Make sure you understand what talent acquisition involves and how it differs from recruitment in our comprehensive guide, covering everything from why this matters to key trends for the future.
The cyber security industry in 2025 faces an escalating challenge when it comes to talent. AI-driven attacks, nation-state actors and expanding digital surfaces all present new risks for businesses. Already this year, there have been a string of high-profile cyberattacks on major UK firms that serve as a reminder that all businesses urgently need to strengthen their defences.
For example, chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre Richard Horne stated that the agency dealt with more than 200 incidents over the six months to March 2025, with the number of “nationally significant” cyber attacks targeting the UK doubling over the period.
However, finding qualified cyber professionals to deal with these threats remains a major challenge amid fierce competition and a global skills shortage. To effectively manage this, talent acquisition should be a critical strategic priority. Unlike traditional practices, this recruitment process focuses on long-term planning and building a pipeline of top-tier candidates.
For cyber security firms, an effective talent acquisition strategy is now essential for resilience, innovation and sustainable growth.
Talent acquisition refers to a strategic, long-term approach to hiring that goes beyond simply filling open roles. It focuses on identifying, attracting and retaining the most suitable candidates. These are individuals who can contribute to a company’s success well into the future.
Rather than reacting to immediate vacancies, talent acquisition involves planning ahead. To be successful at this, managers and hirers need to understand the skills a business will require, build a strong employer brand and cultivate relationships with potential candidates over time.
A key element of talent acquisition is the development of a talent pipeline: a pool of engaged, pre-qualified candidates ready to step into critical roles as they emerge. This proactive method is especially valuable in sectors like cyber security, where competition for skilled professionals is intense and demand is constantly evolving. By investing in talent acquisition, companies can secure the best people to aid with long-term growth, adaptability and competitive advantage.
While often used interchangeably, talent acquisition and recruitment are distinct concepts with different goals and approaches. Recruitment is typically reactive, aiming to fill vacancies as they arise. It therefore focuses on short-term needs and centres around sourcing candidates for specific roles. Often, its main priority is filling roles as quickly as possible to meet the needs of today rather than tomorrow.
Talent acquisition, on the other hand, takes a broader, strategic view. It involves long-term workforce planning, employer branding and relationship-building to create a steady pipeline of high-quality candidates. It’s about finding people who not only meet current requirements, but can grow with the company and support future success.
Here’s a side-by-side comparison:
| Recruitment | Talent acquisition | |
| Goal | Fill immediate vacancies | Build long-term talent pipeline |
| Approach | Reactive | Proactive and strategic |
| Timeline | Short-term | Long-term |
| Tools used | Job boards, CV screening | Employer branding, talent CRMs, networking |
| Team involvement | Mainly HR or hiring manager | Cross-functional: HR, marketing, leadership |
Tony Samuel at CyberSecurityJobsite.com comments: “It is sometimes hard for companies to gauge the flow and demand of recruitment, especially with external economic forces and trends in play. In an ideal world most companies would want all their vacancies to be filled by their talent acquisition teams, but the ebbs and flows of recruitment often mean that the use of job boards and recruitment agencies is a necessity.”
In today’s cyber security landscape, having the right people in place to keep up with threats is essential. However, this is only one part of what a good team of cyber security professionals can offer. For example, these individuals also have a role to play in driving business growth.
According to a recent study by EY, these teams play key parts in everything from implementing AI technologies to boosting customer service and brand perception. As a result, they are responsible for between 11 and 20 per cent of the value produced by enterprise-wide initiatives they are involved in – or around $36 million (£26.6 million) per project on average.
But they can only do this if they have the right people, which is why HR and recruitment teams face mounting pressure to secure top talent. However, there are a range of factors that make finding and securing the best people difficult, which is why a strong external acquisition strategy matters more than ever. Key challenges this approach can address include:
Effective talent acquisition is far more than a single action. It needs to be a continuous, structured strategy that builds a strong foundation for long-term workforce success. As such, there are several stages that must be covered during the process in order to attract, engage and retain the right cyber security professionals. Here’s how it should work:
Talent acquisition starts with understanding your organisation’s future needs. This involves analysing current workforce capabilities, identifying skills gaps and forecasting future requirements based on business goals and technological trends. In cyber security, this could mean planning for emerging roles in AI threat detection or initiatives that will ensure firms can meet evolving compliance and privacy demands.
