Ep 499: Strategic Talent Acquisition

TA Leaders are under tremendous pressure as we move through 2023. Many are dealing with acute talent shortages, others have to downsize their team, and everyone is attempting to make sense of the implications of rapidly advancing AI technology. Whilst the immediate pressure can drive a focus on short term thinking, there is a massive opportunity for the TA Leaders who take a longer term view to reposition Talent Acquisition within their organization strategically.

So what is the opportunity here, which other business functions can we model from, and what practical steps do TA Leaders need to take? My guest this week is Graeme Paxton, Founder and CEO of Caraffi. Carraffi is on a mission to make talent the engine room of everyone's organization, and Graeme has a vast amount of experience in helping TA Leaders think strategically.

In the interview, we discuss:

The current state of the market

• The strategic opportunity in challenging times

• Changing where TA sits in the organization

• Breaking the cycle

• When hiring volume decreases, the importance of hiring increases

• Shortage in critical skillsets

• What TA can learn from the strategic evolution of Marketing

• The three questions that keep CEOs up at night

• Aligning metrics with the business balance sheet

• How to measure the business impact of TA

• From transactional service to business driver

• Understanding the vision of your business to identify future critical skillsets

• How far in the future should TA Leaders be planning?

• Can TA Leaders be the CEOs of the future?

Listen to this podcast in Apple Podcasts.