1. Perform a Holistic Talent Acquisition Process Audit to Improve Hiring Outcomes
You can’t solve your talent acquisition problems with a piecemeal approach.
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2. Introduction
Improving your hiring is no easy task. Perform a thorough audit of your talent acquisition process to improve quality of hire, get better hiring results, and improve efficiency.
As the manager of talent acquisition, can you relate to any of the following?
If yes, this research will help you:
Audit the current talent acquisition processes for an employee segment to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities in employer branding, sourcing and screening, selection, and onboarding. The employee segment targeted in the audit will be one of high priority based on current talent acquisition pain points and performance/outcomes.
Use the results of the audit to develop a talent acquisition process improvement plan for that particular employee segment.
You constantly get blamed when new hires go bad and when new hires leave shortly after being hired.
You get grief if there are any issues with the talent acquisition process, even if the issue is out of your control.
You are bombarded by complaints from hiring managers and other staff about the time it takes to fill positions, the quality of new hires, and turnover rates.
The talent acquisition team is annoyed by having to continually re-recruit and hire for the same positions.

3. Executive Summary The Situation
Talent Acquisition (TA) can be a huge pain point for organizations and the talent acquisition team.
Bad hires are costly in terms of time and money, and dealing with them is a headache.
Attracting and identifying good talent is a challenge.
Due to so many moving parts, it is hard to pinpoint the cause of the weaknesses in the talent acquisition process.
Poor talent acquisition outcomes are an acute issue for many organizations. Hiring wrong candidates is an expensive mistake, costing an organization 1 to 15 times an employee’s annual salary, in addition to soft costs such as lowered employee morale and customer satisfaction.
The Solution
Identify the employee segment for which it is the most difficult to recruit and hire. Each employee segment will have a slightly different process and therefore each needs an individual audit to determine the key weaknesses in the process.
Audit the current talent acquisition processes for the identified employee segment to show strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities in employer branding, sourcing and screening, assessment and selection, and onboarding.
Gain perspective and insights through a holistic audit by gathering feedback from the key stakeholder groups in the TA process. This will allow for comparison of performance across multiple touch points, identification of breaking points, identification of where time and money are being wasted, and gathering recommendations for improvement.
The results of the audit will determine which components are the top priority of the talent acquisition process for optimization.
Once the projects are prioritized, McLean & Company will point you to resources and blueprints to help you complete those projects.

4. How to use this blueprint
There are multiple ways you can use this McLean & Company Best-Practice Blueprint in your organization. Choose the option that best fits your needs:
Best-Practice Blueprint
Free Guided
Implementation
Onsite
Workshops
Do-It-Yourself Implementation
Use this Best-Practice Blueprint to help you complete your project. The slides in this Blueprint will walk you step-by-step through every phase of your project with supporting tools and templates ready for you to use.
Project Accelerator Workshop
You can also use this Best-Practice Blueprint to facilitate your own project accelerator workshop within your organization using the workshop slides and facilitation instructions provided in the Appendix.
We recommend that you supplement the Best-Practice Blueprint with a Guided Implementation.
For most McLean & Company members, these Guided Implementations are included in your membership plan.* Our expert analysts will provide telephone assistance to you and your team at key project milestones to review your materials, answer your questions, and explain our methodology.
McLean & Company’s expert analysts will come onsite to help you work through our project methodology in a 2-5 day project accelerator workshop. We take you through every phase of the project and ensure that you have a road map in place to complete your project successfully. In some cases, we can even complete the project while we are onsite.
Book your workshop now by ing:
*Gold and Silver level subscribers only
Or calling:
Ext. 3001

5. Guided Implementation points in the Talent Acquisition Process Audit project
Book a Guided Implementation Today: McLean & Company is just a phone call away and can assist you with your project. Our expert Analysts can guide you to successful project completion.
Here are the suggested Guided Implementation points in the TA Audit project:
Section 1: Identify the target employee segment
Get off to a productive start: Discuss your workforce plan, which employee segments to audit, how to collect feedback from the key stakeholder groups, and your final decision on the target employee segment in greatest need of improvement.
Section 2: The TA audit
Map out the current process: Map out the current TA process and people to determine gaps and quick wins in each of the four components of the TA process: employer branding, sourcing and screening, assessment and selection, and onboarding. Use McLean & Company’s Talent Acquisition Process Audit Tool to answer best-practice questions regarding each of the four components. Gain advice on how to work through these exercises and facilitate the work.
Section 3: Results, optimization projects, and next steps
Make an informed decision: Discuss the audit results; strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement; and the 360 degree feedback results. Prioritize optimization projects and gain valuable insights on how to run those projects.
This symbol signifies when you’ve reached a Guided Implementation point in your project.
To enroll, send an to or call and ask for the Guided Implementation Coordinator.

