"Talent acquisition staff in finance have been useless since COVID"

I work in financial services, asset management specifically, and I'm fed up with "talent acquisition" staff in the space... or lack thereof.

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Talent acquisition only appeared a few years ago, but it elevated both the salary and responsibilities of recruitment managers of the time. These people no longer merely recruited people but acquired talent which sounded much more specialised.

Once upon a time, talent acquisition people actually talked to and sought out talented individuals in the industry. They would find the best candidates with the best transferable skills, something that can only be done by meeting people in person.

Now, the role is in terminal decline. Sure, many people still have the job title, but the role has disappeared in the practical sense that these people actually search for asset management talent. 

Since COVID, the role seems to have turned into a glorified online recruitment system manager. It must be a dreadful job, just sitting there filtering out candidates. Compliance departments can now monitor diversity targets through recruitment systems, so talent acquisition staff will focus on hitting those quantitative targets rather than qualitatively hiring the best candidates.

It's easier work than meeting people face to face and enables them to work from home most days. They'll only make the odd telephone or zoom/teams call with candidates. 

I wish we would return to the old days of talent acquisition. One where people wouldn't satisfy the merry-go-round of online recruitment or their own desires to work from home. If they're not meeting people in person, companies should fire them all and replace them with system admins on half the salary or use AI instead.

If you work in talent acquisition, actually go and look for the best talent to acquire. They don't bite!

Niall Dorrington is a pseudonym

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