10 Reasons Why You Should Use Data Science In Your Recruiting
The Future of Recruiting is in Big Data
“The days of gut decisions and interviewer bias are numbered, to be replaced by evidence-based decision making.”
We established in the last article that HR can (should) be a huge asset, not a cost. And before that, we detailed some important insights on talent acquisition.
We all (hopefully) know that recruiting the best talent is critical in actually having a successful company. Let’s get right into why you really should be using data science in your recruitment efforts to get the best talent.
1. Know the ‘what’ with Metrics
With all this data available to us, it’s all useless just floating out there. Keeping meticulous recruiting metrics means to measure the information that is relevant to you. Get a good idea of everything you should know about your recruiting process: sourcing costs and time, new hire churn, the state of requisitions per recruiter, etc. In order to tell a story, first you must know the facts. Metrics empower you with all the facts concerning the effectiveness of your process.
2. Know the ‘why’ with Analytics
Once you have a good handle on the measurements, you will then likely want to investigate further. Data science methods also allow you to ask questions and gain actionable insights on your process. These analytics are what empower you to make educated predictions and thus form plans. Armed with metrics and analyses tools, you can then form a strategy. Thus, analytics empowers you to not just measure your process, but figure out exactly how to improve it. Hiring the best talent requires a smart and tactical strategy.
3. Standardize the Hiring Process
Every company has a strategy of some sort going into hiring, or at least one would hope so. But this can quickly become harmful if all you have are a few tactics, or worse, every team/hiring manager in your company has their own way. Top talent is top talent no matter their field. Finding, recruiting, and retaining that top talent requires consistency. Consistently executing on the best strategies, not just any strategy; consistently reviewing that strategy as your company grows rather than sticking with the same old, same old; consistently empowering all your recruiters and hiring managers to always hire the best, no matter the role. Consistency is key. A standardized process not only leads to a higher quality of hires… but will dramatically reduce the chance to “unintentionally lead to the perception of favoritism or disparate treatment.”
4. Eliminate Bias
Not only are discriminatory practices (even unintentional) standing for legal action, but the many unconscious biases in hiring can greatly limit your own talent pool. Restricting your hiring to only certain geographic or demographics is essentially restricting your choice of top talent. Let the data find the best people, wherever and whoever they are, so that you can have a much better selection. Cultural fit is not about what people like to do outside of work.
“A cultural fit is an individual whose work-related values and styles of work support the business strategy,” Lauren Rivera, associate professor of management & organizations at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, told the New York Times.
“When you get into a lot of the demographic characteristics, you’re not only moving away from that definition but you’re also getting into discrimination.”
5. Hire for the Soft Skills
The most poignant question to ask is not about quotas or even hard skills, it’s about culture. That is not amenities or whether the team likes to go to the bar after work or other trivialities. Company culture is about who aligns with the company’s vision, mission, and core values. Company culture arises from individual interactions. These interactions are only positive if these individuals have high emotional intelligence (EQ). Such nuance is hard to get right with blind, gut feelings. Thankfully, today we can analyze a person’s social media activity and even behavioral patterns to discern their EQ. We can prioritize soft skills with this hard data to create strong, mentally diverse, and productive teams. As reiterated in this article,
“Don’t become pigeonholed into thinking the person with the exact necessary experience is the right person for the role. Consider soft skills — like interpersonal skills, communication skills, thought processes and emotional intelligence — because they matter.” — Tom Gimbel, CEO and founder of LaSalle Networks
6. Find the Right Personality for the Right Role
Creating a great team is about ‘getting the right people on the bus.’ But it goes even beyond that, as my adviser once said;
Great leaders get the right people, in the right seat, on the right bus.
Juggling dozens or even hundreds of people is often an art more than a science. Sure its beautiful when it works, but more often than not you won’t have a masterpiece. And the cost of sub-par or downright ‘ugly’ teams and bad hires come with a high dollar amount. Certain personalities just do not mesh well with certain positions, while many roles require a particular personality. Just like with soft skills, you can perform data science to figure out what the applicant’s personality is and how well they likely match the role. The art of team building requires (data)science to be cost effective and get consistently great results.
