Welcome to Chapter 3 of The HR Generalist’s Blueprint: A Complete Operational Guide.
In the previous chapter, we built your personal toolkit. Now, we apply those tools to the most critical function of HR: Talent Acquisition.
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Notice we did not call this "Recruiting."
Recruiting is reactive. It is filling an empty chair because someone quit.
Talent Acquisition is proactive. It is a strategic approach to identifying, attracting, and onboarding top talent to meet future business goals.
If you are only filling vacancies as they appear, you are already behind. This chapter outlines the full lifecycle of bringing a new human into the organization.
Key Takeaways:
The Shift: Move from "Backfilling" (reactive) to "Workforce Planning" (proactive).
The Source: 70% of the global workforce is passive talent. They are not on Indeed; you have to find them.
The Method: Use Structured Interviews (STAR) to remove bias and predict performance.
3.1 Workforce Planning: Identifying Gaps Before Emergencies
Most HR Generalists live in "Emergency Mode." A manager runs to your desk on Friday saying, "Mike just quit! I need a replacement by Monday!"
This panic leads to bad hires. The solution is Workforce Planning.
This involves analyzing your current staff against future business needs. You must sit with department heads quarterly (not just annually) to ask:
Growth: "Are we launching a new product? Do we need new skills (e.g., AI knowledge) that we don't currently have?"
Attrition Risk: "Who is likely to leave? Do we have a succession plan for key roles?"
Budget: "Can we afford a Senior hire, or should we hire a Junior and train them?"
High Value Insight: Don't just track Headcount (number of bodies). Track Skills Gap. If you have 10 Marketing Managers but none of them know Digital Marketing, you have a gap, even if the seats are full.
3.2 Sourcing Strategy: Beyond "Post and Pray"
The old method of "Post and Pray" (posting on a job board and waiting) is dead. To find High-Value talent, you need a multi-channel strategy.
A. Employer Branding
Your "Employer Brand" is what people say about you when you aren't in the room. Before a candidate applies, they will check your Glassdoor reviews and LinkedIn Life page.
The Audit: Google your company name + "reviews." If the first result is a 1-star review from 2019 complaining about low pay, you will lose top talent before they even apply.
The Fix: Encourage happy employees to leave honest reviews to balance the score.
B. The Power of Referrals
Employee referrals are the "Gold Standard" of sourcing.
Faster to Hire: They skip the screening queue.
Cheaper: No agency fees.
Longer Retention: They stay 70% longer because they already have a friend at work.
Pro Tip: Don't just offer cash for referrals. Make it a culture. publicly celebrate the employee who referred a great new hire.
3.3 The Selection Process
Once you have the candidates, you must select the winner without bias.
A. Reducing Bias in Screening
Unconscious bias kills diversity and quality.
The Halo Effect: Liking a candidate because they went to the same college as you.
The Horn Effect: Disliking a candidate because of a minor flaw (e.g., a typo) that doesn't affect their ability to do the job.
The Solution: Use Blind Screening where possible (focusing on skills, not names/schools) and strictly adhere to the "Must-Have" criteria defined in the Job Description.
B. Structured Interviewing (The STAR Method)
As discussed in previous chapters, you must stop the "casual chat." Use Structured Interviewing, where every candidate gets the same questions.
When evaluating answers, force candidates to use the S.T.A.R. Method to prove they aren't lying:
S (Situation): What was the problem?
T (Task): What was your goal?
A (Action): What did YOU specifically do? (Watch out for "We" answers).
R (Result): What was the outcome? (Look for numbers/data).
C. The "Candidate Experience"
How you treat the people you don't hire is just as important as how you treat the ones you do.
The Ghosting Epidemic: Never leave a candidate wondering. If they interviewed, they deserve a rejection email (or call).
The Impact: A candidate you "ghost" today might be a customer tomorrow. Or they might tell their talented friends, "Don't apply there, they are rude."
Chapter 3 Summary Checklist
Before moving to Onboarding (Chapter 4), ensure your acquisition engine is running:
[ ] The Forecast: Have I met with managers to predict hiring needs for the next quarter?
[ ] The Brand: Is our careers page up to date, or does it list jobs that closed 3 months ago?
[ ] The Interview: Do I have a "Scorecard" ready so interviewers can rate candidates objectively?
[ ] The Closure: Have I sent rejection emails to all the candidates who didn't make the cut?
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