Recruitment and Talent Acquisition

Deliverable: Assess the current and desired state for recruitment and talent acquisition for both faculty and staff focusing on the importance of efficiency and effectiveness in attracting world class talent to McMaster. Develop and implement plans to close the gap between current and desired states.

Image of a person being looked at under a magnifying glass on a sheet of paper similar to a resume

What did we do?

At the time of the HR Review, HR was already working to improve recruiting practices and outreach for top candidates. Recognition as a Top Employer in the Hamilton/Niagara region was first achieved in 2016 and has been acknowledged in successive years since then. McMaster has been acknowledged as one of Canada’s Top Diversity Employers beginning in 2018 and has continued to achieve for each of the past 5 years as part of the Top 100 Employers work.  A selection of deliverables to date include:

  • Continued to expand presence on LinkedIn and Indeed generating over 1 million candidate views and 73,000 qualified applications external to Mosaic annually.
  • Launched new virtual onboarding resources.
  • Collaborated on the successful operationalization of the SPS-A1 policy advancing Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in faculty recruitment.
  • New staff hiring guidelines, supporting resources and training.
  • Multiple external partnerships launched to advance diverse sourcing strategies.
  • The Hiring Process Improvement Initiative in collaboration with the Faculty of Engineering resulted in 41 recommendations delivery completed by Fall 2021.
  • Implemented VidCruiter technology solution featuring online candidate screening, interviewing, candidate tracking and referencing capability.
  • Continued to support Employment Equity, training and supporting a network of more than 300 Employment Equity Facilitators.

A further reorganization of the Talent, Equity and Development team is underway to focus on organizational level program design, implementation, and management. This next evolution is expected to advance critical priorities regarding employment equity, employee experience, talent acquisition and onboarding strategies, organizational learning and development.

Outcome – Ensuring McMaster is able to recruit the skilled talent it will need for the future.

The Post-COVID environment has dramatically changed the market for talent. While the HR Review provided recommendations to improve recruitment processes, changes within the external environment have created tremendous pressure to build new and evolving workforce strategies.  As part of our ongoing commitment to Inclusive Excellence and Operational Efficiency, HR will continue to adjust its recruitment and retention strategies. The recent Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis articulates future areas of focus related to our compensation strategies.