7. Get Smarter and Faster Sourcing
According to this LinkedIn study, sourcing is one of the top areas companies wish to improve in 2017. Traditional models are like deep water fishing in over-fished ponds. Even if you are posting jobs on boards with high traffic (and spending tons of money to actually be seen), the pool itself is not at all deep enough to attract top talent. The most skilled people are out there grinding, building, learning, and doing anything other than looking for opportunities in shallow waters or even recruiting agencies. They won’t come to you. You have to go to them. You can do so with tools that know how to find them anywhere on the web and know how to appeal to them. All that can be done almost automatically with clever data science. Not only is this a far superior method, it is far more direct, and thus faster. Social media and esourcing in general does all the hard work for you to find people who are truly passionate and skilled in their field.
8. Lower Costs
For most companies “the bulk of the talent acquisition budget will go to traditional tactics.” Which are, of course, resume black holes; a nightmare for both the candidate and hiring manager. With no real tool for keeping relevant metrics, actionable analytics, innovative tracking and talent matching methods, or even a standardized process, companies drain the bulk of their budget on ineffective recruiting holes. With services dedicated to data science, you can ditch that hole and create a highly engaging recruiting funnel. Using social media, machine learning, data storytelling and visualizations among dozens of other easily integrated solutions, sourcing for talent will be just another smooth part of a streamlined process. That means less moving pieces and little to no wasted money on broken systems.
9. Control Company Branding
The same LinkedIn study shows that Employer Branding is by far the most wished for area to focus their talent acquisition budget on. And for good reason. Your brand is the only thing that will make top talent come to you. If your brand is always in the top lists and affiliated with the best resources and espousing the most engaging culture, it’s inevitable that people will want to find you and work for or with you. Unfortunately, the traditional tactic to spread branding is through expensive advertising and marketing. Additionally, creating that brand is almost completely dependent on having great employees. So of course it would be best to create strategies that accomplish both of these results. Sara Eisenberg, who works with entrepreneurs everyday, encapsulates this best;
“Remember that it can take years to build a reputation and only seconds to destroy one, so it’s important that you recognize how each new employee can grow in the position and then shape the company according to your business goals.”
10. Manage Your Talent
Finally, a powerful recruiting process would not be complete without the ability to track, record, and manage requisitions. The best tools bring together metrics and analytics to always have the best talent management system. Empower your recruiting with the ability to keep communications open with talent that would better fit a different position should it open up, or perhaps to review your recruiting process to find improvements, or even to ensure new hires have and maintain a great experience with your company throughout their tenure. Great teams are created by great leaders and great leaders need great tools. Data science is your greatest tool.
Hiring and retaining good employees is incredibly important.
“Most of us choose our spouse with care and rear our children with nurturing and compassionate attention. Yet, we tend to select the people who will join our company on the basis of an interview or two, and once they have joined, they often find that they must fend for themselves.
This contrast illustrates the disparity between the environments of family and work. But, given the amount of time we must spend at work, wouldn’t we all be happier if we took as much care at the office as at home to create a supportive environment? Wouldn’t we also be far more successful?”.
Your company is nothing without your employees… your people. In order to attract and hire the best people, your recruiting process has to be a priority. I hope to have made clear to you why data science should be the highest priority as you upgrade your recruiting process.
What questions or suggestions do you have for using data science in recruiting? Comment below or tweet us @employtoy.
Sign-up here to download our e-book and learn more about our process.
Join our case study and win a chance for a free 6-month trial.
Research Data Science in Recruitment and HR, then visit Employtoy.com to find out how we use data science in our intelligent SaaS platform.
Here are some of the many sources you can use to educate yourself:
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6975-future-of-recruiting.html
— Written by Elijah Claude
