In today’s evolved and competitive job market, recruiters cannot afford to ignore data-driven recruitment. According to the latest survey by foundit, over 80% of recruiters struggle with finding or filtering the right candidate due to a lack of insights.
Additionally, over 40% of those surveyed are considering future investments in technology to improve talent acquisition and tackle the aforementioned challenges.
Data-driven recruitment isn’t just a trend that’s ‘nice to have’; it’s a necessity for recruitment excellence. In this blog, we’re digging deep: why every recruiter must track data, where to source these data-driven insights and the types of data recruiters should capture to supercharge the hiring process.
Why Recruiters Can’t Afford to Ignore Data
We get it. Wading through numbers and spreadsheets isn’t your idea of a good time. But neglecting data in your recruitment process isn’t just a missed opportunity; it’s a strategic mistake. Let’s break it down the main reasons recruiters need to track data.
Improving Hiring Efficiency and Quality: Data removes the guesswork from your hiring process. Done right, it helps recruiters identify inefficiencies in the hiring process, offering a straight path to the available candidates.
Enhancing Candidate Experience: There’s no better talent magnet than an excellent candidate experience. Track candidate feedback and interactions to make sure you build and sustain a reputation for candidate experience
Optimising Recruitment Budget and ROI: Are you allocating your resources wisely? Recruitment data can pinpoint your most cost-effective recruitment channels, so you get the most ROI for the money you spend.
Meeting Business Goals: Data doesn’t just fill vacancies; it aligns your hiring process with your organisation’s big-picture objectives.
For example, are your hiring efforts meeting your diversity and inclusion objectives? Do you have insights into the kind of talent you will need for future business plans — like scaling up a business or entering a new market?
Now, let’s dive into the various sources of recruitment data and the types of data recruiters capture:
Where to Get Your Recruitment Data
Looking to enhance your hiring process after the initial CV screening? Here are additional methods that can give you a fuller picture of your potential candidates.
- Thinking of moving your hiring beyond looking through CVs? Here are a few alternatives to Resume Parsing: ATS systems use resume parsing to extract essential data from resumes. Details like contact information, skills, and work experience are now available at your fingertips. This automation streamlines the screening process.
- Job Boards: Job boards are another popular channel for effective recruitment. Track key metrics like the source of applicants, demographic data, and the cost per applicant to decide which job boards are worth your money.
In addition to metrics like number of applications, gauge the quality and relevance of applicants to improve your hiring process.
- Social Media: All your candidates are present online. Today, social media platforms are crucial for reaching and engaging active and passive candidates. Metrics like platform effectiveness, cost per hire, and demographic data (e.g., age, location) are essential for optimising social media recruitment campaigns.
- ATS & CRM: Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) tools are the backbone of the recruitment process. They keep tabs on everything from candidate pipelines to time-to-hire and assess applicant dropout rates.
- Assessments and Interviews: Pre-employment assessments provide valuable data on candidate qualifications, helping recruiters determine the suitability of applicants. Interview data, such as time-to-interview and interviewer effectiveness, offers insights into the effectiveness of the interview process.
- HRIS (Human Resource Information System): HRIS integrates all HR activities and tracks metrics like employee turnover, cost per hire, and benefit participation rates. This data helps organisations improve their HR strategies and processes.
- Employee Referrals and Networks: Never underestimate the power of a strong employee referral programme. Employee referrals often bring in candidates who fit well with the company culture and already have some understanding of the job role. Metrics to consider here include the percentage of hires from referrals, time-to-hire for referred candidates, and retention rates of referred employees.
Types of Candidate Data and What Recruitment Data to Capture
Candidate-Related Information Captured by Recruitment Software:
- Resume Details: Recruitment software can extract critical information from resumes — including contact details, educational qualifications, work experience, and skills. You can use these details to build a personal snapshot of applicants.
- Application History: Don’t just reply with a ‘thank you for applying’ and leave it at that. See if you can track a candidate’s history of applications and identify reapplicants and assess their suitability for different roles.
- Assessment Scores: No more intuitive hires. Skill assessment modules capture various candidate pre-employment assessment scored. Now you can evaluate candidates based on merit, not guesswork.
- Communication History: Maintain a log of all communication between candidates and recruiters. This helps in case you are auditing your recruitment process. Checking the specifics of communication sent out can help make your hiring faster and more effective.
- Interview Feedback: Recruitment software records interview feedback, making assessing a candidate’s performance and suitability easier.
- Reference Check Data: It stores data from reference checks, aiding recruiters in validating a candidate’s credentials. Centralising or incorporating this into existing software can help significantly.
- Background Check Results: Software documents the outcomes of background checks, ensuring candidates meet security and compliance requirements.
- Candidate Notes: Recruiters can add personalised notes and impressions for each candidate, facilitating better interactions.
Some Relevant Recruitment Process-Related Metrics
- Application Source: Knowing where your candidates come from can help maximise ROI on recruiting channels. By tracking the source of candidate applications, you can optimise your recruitment budgets to focus on the most talent-sourcing channels.
- Time to Hire: The clock’s ticking. Track Time-to-Hire to know how long each step of your hiring process takes and work to remove inefficiencies.
- Candidate Pipeline: Recruitment software visualises the candidate pipeline, providing a clear overview of candidates at each stage.
- Cost per Hire: How much are you spending to acquire talent? Cost-per-hire calculates the cost associated with hiring, including expenses related to job postings, assessments, and interviews.
- Candidate Engagement Metrics: Monitoring candidate engagement gives you insight into the pulse of the market. Are you an employer in demand? Or do you need to reevaluate your value proposition and recruitment sourcing channels?
Here, the right software can monitor candidate engagement through job postings, emails, and other communication, allowing recruiters to gauge candidate interest.
- Offer Acceptance Rate: Are you the employer of choice or just the backup? It’s a relatively straightforward metric — but one that gives great insights into where you need to refine your employer branding and negotiation strategies.
- Interview Scheduling: Most interviews tend to be a black hole when it comes to data. Recruitment software streamlines the interview scheduling process, reducing time-to-interview and enhancing the candidate experience. However, using them consistently can also offer new insights on improving your interview process.
- Compliance Tracking: It’s not just about avoiding lawsuits; consider compliance a risk-mitigation strategy. When companies work in diverse markets, the right software can ensure you adhere to legal and regulatory requirements throughout the recruitment process.
- Team Collaboration: Move towards consistency in your hiring process and remove silos. Pick the right recruitment tool that promotes collaboration among hiring teams by facilitating communication and document sharing.
- Analytics and Reporting: Move towards predicting and preparing for trends rather than simply reacting. With data-driven reports and insights in hiring, recruiters can make informed decisions and refine recruitment strategies.
- Feedback and Evaluation: Is your hiring process agile and efficient? Pick a recruitment software that allows for real-time feedback from interviewers and hiring managers so you are constantly iterating and evolving, staying one step ahead of contributors.
- Automated Notifications: Prompt notifications and communication are key to getting candidate engagement right; automated yet personalised messages keep candidates in the loop and reflect a transparent organisational culture.
In today’s highly competitive job market, relying on a data-driven approach is crucial. Recruiters leverage hiring software to gather information from various sources, including job boards, social media, ATS, assessments, HRIS, performance metrics, and resume parsing, to make informed decisions.
By analysing hiring metrics and staying up to date with the latest trends, recruiters can have effective and efficient hiring choices to make, significantly contributing to talent acquisition efforts’ success.
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