Leveraging Recruitment Analytics in Ways that Really Matter

Tracey, an experienced recruiter for a large medical firm has just been informed of a new opening for the position of content marketing manager.  To draw up a timeline, she turns to the records for the years 2015 & 2016 and notes that it took nearly 4 months to close the position, both years.  Based on this, Tracey sets her closing time targets and continues with her routine.

3 months in, she settles upon a candidate fit to be their new content marketing manager and seals the deal. Tracey is happy because she thinks she’s reached her goal a month before her estimated timeline but here’s what she missed – 2015 and 2016 saw a severe deficit of marketing talent due to the evolution of new technology, but come 2017, those marketing skills have all been caught up with and candidates are plentiful.

Bottom-line: where it would have taken 4 months in 2015, it took the rest of Tracey’s industry only 1 month to close that position in 2017.  Multiply the number of lost months by the number of open positions that an organization faces throughout the year – the resulting number is staggering and leaves open a large market for information.

If recruiters are basing their decisions on obsolete data trends and ‘guesstimates,’ then recruitment data analytics holds promise of bringing a degree of certainty that will help this vital process function smoothly.

 

What data analytics means and how it is developed

Data analytics is the newest way to structure chaos and derive value from it.  Everyday actions are collated, quantified and analysed to send relevant information to the management. When applied on a larger scale, the value of this information multiplies exponentially.  Patterns can be formed and interactions between market factors can be identified and moulded to produce the desired effects.  The use of data analytics is well developed within functions involving customer relations, marketing and finance; but it is still largely unexplored by recruiters who often find themselves struggling for answers to even basic questions in their day-to-day activities.

 

How data is set to change this dynamic

Even though the internet has made a plethora of information available for recruiters until now, there are very few recruitment platforms that offer customized competitor intelligence for companies. In truth, analytics are impacting the workforce in ways that actually count – it promises to take a recruiter beyond the four walls of their organization and see the bigger picture.  Recruiters can compare themselves to other similar companies in the industry and set metrics for benchmarking.

Analytics can pinpoint overall talent concentrations and help recruiters channel their efforts to the places that will reap the best rewards.  They can also gauge whether a recruit might be a good fit in the company just based on skills. It can highlight avenues that need improving upon such as job closing time-frames, effectiveness of a new recruit and more.

Simply put, recruitment data analytics sifts off the recruiter’s administrative work, leaving them more opportunity to get involved in the decision-making process and delve into planning activities. This proves to be a big milestone in the progress curve of people management, one that empowers the very department responsible for developing and nurturing the company’s talent.