Talent Acquisition is the second People functional area. This unit is definitional, and it includes one wrinkle most candidates miss: SHRM publishes two slightly different wordings.
Two wordings, both correct
- The 2025 BASK PDF: Talent Acquisition "encompasses the activities involved in identifying, attracting and building a workforce that meets the needs of the organization."
- The BASK checklist PDF: "building and maintaining a workforce that meets the needs of the organization."
If a stem names the checklist, answer "building and maintaining". If it names the full BASK, answer "identifying, attracting and building". Wordings that appear in neither document include "sourcing, screening, and selecting", "planning and forecasting", and anything importing rewards language such as "attracting, developing and rewarding".
Not Talent Acquisition
- Retaining talent and solidifying the employee-organization relationship is Employee Engagement & Retention.
- Enhancing the KSAOs and competencies of the workforce is Learning & Development.
- Designing and implementing compensation systems and benefit packages is Total Rewards.
That last one settles a common argument: pay structure design belongs to Total Rewards, a separate People functional area, even though offers include pay. Making an offer is not designing the structure behind it.
What the 2014 BOCK did
The BOCK paired acquisition with retention in a single area, Talent Acquisition & Retention. Its named knowledge topics were BFOQs, interviewing techniques, job analysis and job evaluation and job descriptions, job offer contingencies, external labor market PEST factors, employer value proposition, and employment branding.
- It was not paired with Learning, Engagement or Total Rewards. Competency models and mentoring were the BOCK's Learning & Development topics; motivational theories and performance appraisal sat with Employee Engagement; pay levels and banding with Total Rewards.
Carry in the pairing: 2025 BASK says identifying, attracting and building; the checklist says building and maintaining.