| Course | HR400 Talent Acquisition and Management |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 10 |
| Paper type | Talent acquisition strategy |
| Length | About 1,150 words, 7 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Business Administration (Human Resources) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HR400 Unit 10
Twenty-Six Hires for a Branch Not Yet Open: A Unit 10 Talent Acquisition Strategy
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
HR400: Talent Acquisition and Management
Unit 10 Talent Acquisition Strategy
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Calloway Building Supply, the new branch and every figure are composite and illustrative; the sources cited are real.
The Workforce Table
Calloway Building Supply will open a fifth branch in eight months. The branch needs 26 people, and each role has a hiring lead time from Calloway's past requisitions, measured from posting to start.
Branch manager. One. Lead time about 75 days.
Supervisors. Two, one per shift. About 45 days, as the second-shift search in this course showed.
Counter sales associates. Four. About 30 days.
Warehouse associates. Fourteen. About 21 days.
Delivery drivers holding a commercial driver's license. Five. About 60 days, the longest for any hourly role.
Working backward from opening day, the branch manager must be posted first, by month one, so that the manager can take part in the other hires. Supervisors post in month four, drivers in month five, counter staff in month six and warehouse associates in month seven.
The Vacancy Chain
Calloway prefers to fill supervisor and manager roles from inside, and every internal move opens another job. If a current branch's assistant manager becomes the new branch manager, her branch needs an assistant manager; if a lead associate fills that role, a lead role opens. The table above therefore understates the hiring needed. Tracing the likely chain, the 26 new roles produce about seven backfills at existing branches, for about 33 hires in all.
Comparing outside hires with insiders moved into similar jobs, Bidwell (2011) reported higher starting pay for the outsiders alongside weaker ratings over their first two years, evidence that supports Calloway's preference for internal moves. Keller (2018) found that internal hires made through open posting performed better than those slotted by managers, so every internal move in the chain will be posted to all four existing branches rather than offered directly.
The Process Map
Eight steps, each with an owner, an input, an output and the record it leaves in the requisition file.
1. Job analysis. Owner: human resources generalist. Input: incumbents and shift reports. Output: rated task inventory. Record: the analysis report. For roles already analyzed, such as supervisor, this step is a review of the existing analysis.
2. Job description. Owner: hiring manager with human resources. Input: the analysis. Output: description with task references. Record: dated draft and reviewer list.
3. Sourcing plan. Owner: human resources generalist. Input: yield history by channel. Output: channel list with expected yields. Record: the plan and day-thirty report.
4. Application screen. Owner: human resources. Input: matrix hurdle and screen criteria. Output: qualified list. Record: pass rates by group.
5. Work sample or skills test. Owner: hiring manager. Input: real disruptions or tasks. Output: scored results. Record: score sheets.
6. Structured interview. Owner: two trained interviewers. Input: the interview guide. Output: independent ratings and agreed ratings. Record: rating sheets and discussion notes.
7. Decision and offer. Owner: hiring manager, reviewed by human resources. Input: weighted totals by formula. Output: evaluation memo. Record: the memo.
8. Onboarding. Owner: hiring manager. Input: milestone ladder. Output: days to productivity. Record: milestone evidence and ninety-day retention.
A hiring manager can run the process alone only if each step tells them what to use, what to produce and what to keep, so that human resources reviews the record instead of making each decision.
Role Families
Branch manager. Internal posting first, then a specialized search firm if no internal finalist emerges by day 30. Criteria from an analysis of the four current branch managers' jobs, weighted toward running a profitable branch and developing supervisors.
Supervisors. The second-shift supervisor package from this course: internal posting, referrals, job board, certificate program and veterans' office, with the nine-criterion matrix and six-question guide.
Counter sales associates. Referrals and the job board, with a work sample in which candidates quote a deck package from a contractor's sketch, and a four-question structured interview on customer service.
Warehouse associates. Job board, the community college and a hiring event at the branch site in month seven. A short practical test of safe lifting and pick accuracy, and a three-question interview. Fourteen hires in one month need a weekly pipeline report.
Drivers. Covered in the next section.
Drivers: A Separate Risk
Licensed drivers are scarce in the region, and Calloway's last three driver requisitions each took more than seventy days. Two responses are planned. First, the posting for drivers opens a month earlier than the lead time requires. Second, Calloway will offer two warehouse associates at existing branches a paid path to a commercial license, using a training provider registered under the federal entry-level driver training rule, with a commitment to drive for the new branch. Breaugh (2008) notes that recruitment strategy includes deciding whom to target, and growing drivers internally targets people who already know Calloway's products and customers.
The Metrics Dashboard
Time to fill by role, against the lead times above.
Yield by channel, from application to six-month retention, adding to the history each search drew on.
Pass rates by sex and race at each step, with the four-fifths ratio and the counts beside it, reviewed monthly.
Selection scores against ninety-day performance, so that the weights can be revised once enough hires exist.
Days to productivity for supervisors and the branch manager.
The Hiring Manager Runbook
A one-page runbook goes to each hiring manager. It lists the eight steps, the document each step produces and the point at which human resources reviews the file: after the sourcing plan, before any offer and at ninety days. It also lists three things a manager must not do alone: change criteria or weights after applications arrive, add an automated screening question, or make an offer before the evaluation memo is reviewed.
