The trees have been taken down, the presents unwrapped and now it’s that time when most of us start making those New Year’s resolutions.

As the New Year begins, professionals and corporate leaders may be thinking about how they can acquire the best possible talent, strengthen their workforce, eliminate skills gaps and become more competitive.

If you’re looking for a way to build your talent pool and acquisition strategies, consider these 5 resolutions as we begin 2015:

1. Yes, the focus of these resolutions is acquisition, but before you can think about acquiring new talent it’s important to first put your focus on retaining the talent you already have. That existing talent is what’s going to be a primary driver of your business even as you seek to source new talent. What’s important to remember is that your existing talent and your retention strategies are the primary foundation upon which your employer brand is built. Without an impeccable employer brand, no talent acquisition resolution is going to be entirely successful. Start from within and nurture your existing employees if you want a better recruitment strategy.
2. Get measuring. Talent acquisition is something that can have a real and discernible impact on your bottom line, so make it your mission in 2015 to determine and take stock of important metrics that will let you know how you’re faring in terms of recruitment. Big data is making big waves in 2015, so invest in solid talent management software and start looking at data in a more robust way. This is really the only way you’re going to be able to fully align your talent acquisition and management strategies with your specific business objectives.
3. Freshen up your interview questions. Stop asking the same dull interview questions over and over again. Develop questions based on the specific job you’re trying to fill and make them open-ended so you can get a real glimpse of candidates’ personalities and how they may react in any given situation.
4. Up your communication game. If you want to build your employer brand you absolutely have to communicate with candidates through every step of the process, even if they’re not getting the job. You want candidates who feel like they were engaged by your company and it will show you truly place a value on the recruitment process. If you’re willing to take the time to invest in personalizing the level of communication with candidates it’s going to mean good things for your employer brand in 2015. Luckily, even if your organization doesn’t have the resources for actual personalized communication, many of today’s talent management software options can take care of that for you and help you deliver vigorous communication with a human touch.
5. Finally, resolve to include your entire organization in the process of talent acquisition and management. As we’ve talked a lot about recently, current employees are your best resource for new talent. Take 2015 as a time to focus on letting your employees know why talent acquisition is vital to everyone’s success, and create ways they can get involved in the process. It may even be a great year for your organization to finally develop and implement a formalized employee referral program.

2015 is shaping up to be an exciting year in the world of acquisition and talent management professionals have amazing tools and technology at their fingertips and a world of resources. Make it count as you start a new year and resolve to strengthen your talent in new and innovative ways.

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