6. Make the Case
Understand the value of auditing and optimizing a talent acquisition process.
McLean & Company’s holistic audit approach.
Gain insights into the cost of not having an effective talent acquisition process.
Make the Case
Identify and Prioritize Talent Acquisition Audit Target
Perform the Talent Acquisition Audit
Interpret Audit Results & Build Your Talent Acquisition Process Improvement Plan
Appendix

7. -- Kim Benedict, Recruitment Specialist
As the manager or head of talent acquisition at your organization, can you relate to any of the following?
If you said yes to any of the below statements, your talent acquisition processes are broken. Read on and use this project to figure out where it’s broken and how to start to fix it.
I often get blamed when new hires go bad and when new hires leave shortly after being hired.
I get grief if there are any issues with the talent acquisition process, even if the issue is out of my control.
I am bombarded by complaints from hiring managers and other staff about the time it takes to fill positions, the quality of new hires, and turnover rates.
We have turnover problems within the first 18 months for new hires in many of our employee segments.
I am drowning in the administrative work associated with the constant stream of new hires for positions we have to fill over and over again.
Our employee referral rates are really low.
Our time-to-fill is too long.
We have high candidate drop-out rates in our talent acquisition process.
We consistently get feedback from managers about lack of fit as a reason
for departures.
I believe that there is such a seismic shift that is happening when you look at things like candidate experience and social networks and platforms. It is going to move so quickly for organizations. It’s a good exercise to go through and better understand the gaps and prepare for the talent challenges ahead.
-- Kim Benedict, Recruitment Specialist

8. Organizations are having difficulty attracting, selecting, and retaining competent individuals to meet organizational goals
The time, resources, and effort spent on a “bad hire” can have a dramatically negative impact on organizational performance and success.
For many organizations, recruiting top talent is one of their most pressing problems.
40% of 33,000 employers from 23 countries had difficulty hiring the desired talent (Source: Manpower Inc. – as cited in Ployhart).
Poor hiring decisions can cost an organization 1-15 times an employee’s salary.
Harvard Business Review estimates that the average cost of a poor hiring decision is $300,000.
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) estimates the cost to be as much as five times a bad hire’s annual salary.  
According to the Harvard Business Review, as much as 80% of employee turnover is due to bad hiring decisions.  
Don’t Panic
Many recruiting managers wish they had time to evaluate talent acquisition processes to determine if it’s delivery and where and how to improve.
Follow the steps in this blueprint to get a holistic view of your current process, identify gaps, prioritize projects to rectify weaknesses, and point to projects to help you complete those identified projects.

9. Use Mclean & Company’s Talent Acquisition Process Audit to uncover and fix your pain points
Even among recruiting leaders, it’s common for them to realize that their hiring process is failing but [they are] unaware of which steps in the process are causing the problem.
-- Dr. John Sullivan, The Steps of the Recruiting Process… and How to Identify Failure Points
Do you know what the cause of your pain points are? An audit can tell you:
What you do well: So you can continue to do what’s working.
If you have an Achilles’ heel (where potentially serious problems are): Find the root cause and remedy the issue.
What’s getting in the way of further success (areas needing improvement): In order to identify and eliminate obstacles, you first need to know where your failure points are.
For example:
Low referral rates or low offer acceptance rates are likely due to employer branding.
Few quality candidates for a job opening could be due to sourcing practices.
If the hiring process is inefficient, it could be a sign that the process and practices used need standardization.
Newly hired employees struggle or take longer than expected to reach proficiency could be a problem with your onboarding program.
How candidates react to and perceive your talent acquisition system: Candidate attitudes and behaviors are very important! According to Bauer et al. (2012), you should pay attention to how candidates react to your talent acquisition system because:
Disgruntled candidates may develop a negative view of the organization and communicate this view to their networks.
Candidates who view the process as invasive may withdraw from the candidate pool, causing a loss of top talent.
Negative reactions influence the attitudes and work behaviors of candidates who become new hires.
Talent acquisition practices influence applicant perceptions and intentions.

10. A holistic audit focused on every element of talent acquisition will help better meet today’s talent acquisition challenges
Step 1: Identify and prioritize talent acquisition audit target through employee segment prioritization.
Step 2: Audit each component of the talent acquisition process for the target employee segment:
Map out current processes and practices.
Map people and technology to process.
Conduct a 360 evaluation of the processes and practices.
Answer best-practice questions in tool.
Step 3: Use audit results and recommended projects to optimize your talent acquisition process.
Strategic Workforce Planning
Talent Acquisition Strategy
Employee Development Strategy
Employee Retention Strategy
Talent Strategy
Business Strategy
1. Employee Segment Prioritization
Sourcing
& Screening
Assessment
& Selection
Onboarding
Employer Branding
Audit Results
2. Process Audit
3.Optimization Projects

11. -- Kim Benedict, Recruitment Specialist
This Blueprint will walk through auditing a talent acquisition process using McLean & Company’s process audit tool
Use McLean & Company’s Talent Acquisition Process Audit Tool to collect, identify, and prioritize initiatives to optimize gaps in your current process.
The tool will walk through:
Employee segment identification to target your greatest pain point for the audit.
Auditing the four components (employer branding, sourcing and screening, assessment and selection, onboarding) of Talent Acquisition.
Gathering 360 degree feedback to get a holistic view of the TA process.
Results and identification of optimization projects for your TA process.
If you don’t audit your TA process you are either not reacting to the changes in the market or you are not spending your recruitment dollars in the right place.
-- Kim Benedict, Recruitment Specialist

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