On January 25th, Travis O’Rourke, VP of Hays Talent Solutions Canada, teamed up with Bill Michels of CIPS, The Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply, to talk about aligning talent acquisition with strategic sourcing to ensure a more robust candidate pool.

During their webinar, they answered listener questions and covered topics such as new ways to engage talent, essential cost-saving trends and how to select the right talent acquisition partner.

HR and procurement face the same challenge of finding the best talent for the right role. HR traditionally holds permanent workers and procurement holds contract workers, but the world of work is changing and people are now considering a contract position or a permanent position. That's why talent acquisition and strategic sourcing need to come together to create one total talent management strategy. Here are some of the key topics from our HTS webinar last week:

Creating the right supplier relationship with talent suppliers

The best relationship you can have with a talent supplier is one that is as close to an extension of your day-to-day business as possible.  When you're creating your workforce plan, rather than being a reactive relationship where you tell your managed service provider “I need 30 people and I need them to start Thursday”, invite that person to open the book with you. Look at your business goals and priorities and share that with your partners to help find the most strategic way of delivering the result and the best way forward.

Choosing the right talent acquisition partner

It’s crucial for procurement to look 3-5 years down the road when selecting a talent acquisition partner. Moving a contingent workforce is a very time-consuming process, and you want to make sure that you’ve made the right call. Your company’s needs today might be an X but you need to decide where your business is going in 3 years and question if this provider can help you get there or once you're there can they continue to add value to your program.

Procurement and HR working together in a shared ownership space

It’s getting over the “my territory, your territory” and defining how the relationship is going to work and what the strategy is and how each party is going to play into that category management process. Outline the goals and roles and work together to build a plan, because it is a business requirement to get the best talent and the best people at the right time and at the right cost.

How organizations are securing new talent

Flexible work hours or a cool office layout- that’s attractive to everyone whether you're a permanent or a contract worker. A lot of organizations are using interim placements as an opportunity to test executives out before they go all in. Rotational leadership development and challenging work opportunities have become much more common when securing not just new talent but keeping experienced workers engaged as well.

Want to learn more about how to align talent acquisition with strategic sourcing? You can watch the full webinar here.

AUTHOR

Travis O'Rourke
Head of Hays Talent Solutions Canada
Travis has been with Hays for six years. He has well over 30,000 hours of hands on contingent workforce management experience and has managed contingent workforces in every province. Travis has extensive knowledge of Government, Financial Services, Insurance, Banking and Consulting industries. Travis currently sits on the board of directors for the National Association of Canadian Consulting Businesses (NACCB) and has extensive and current knowledge of relevant recruitment and contract worker legislation across all provinces. Travis sits on a sub-committee working with industry and government surrounding the classification of workers and the definition of a precarious workforce. Travis’ exposure to contract workforce legislation is second to none in the industry.