How to Automate the Hiring Process | Data-Driven Recruitment

Traditionally, the recruitment process heavily relied on time-consuming methods, such as luck and intuition rather than on scientific data. Although recruiters think of their methods as reliable and valid, with the abundance of analytical tools and software on the market, the data-driven recruitment process can easily be devised by anyone.

Explaining the data-driven recruiting process

Data-driven recruitment is when one makes hiring decisions based on solid facts and figures for creating hiring plans and selecting candidates. Using data for recruitment proved to be resourceful, cost efficient and give better results.

Follow this complete guide on how to apply a data-driven hiring technique

The use of data in the recruitment process guarantees a quality hire. This is how data-driven recruiting can help recruitment teams:

Make a financial plan. Allocate your budget to meet your needs and spend wisely, while being in full control of the hiding process by determining the sources of hire that offer the most qualified candidates.

Boost efficiency and increase productivity. The communication between hiring teams and candidates can help track possible loopholes and speed up the hiring process.

Dig up recruitment problems. Analyze the conversion rate of your application form to track possible flaws and review the questions or redesign your page. In addition, examine candidates’ demographics to avoid being biased towards minorities.

Set criteria for the hiring process. Provide a hiring yield ratio to determine the percentage of applicants that make it to the next stage of the selection process. If the number of applicants is low, think about re-advertising the position.

Make impartial and lawful hiring decisions. Apply an effective hiring method by selecting the best candidates based on their assessment scores and interview results.

Make room for improvements in the recruitment process. If your company needs improvements present valid arguments backing it up with solid facts.

Here is how you incorporate data in your recruitment process:

Have accurate data and metrics

Initially, select few significant metrics to track the hiring process. Assessing the quality of hire is highly beneficial as it depicts the overall effectiveness of the hiring process. Some other common metrics are:

• Source of hire
• Job offer acceptance rates
• Cost-per-hire
• Time-to-hire
• Candidate experience scores

Different companies focus on different type of data. To determine what matters most, ask these questions to recruitment managers:

• What data do you use (or would like to use) to become more productive when hiring?
• Which recruiting sources/methods do you consider unreliable, but don’t have the data to prove it?
• Which recruiting sources/methods do you trust, but aren’t able to prove their effectiveness with data?
• What do you wish you knew about your hiring process?
• What hiring problems do you see often?
• What does a successful hiring process look like to you?
• What recruiting data would help you build reports for your managers?

Collect efficient data

Although data collection is often time-consuming, try to make it as easy as possible with these guidelines:

• Use software: your application tracking system (ATS) may have reporting capabilities that will be beneficial for your task.
• Search for numerous ways to collect data: Use Google Analytics or simple surveys for this purpose.

Use the data

Once you are done with the data collection, determine what purpose it serves you. Here are few examples of hiring problems that you can identify and address from your data:

Long time-to-hire

If the time-to-hire of your company is greater than the average time in your industry, then you need to identify the loopholes in the recruiting process. Some common problems may include:

• Screening: your job application forms should comprise of qualifying and screening questions before you start the screening process.
• Job offers: prepare a formal job offer that puts all your requirement precisely in a nutshell and tempt the applicant to accept the job.
• Sourcing: broaden the sourcing methods via social circles or by using tracking tools to help you reach more candidates in a short time and thus build a talent pipeline.
• Structured interviews: use a software to schedule interviews with recruitment managers and candidates across various calendars.

Job offer rejection rates

The high level of job offer rejection leads to greater costs and vacant positions on the long run. If you often face job offer rejections, you should consider these few fixes:

• Attract applicants’ curiosity for the job offer early on. Having an effective communication with the applicants during the screening process (on call and in interviews) about their role will trigger their inspirations and boost their desire.
• Create more competitive job offers. Conduct a complete research on benefits and salaries via sites like Glassdoor and PayScale.
• Write job offer letters in accordance with candidates’ expectations for the job. If during the interview you mentioned that job requires 20% travel, but the job offer mentions 50%, this discrepancy might reduce the acceptance rate.
• Make a positive candidate experience. Your hiring team should take a pleasant attitude towards the candidates, giving them positive experience like offering timely responses, arranging comfortable interview environment, etc.

High new hire turnover

The revenue spent on new hires depicts the number of employees who leave the job shortly after they’re hired. If your new hire turnover is too high, here are two common fixes:

• Make sure your communication with the applicants is on point and they understand the job requirements, the expectations regarding individual and team performances, as well as their job duties before they get the job. If the new hires feel misinformed, they might leave soon after.
• Create an effective onboarding process by welcoming the new employees into your company with an email. Make sure they feel welcomed, receive proper training and are given opportunities to prosper from the start.

Know your data limitations

• Although you can get a deep understanding of any problem by looking at the data, you still need to interpret the findings to understand what happened.
• Data won’t give you solution to your problems, but it can indicate problems and show your team’s performance and help you to act accordingly.
• Sometimes data is not objective, especially if it is estimated by your team. However, if candidates’ assignments are scored by a software they would be much more reliable.
• Use data to evaluate the past and make a strategy for the future.
• Data will assist hiring teams in the decision-making process, as facts are stronger than subjective intuition. It helps understand past failures and setbacks hence helps improve future decisions.

Originally published at blog.sales.rocks on December 27, 2018.