Tomorrow, September 4, is Global Talent Acquisition Day. Which made us wonder: what are you doing to honor your talent acquisition professionals?
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Global Talent Acquisition (TA) Day is celebrated each year on the first Wednesday of September. Global TA Day will be held this year on September 4 and next year on September 2. If you want to honor your TA professionals take a page out of talent manage platform, Cornerstone OnDemand’s playbook.
“At Cornerstone, I work with a team of talent acquisition professionals that think holistically about their role within the organization,” says Brianna Foulds, Senior Director of Talent Acquisition at Cornerstone—in an e-mail to HR Daily Advisor. “With an acceptance rate of less than 2%, recruiters at Cornerstone are tasked with the huge responsibility of reviewing thousands of applications each year in order to identify the best fit talent for the role and company culture.”
“On top of sourcing and interviewing candidates, the talent acquisition team is involved in cultivating our employer brand, creating positive candidate and hiring manager experiences, and identifying the best tools to enhance our processes from start to finish,” she adds. “We’ve engaged our recruiters in projects around culture, from launching ‘culture chats’ with candidates to executing on our diversity and inclusion initiatives. And, although we are a global team with offices around the world, we actively function as a unified team rather than as siloed groups.”
“Each year on Global Talent Acquisition Day, we celebrate the global Cornerstone talent acquisition team but this year we will be doing it a little bit differently,” says Foulds. “We will be hosting a 24-hour happy hour! And no, I don’t mean we stay up all day and night partying. Rather, we’ve set up a virtual meetup to unify our teams from India and Hong Kong all the way to California and Europe, all hosted on a video conference call.”
“While one part of the world is enjoying their morning coffee, the other part is raising their cocktail glass for a toast, and then we switch as the sun goes around,” she says. “It’s beyond rewarding as a talent acquisition leader to bring our team together and raise a glass to recognize recruiting successes, empower individuals to share learnings from recently completed projects and say, ‘Thank you!’ to our tremendous team.”
The Association of Talent Acquisition Professionals (ATAP) has shared these ideas for celebrating your TA pros, which we’ve outlined below. What’s more, there’s still plenty of time for you to plan events in your office to show how much you appreciate your recruiters, hiring managers, and talent acquisition professionals!
In-House Celebration Ideas
ATAP suggests preparing downloadable photo props—which the organization has provided (here)—by printing them out and taping them to pens or other utensils, which can be used to hold them up. Then, set up a backdrop to act as a “photo station” for your TA team to take pictures in front of. ATAP says to “Let your creativity go wild”!
Make sure your photo station is somewhere that is not disruptive to other workers but is in a central location, like a break room. Offering a photo station is a creative and entertaining way to show your TA pros you care, and this allows them to cut loose and have a little fun while bonding with their teams.
You can also try hanging up a printable poster—try this free download provided by ATAP, or you can use a giant sheet of paper. On the day of the event encourage people to write what motivates them to do what they do or the name of a TA professional that has influenced them the most.
One last idea that ATAP offers is to print out downloadable selfie cards for people to take photos with—which can be downloaded here. Employees can then share their selfies to social media and remind them to use the hashtag: #GlobalTADay! In the download, there is a blank card for you to write your own custom message.
ATAP also offers these other suggestions for celebrating your TA pros:
- Bring in a sweet treat or special lunch for the TA team.
- Spotlight TA employees on social media. Don’t just post a photo and what they do—share what they like to do when their TA hat isn’t on!
- Host a “TA for a Day” open house for your team so that other departments can visit and get to know your “day to day” duties.
- Host an educational event.
- Host a panel discussion in your city.
- Set aside time for a group activity for the TA team. This can be as simple as going out for lunch or happy hour.
- More fun activities ideas: Top Golf, escape rooms, and/or a game of kickball (all you need is open space and a ball!)
Once the workday is complete, why stop the celebration? ATAP also offers a list of after-hour events in cities across the United States. Keep the party going by participating in one of these events in a city near you!
As you can see, many of these suggested activities have a clear focus on teambuilding and employee appreciation. As we know, recognition and rewards are a great way to make your employees feel like they are valued—and it can help retain your top performers and decrease turnover.
What are you doing to celebrate this event? Tell us in our comment section, below!