My dislike for Talent Acquisition

Hear me out before you think I am leaving the world of recruitment entirely, I dislike the word acquisition and feel a strong affinity towards the talent piece.

Acquisition

noun

1. 1.
   an asset or object bought or obtained, typically by a library or museum.”the legacy will be used for new acquisitions”

• a purchase of one company by another.”there were many acquisitions among travel agents”
• the buying or obtaining of assets or objects.”western culture places a high value on material acquisition”

The definition is clear and falls into the same realm as “resources” and I disagree with the way that it dehumanises the most critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to building great businesses. Is it merely a question of reframing this?

Origin of the word

Use of the word over time

Humans are NOT resources they are humans. Treating individuals the way you would like to be treated should be our modus operandi.

Many of our jobs are being automated as we speak and as we move more and more into that new era I believe we need to engage more, create better partnerships and acquire less. Acquiring can be an extremely positive thing when it comes to new skills, experiences and learning.

There is a big trend in the employee engagement arena, however, it needs to start even earlier than that, in the candidate engagement space, in the race to secure the best talent globally with the new way of work, businesses that engage from the beginning and communicate clearly every step of the recruitment journey are the ones that are going to succeed.

Let’s leave acquisition behind and create a new era with high levels of engagement and partnership.