Data-driven recruiting is becoming increasingly popular; it allows a far more efficient recruitment approach, saving time and money, and resulting in hiring much more suitable candidates. In this blog post, you will find some great tips on how and where to start with data-driven recruiting.
The hiring process can be a very daunting, unwelcome process. Hours are spent trawling through resumes and conducting job interviews, and, still, the person you hire is still based on intuition.
Surveys show that 74% of hiring results in a bad hire, with many people who would be suitable for the job being overlooked in favor of someone who has a better interview technique.
After all, hiring someone is based on the brief insight you get from a resume and interview, and the gut feeling from when you meet them.
As a result of this, companies waste a lot of valuable time and money on recruitment and hiring people who are unsuitable for the job.
This is why data-driven recruiting is becoming increasingly popular; it allows a far more efficient approach, saving time and money, and resulting in hiring a much more suitable person for the job.
If you want to improve your hiring process and results, data-driven recruiting is definitely one of the recruiting trends you should implement in 2019.
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So, how do you go about effectively using recruiting data? Here are some top tips on how to turn your hiring process around:
The first, and most vital, step is to have an understanding of the market that you are delving into. Firstly, what type of talent are you looking for?
Do a broad search of the type of professional that you need so that you can gain a rough idea of the pool of possible candidates. You can then make it more or less specific, depending on the number of results returned to you, and the most vital qualities required for the role on offer.
Secondly, who else is looking to hire a similar role? How does their job offer differ from yours, and how much competition do you have?
According to Jacqueline Fairbanks, recruiter at 1Day2Write and OriginWritings:
“Getting to know your competitors is one of the most crucial steps when recruiting. Look at their application process, what salary and job perks they are offering, and any other points of comparison – it also helps you understand how much difficulty you will have hiring someone for that role”.
Check out your competitors offer and define your employee value proposition accordingly.
Finally, get to know who is already interested in your company. Who is following your company accounts on social media? 49% half of all professionals are following companies on social media with the intent to stay aware of their jobs, meaning it is easy to see who already has a vested interest in working for you.
Additionally, don’t overlook how the company’s employees are connected the pool of people that you wish to recruit from – the more connected your employees are, the higher the chance of you successfully recruiting your ideal candidate through employee referrals.
Meet with your hiring managers armed with tangible data of what you actually want from the hiring process. This skips frustrating conversations and saves time, as they are educated with data on what they are looking for from the beginning, rather than spending hours searching for something that doesn’t exist.
It allows a consultative relationship – if their initial search does not yield many results, you can ask them on what to add or take away, depending on what you deem the most or least important qualities in your new recruit.
You can also ask their advice of widening the search – for example, can the potential employee relocate? If so, can the geographical area be widened? By giving them data, hiring managers have an idea from the outset of the challenges they can expect, the length of time it will take, and what kind of professionals they are looking for.
Being armed with a good, solid set of data enables you to build credibility and professionalism with your hiring managers, and will allow you to influence business strategy, transforming you into a talent advisor, rather than just someone who just takes orders!
Those that are the best in their field are the ones that everyone wants to hire – therefore, they have a lot of options available to them. If your application process is a lengthy, tedious one, the likelihood is that it will be quickly overlooked, in favor of a more user-friendly one.
According to Jacob Chappell, hiring manager at WriteMyX:
“One of the simplest ways to improve candidate experience when applying for a job is making your interface mobile-friendly. Most people search for job adverts on their phones, even though they apply for them on a computer, so making sure that your job advert is optimized for mobile is absolutely vital!”
Be sure to check the bounce rate (how many users leave the website within seconds of visiting it) on Google Analytics, both before and after you have made changes so that you can measure and improve the efficiency of your website.
Don’t be afraid to make your application process more fun and more engaging, with videos, quizzes, and different types of questions. One long, static webpage, with large boxes for lots of typing, is instantly off-putting, and may often result in people abandoning your application form, and you potentially missing an ideal candidate.
Try and keep the legal aspects of the role until after you have hired someone – if you absolutely have to use these long forms, then use a progress bar so that candidates know how much longer they have left and can allocate time to it, or have the option for them to save their progress and come back to it at a later date.
The world of digital connection means we can use it to recruit new talent in a way that we have never been able to before. It is a foregone conclusion that you and your company will benefit from data-driven recruitment, as it allows you to be specific and particular, targeting those who you already know are ideal candidates for the job.
The amount of time and money that this type of recruiting could save you is substantial, as well as the increased likelihood of you finding a great hire. All you need to do is put it into practice!
Hazel Fogg is a creative social media manager and editor at Academic Brits. She is inspired by famous influencers, travels and books. Just recently she stared to create her first social media course.
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