Operationalizing Next-generation Talent Acquisition (TA)

Talent Acquisition (TA) is evolving as enterprises redefine its role from a transactional hiring function to a strategic business growth and workforce agility driver. Organizations are increasingly expecting TA to improve quality of hires, enable faster scaling, and align hiring with future skill needs, rather than focusing solely on cost and speed. Simultaneously, advances in AI, data analytics, and platform ecosystems are reshaping how hiring is executed, making it more predictive, skill-based, and integrated with broader workforce strategies. However, the pace and approach to this transformation vary widely, resulting in a fragmented landscape of TA maturity and operating models.

In this report, Everest Group examines how enterprises are operationalizing next-generation TA through a structured lens. Based on enterprise research, the study explores evolving success metrics, key transformation drivers, and the growing role of AI and ecosystem-led hiring models. It introduces a 4P framework spanning people, processes, platforms, and partners to define future-ready TA and outlines five enterprise personas that reflect different transformation approaches and maturity levels. The report also presents a control tower model to orchestrate hiring across talent types and stakeholders, offering practical guidance for enterprises to benchmark their current state and chart a path toward a more strategic, outcome-driven TA function.