees as always, but now by using social media tools leveraging their huge network of referral relationships.

Talent Acquisition is in essence networking and marketing. While digital networking has been around for a long time, it took off in 2020 with the start of the pandemic when it became the only method for employees to connect and keep in touch due to restrictions. You start from an online platform that can reach out in all directions.

Using social networks

Facebook is the largest social network in the world with nearly 3 billion monthly active users as of 2022, with 1.8 billion of them claiming to use Facebook Groups monthly. As of today, over 800 million people are on

LinkedIn, making it the go-to social networking site for all business professionals. Twitter hosts 217 million daily active users, with the opportunity to reach out and connect with anyone else who uses the platform, all real-time.

Companies targeted this growing market. No reason for HR not to join and use these networks in its favour.

Marketing is the key

Companies must design their online HR profile to give a positive experience and insert it virtually anywhere. You should document and sort almost every exchange during the search process, which becomes easy if the entire journey takes place from a single platform.

You want to boast about your values, charitable and voluntary commitments, your wellness program, support for further education and training. Perhaps an employee at work in his or her home office, a child crawling about a placid dog, with exercise equipment fully visible in the background.

Times change, wellness and work-life balance are trending. If you want to have a great reputation for your company, you must adapt.

Using specialized software

HR can track the employee journey with the same accurate metrics used in other areas of the company operation, which enables them to quickly and accurately report on the success and shortcomings of the Talent Acquisition strategy.

We designed Sesame‘s Recruitment software for a new era in ER with powerful analytic tools that can map an employee journey. HR can by analytical tools be more precise in its reporting and in making long-range strategic plans.

We are in a fast-changing environment where flexibility and adaptability are HR survival skills. Human Resources and Talent Acquisition belong together.