Data-driven recruiting is when you use tangible facts and stats to take a hiring decision, from selecting candidates to creating hiring plans.
How data-driven recruiting can help hiring teams
Recruiting teams that use data are more likely to be efficient, reduce costs and improve their hiring. Using data in your hiring process increases your quality of hire. Data-driven recruiting also helps you:
- Allocate your budget
- Increase productivity and efficiency
- Overcome hiring issues
- Benchmark and forecast your hiring
- Reach more objective hiring decisions
- Make the case for recruiting process improvements
How to incorporate data into your hiring
Here’s what to do to shift towards data-driven recruiting:
Choose the right data and metrics: Start by selecting a few important hiring metrics to track. Few common metrics include:
- Quality of hire
- Cost-per-hire
- Time-to-hire
- Source of hire
- Candidate experience scores
- Job offer acceptance rates
Collect data efficiently
Data collection is often time-consuming. Aim to make it as painless as possible. Here’s how:
- Use software to your advantage Use applicant tracking system (ATS) which have reporting capabilities
- Find different ways to collect data Some data can easily be gathered via Google Analytics (e.g. careers page conversion rates) or via simple surveys
Act on the data- One you’ve collected your data, determine what you will do with it. Here are examples of common recruiting issues that data will help you uncover, along with ways to address them:
Long time-to-hire
If your time-to-hire is consistently greater than your industry average, examine which stages of your recruiting process lag. Here are some common bottlenecks:
- Sourcing: Consider diversifying your sourcing methods with social recruiting or using a sourcing tool to help you reach more candidates faster and build talent pipelines.
- Screening: Include qualifying questions on your job application forms and prepare effective phone screen questions before you start screening applicants.
- Interviews: Consider using software that will help you effortlessly schedule interviews with hiring managers and candidates across multiple calendars.
- Job offers: Write winning formal job offer letters that encapsulate your positions accurately and entice candidates to accept.
Low job offer acceptance rates
Having your best candidates turn down your job offers translates into higher costs and positions remain vacant for longer. If you find that a high percentage of your job offers gets rejected, consider a few fixes:
- Create more competitive job offers Do more thorough research on benefits and salaries
- Gauge candidate interest in the position early on Ensure you communicate effectively with candidates during phone screenings and interviews to discuss their motivations and concerns about the role
- Ensure your candidate experience is positive Make sure your team treats candidates properly (e.g. gets back to them as committed, makes them comfortable during interviews)
- Write job offer letters that reflect candidates’ expectations for the job For example, if you’ve told candidates during interviews that a job requires 20% travel, and the job offer mentions 50%, candidates will be unlikely to accept.
High new hire turnover
New hire turnover reflects the number of employees who leave shortly after they were hired. Here are two common remedies when your new hire turnover is too high:
- Communicate well with candidates about the job Ensure candidates understand the job duties, requirements and team and individual performance expectations, well before they receive your job offer. If your new hires feel you misinformed them about the role, they may leave
- Create an effective onboarding process Ensure your new hires feel welcome, receive appropriate training and are given opportunities to do meaningful work right from the start.
Author- Neeraj Rana is heading Talent Acquisition and Training Functions for India at Innodata Inc. He has over 12 years experience as an HR Professional and prior to Innodata, he has worked with organizations like Snapdeal, CenturyLink Inc, Nucleus Software etc.