Risks to the Timeline
Opening day is exposed to three delays. The branch manager search could run past day 75 if no internal finalist emerges, which would push every other search back; the specialized search firm is therefore engaged on day 30, not day 75. The vacancy chain could leave an existing branch short of supervisors during the busiest season, so no more than one supervisor moves from any single branch. And fourteen warehouse hires in one month could overload interviewers, so supervisors from the other branches are trained as second interviewers in month six.
Why This Strategy
Cappelli and Keller (2014) describe talent management as anticipating the organization's needs for people and planning to meet them, rather than responding to vacancies one at a time. The new branch is a case where needs are known eight months ahead. A strategy built on the steps of this course lets Calloway fill them with records a reviewer could follow, and lets hiring managers do the work without waiting for human resources each morning.
References
Bidwell, M. (2011). Paying more to get less: The effects of external hiring versus internal mobility. Administrative Science Quarterly, 56(3), 369-407. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001839211433562
Breaugh, J. A. (2008). Employee recruitment: Current knowledge and important areas for future research. Human Resource Management Review, 18(3), 103-118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2008.07.003
Cappelli, P., & Keller, J. R. (2014). Talent management: Conceptual approaches and practical challenges. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1, 305-331. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091314
Keller, J. R. (2018). Posting and slotting: How hiring processes shape the quality of hire and compensation in internal labor markets. Administrative Science Quarterly, 63(4), 848-878. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001839217736045
Reading the HR 400 Unit 10 instructions
The final HR400 assignment asks you to assemble a talent acquisition strategy for a significant hiring need. Build a workforce table of roles, numbers and lead times, and work backward to posting dates. Trace any vacancy chain created by internal moves and count the backfills. Draw a process map in which every step has an owner, an input, an output and a record. Summarize the approach for each role family, scaling the process to volume and risk. Treat any scarce role separately with specific responses. Set a metrics dashboard that includes pass rates by group at each step. Write a short runbook for hiring managers, including what they must not do alone. Address risks to the timeline. Justify the strategy with talent management research. About eight pages with a process map at the center is common for this strategy.
How this HR400 Unit 10 example is built
The sample's workforce table lists five role groups and lead times and sets posting months. A vacancy chain section counts seven backfills, citing Bidwell on internal mobility and Keller on posting, with a margin note. An eight-step process map assigns owners and records, and the highlighted sentence explains how managers can run it. Role-family sections scale the approach, with a margin note on rigor at volume. Drivers get a separate risk plan, including a paid licensing path, citing Breaugh. A dashboard lists five metrics, a runbook sets three things managers must not do alone, timeline risks are addressed, and Cappelli and Keller frame talent management.
Where the points sit in the HR400 Unit 10 rubric
The HR400 talent acquisition strategy is graded on completeness, integration and usability. A workforce table with lead times and posting dates is expected. Tracing a vacancy chain shows awareness of hidden hiring. A process map with owners, inputs, outputs and records for every step earns substantial credit because it makes the process auditable. Role-family plans should scale effort sensibly. Scarce roles should receive specific responses. A dashboard that includes pass rates by group shows attention to fairness. A runbook that limits what managers do alone shows control. Timeline risks and research grounding complete the strategy, and all figures should be consistent across sections.
Common HR400 Unit 10 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Many HR400 strategies describe recruitment in general terms without numbers, dates or owners. Others forget that internal promotions create more vacancies. Students often apply the same heavy process to every role or a light one to all. Scarce roles are treated like any other. Dashboards count hires but not pass rates by group. Managers are given no limits. Build a workforce table, trace the vacancy chain, map each step with owner and record, scale by role family, plan for scarce roles, measure fairness, write a runbook and address timeline risks. With the earlier units finished, our team can help you pull the strategy together.
Get an HR400 Unit 10 example written to your instructions
Whatever earlier pieces exist, analysis, matrix, guide or memo, can travel with the closing assignment and its rubric. They are joined into one process with owners and records and returned inside 24-48h; pieces still missing are drafted lightly and labeled. No fee applies to a first custom sample, and the branch, the roles and the figures are composite. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More HR400 papers and BS in Business Administration (Human Resources) samples
- HR400 Unit 1: Discussion Board Post
- HR400 Unit 2: Job Analysis
- HR400 Unit 3: Job Description Draft
- HR400 Unit 4: Recruitment Sourcing Plan
- HR400 Unit 5: Selection Criteria Matrix
- HR400 Unit 6: Structured Interview Guide
- HR400 Unit 7: Candidate Evaluation Memo
- HR400 Unit 8: Seminar Reflection
- HR400 Unit 9: Onboarding Plan
HR400 Unit 10 questions, answered
How long is a talent acquisition strategy?
Prompts vary, and the example runs eight pages because it covers several role families and a new site. A strategy for a single role can be shorter. What stays constant is the process map with owners and records, defined metrics and a governance rule, since those are what make the strategy runnable rather than descriptive.
What is a vacancy chain?
The sequence of openings created when an internal hire leaves a job behind. Promoting a lead associate to supervisor at the new branch creates a lead vacancy at the old warehouse, which may itself be filled internally. The example traces the chain so the hiring plan counts every requisition the branch opening will really produce.
Where can I find a free HR400 Unit 10 sample paper?
A complete HR400 Unit 10 talent acquisition strategy is on this page, planning 26 hires for a new branch with a process map, role families and a dashboard.
Why give hiring managers a runbook?
A short runbook lets managers run searches without waiting for human resources, while naming the points where the file is reviewed and the steps they must not take alone.
Why measure pass rates by group at every step?
A step that removes one group at a higher rate can hide inside an overall result that looks fair. Checking each step shows where a problem starts.