Shaping Careers through Talent Acquisition: A Strategic Framework for Long-term Retention in a Multi-generational Workforce

The present study aims to investigate the crucial role played by talent acquisition strategies in shaping employee career pathways, moving beyond the traditional objective of merely filling vacancies. It explores how identifying, hiring and onboarding talent contributes to attracting and aligning individuals with organisational goals while supporting their long-term career growth. The primary aim is to investigate how recruitment strategies impact long-term career development within organisations and how retention strategies promote employee engagement and facilitate upward career progression. Adopting a quantitative and exploratory research design, the article employs text analytics techniques such as word cloud visualisation, text trend analysis and t -SNE ( t -distributed Stochastic Neighbour Embedding) clustering. The findings divulge that talent acquisition strategies extend beyond the hiring phase, significantly influencing employee development and retention. The t -SNE analysis identified three thematic clusters—talent acquisition, employee development and workforce planning—highlighting the strategic and developmental contributions of human resources (HR) practices. The main limitation of the study is that it did not focus on establishing any causal relationships, and its findings are context-specific, limiting generalisability. Despite these limitations, the research offers practical insights for HR professionals seeking to align recruitment strategies with both employee career goals and organisational objectives. This study adds value by providing a fresh perspective on the strategic link between talent acquisition and employee retention, helping organisations formulate future-ready HR strategies.