New Research on Building a More Strategic Recruiting Practice

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - September 14, 2010) - Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS) has just published a new study looking at how organizations attract and hire the right talent despite a scarcity in needed skills in the marketplace. The report, Talent Acquisition Strategies 2010: Candidate Experience and Relationship Management Come of Age, found that top performing companies successfully hired 87% of their top choice candidates, versus only 55% among other organizations, while simultaneously lowering time to fill by 6% year-over-year. Key factors to this are the mapping of talent needs to the long-term goals of the business, as well as cultivating relationships with top prospects regardless of current hiring needs.

The report also found that this strategic process of building a candidate pipeline translated to better performance in the post-hire. Top performers were able to achieve an 89% retention rate among first-year hires, while outperforming other companies by a factor of roughly one-third in employee performance. Success in talent acquisition also correlated to better business results, with top performers achieving 94% customer retention compared to 86% among all others.

According to Kevin Martin, VP and Principal Analyst, and co-author of the report, "Hiring and retaining quality employees who fit within the culture of the company and demonstrate the kind of performance and behavior that customers expect helps provide a better experience. And of course, retaining and engaging customers will directly translate to higher revenue growth."

Justin Bourke, Research Associate and co-author of the report added, "This is where the process of talent acquisition differentiates itself from recruiting. Whereas the latter looks simply at the process of hiring new employees, talent acquisition also looks at the long terms needs of the business."

Aberdeen's report provides more detail into how organizations are going about keeping candidates engaged throughout the selection and recruitment process, validating quality of hire, and integrating recruiting into the overall talent management strategy of the organization.

Complimentary access to this report is available for a limited time due in part by the following underwriters: Advantage Hire Thinking, First Advantage, Hodes iQ, iCIMS, Peopleclick Authoria, and Cytiva. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?spid=30410182&cid=6535&camp=2, or compare your organization against the top performers with Aberdeen's free online assessment tool at http://assessment.aberdeen.com/0Yb2I8L6ot/index.aspx.

Visit Research.Aberdeen.com for additional access to complimentary Human Capital Management Research.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company
Aberdeen provides fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having queried more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement - Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen or call (617) 854-5200, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748.

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