To attract top talent, especially in competitive sectors, employers need to stand out and answer the question of why professionals should want to work for them. This means having a compelling employer brand that showcases their mission, values, work culture and growth opportunities. In cyber security, highlighting innovation, purpose and the chance to make a tangible impact beyond just guarding against threats can differentiate your organisation from others.
A well-defined talent sourcing strategy outlines where and how to find potential candidates. This might include dedicated job boards, cyber security-specific platforms, networking events like careers fairs, employee referrals and social media. For hard-to-fill roles, proactive headhunting or partnerships with academic institutions may be essential, while it’s always important to focus on recruitment advertisements to ensure you reach and attract the most relevant respondents.
Once talent is identified, engaging with them effectively is key. This means clear communication, timely feedback and a personalised experience that sells the business to the candidate as much as vice versa. Recruiters should act as strategic partners, understanding each individual’s motivations and aligning them with the organisation’s needs and values.
The process doesn’t end at the offer stage. A strong onboarding programme ensures new hires feel welcomed, informed and empowered from day one. This doesn’t just allow them to hit the ground running, but reassures them the company is the best fit for them, in turn reducing turnover. For cyber security pros, this includes not only standard orientation, but also access to secure systems, training on sensitive protocols and clear expectations for role success.
Tony observes: “The cyber security market is a highly competitive market to recruit within. The skills shortage is well publicised and talent acquisition teams need to reach out to specialist communities in order to build a solid pipeline of candidates, which we provide through CyberSecurityJobsite.com and our Cyber Security EXPOs.”
A successful talent acquisition strategy should have clear goals, be data-driven and closely aligned with business objectives. In the fast-moving cyber security sector, strategic planning ensures organisations can secure the right talent to support growth and resilience. The following foundational elements are key.
Talent acquisition should mirror the company’s long-term vision. Whether expanding into new markets or adopting emerging technologies, recruitment efforts must anticipate the roles and skills that will drive future success. For cyber security teams, this might include preparing for threats linked to AI, IoT or geopolitical risks.
Using analytics helps optimise hiring outcomes. Workforce metrics, candidate source performance and skills gap analyses inform smarter decisions. These allow teams to prioritise roles, identify the best sourcing channels and predict future hiring needs before they become urgent.
Good talent acquisition must go beyond the HR department. It requires input from multiple stakeholders, including IT, security leads and senior management, who must all collaborate to define role requirements, align on cultural fit and ensure hiring processes are efficient and inclusive.
To compete for top cyber security talent, organisations must combine proven hiring practices with the right technology. Streamlining workflows, ensuring consistency and tracking success are all essential parts of modern methods of recruitment to build a resilient and agile talent acquisition function. Here are a few key elements to consider.
Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and AI-powered platforms help automate and enhance hiring. From parsing CVs to identifying high-potential candidates, these tools speed up processes – though some human element remains necessary to ensure any inherent biases within automated systems are being addressed. These technologies can also flag niche cyber security skills or certifications that manual screening might miss.
Consistency is key to fair, proactive hiring. Structured interviews, which involve all candidates being asked the same role-relevant questions, improve objectivity and reduce bias. They also help assess technical and behavioural competencies in a reliable way, which is critical in high-risk fields like cyber security.
Measuring performance is vital. Key talent acquisition metrics include time-to-hire, quality-of-hire, source effectiveness and candidate experience scores. These insights help recruiters refine their strategies for future hiring, as well as allocate resources efficiently and demonstrate ROI to stakeholders.
As the cyber security sector continues to evolve, so too must the way organisations attract and retain talent. Looking ahead, several key trends are set to redefine talent acquisition strategies. Recognising these and understanding how they will affect the way businesses find, attract and retain the best talent will be critical to future success against a backdrop of ever-more sophisticated threats. Adapting to these trends requires agility, data-savviness and a candidate-centric mindset from HR and talent teams. Key areas to pay attention to include:
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