Why talent acquisition and why today? This is one of the more popular questions I have been asked recently. During today’s recession when unemployment is projected to reach double digits and companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Yahoo and Embarq are laying off hundreds of employees…why are organizations considering investments in talent acquisition?

The reality is that talent acquisition matters more today than ever before. If your company wants to gain competitive advantage in today’s shaky economy, hiring top talent is critical. Best practice companies recognize that now is the time to plan for the future- build a strong talent pipeline, strengthen employer branding and retool existing talent acquisition strategies for the hiring surge that will happen in the next year. It is time to re-evaluate what is broken and fix it. What does this mean for recruitment technology?

Innovative solutions providers are changing the playing field and helping companies rethink some of these strategies. Are resumes obsolete? Am I finding quality talent on job boards? How can my technology provide accurate data to help us become leaner and smarter around talent? These questions present talent acquisition professionals with an amazing opportunity to ask more from their existing talent acquisition system providers and get what they need. Just ask BP, McDonald’s and Atos Origins who are doing just that. As companies are feeling pressure to rethink talent acquisition, recruitment technology companies such as SilkRoad, Softscape, and Kenexa are also planning for the future with new functionality and innovative partnerships such as SimplyHired and Jobfox.

Yet, with a myriad of solutions available, selecting the right technology is a daunting challenge. Best practice organizations want to know:

• What are the key differentiators between applicant tracking systems?
• What are the top challenges with implementation?
• How important is customer support?
• How can I leverage this technology to support my global workforce?
• What new capabilities can I expect from my current providers?

To answer these questions, Bersin & Associates is conducting our first ever Talent Acquisition Systems industry study to help recruiting and HR managers make the right decisions around their applicant tracking systems. We hope you will participate in this important research by taking our survey. The goal of this study is to identify the key trends and level of satisfaction associated with applicant tracking systems.

The survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. We know your time is valuable. In exchange for your time you will receive an executive summary on the findings of this research, to be published in the coming weeks.
Click below to start the survey.
http://vovici.com/wsb.dll/s/3f3eg3c7aa

We will be sharing more key findings from this report over the next few weeks – let us know what you think…

We are excited to launch Bersin & Associates' first Talent Acquisition Newsletter this month! You can sign up here to learn about our latest research findings and receive complimentary reports. http://marketing.bersin.com/TalentAcquisitionAndRetentionAnnouncement.html