Talent acquisition in the 21st century is akin to trawling an ocean to catch the right-fit resource. Despite evolving efficiencies, newer, faster technology and path-breaking tools and techniques, appropriate talent continues to be elusive. As the brief gets more complex, the avenues get narrower and the risks increase. Taking up this burning discussion of talent acquisition, the second edition of the TA Leadership League Annual Conference took place on December 11, 2014 at ITC Maratha, Mumbai. The theme ‘Talent Acquisition: Trawling an Ocean’ boldly highlights the analogy that talent acquisition professionals experience every day across sectors. How, despite everything, they are plagued by that nagging question – have we got the right person on board?

Nitin Sethi, Partner, Consulting at Aon Hewitt, kicked off the first session of the day on the changing paradigms of talent acquisition. He said that less than 15 per cent of the talent emerging from engineering institutes was employable and this scenario was not very different across other sectors as well. “Some people believe that the war for talent is over and talent has already won. Rather, it is time for organizations to see how they can attract this talent and get them to come and work for them,” he said.

The second session of the day was an interesting Bistro session with 20 different groups discussing solutions and strategies on how to wow a candidate. The session got over 250 attendees to deliberate on the top challenges any organization faced in attracting talent and some steps they can take to improve the situation. The top steps discussed included placing the candidate at the center and having transparency in the hiring process along with an Employee Value Proposition right at the interview stage. The recruiters also discussed their problems of fatigue from mass hiring and the pressures of reaching the right talent. A new concept of Sounding Board was also introduced to the gathering where personal mentorship was introduced between attendees and the speakers.

Another interesting session was on future predictions and what talent acquisition would look like in 2020. This session was moderated by Prashant Bhatnagar, Director, Sapient and the panel included Kamlesh Dangi, Group CPO, Religare, Vaishali Vaid, VP Global HR and Learning, KPIT Technologies, Saurabh Nigam, VP-HR, Snapdeal and Saurabh Kalra, Associate Director-HR, Makemytrip.com. Everyone agreed that mobile and big data will be the biggest disruptors and the concept of a resume will change drastically. Some deliberated the merits of getting into the education space early and nurturing talent to meet the future needs. A number of recruiters agreed that that by 2020, talent acquisition may not remain a specialist function but a function for everyone. Naveen Narayan, Global Head, Talent Acquisition, Mobility and Learning & Development at HCL Technologies led a very interactive workshop on ‘Why a candidate should join your team?’.

One of the most engaging sessions of the day was the Elevator Pitch in which 16 teams presented their pitches to the audience in a bid to compete with each other for the Most Popular Best Practice Award. The session saw a collection of innovative presentations with a mix of music, singing, gamification and some heart rending emotional acting. To decide the winner, a voting process was put in place where the audience was the deciding factor. The elevator pitch session was followed by the awards ceremony for the Talent Acquisition Leadership Awards for 2014 in six different categories. Congratulations to the winners!