Improving the quality of your hires with data-driven recruitment
Nov 19, 2024
Imagine checking more than 200,000 applications daily. Amazon does it. And so do 90% of Fortune 500 companies.
The job of a recruiter is challenging, with endless tasks and high stakes. The average cost of one bad hire is $15,000. The cost of losing the good one — $30,000!
Yet, with AI and data-driven recruitment, you can detect right candidates faster and more correctly, just like with a crystal ball. We know that TOP employees can perform better by 800%. They also bring 2.6 times the ROI. So, hire quality matters, and data-driven recruitment could help pick you true pearls.
Read our blog post and find out:
- What do we call a data-driven recruitment?
- What are key data points to track, and why do you need them?
- What are the tools and technologies for data-driven recruitment?
Understanding Data-Driven Recruitment
Data-driven recruitment means recruiters could make objective hiring decisions. All due to the power of various data sources.
Instead of using guesswork and relying solely on feelings and instincts, recruiters now can operate with the tangible facts and actionable stats. This helps the recruiting process in many ways!
- Speeding up the hiring process
The tricky part in filling positions sometimes revolves around finding the bottlenecks.
For example, imagine that many of your applicants drop off right from the start. What is the reason? Is there a sense to make the application process easier for them?
Data-recruitment software could help answer these questions and identify gaps, making the process effective for both recruiters and employees. It also saves up to 23 hours of manual labor!
Expert tip: Predictive analytics can tell you much about the future hiring timelines.
- Reducing hiring costs
The golden rule for recruiters is to find the best talent in minimal time. Data-driven recruitment could help you with this. For instance, it could detect that there is no necessity to have expensive video interviewing software in case you target locals. Each insight can mean smarter spending.
- Mitigating hiring bias
We all can make biased decisions,even if we try our best to avoid it.
Unconscious biases—such as preferences based on gender, ethnicity, or educational background—can inadvertently affect our judgment. Data-driven recruitment helps counteract this by focusing on objective criteria rather than subjective impressions.
For example, recruitment software can anonymize applications or prioritize skills and candidate experience over names, backgrounds, or other potentially bias-triggering information.
- Boosting quality of hire
Sometimes, candidates can perform badly in an interview. But this does not mean they do not fit your company. A data-driven approach can give you more insights and highlight factors beyond a single conversation.
- Improving candidate experience
Remember yourself applying for a job online? If you are actively searching, your mailbox is full and you are constantly bombarded with emails and job alerts. It’s so easy to get frustrated if an application process is too complex or communication from recruiters is inconsistent. So, how to cut through the noise? As you may have guessed, the answer is: with data-driven recruitment.
Interesting fact: only 17% of businesses ask their candidates for feedback. And this factor could make or break a company’s employer brand.
Key Data Points to Track
What are the key recruitment metrics?
Candidate Sourcing: Candidate sourcing identifies where top candidates are originating from, helping to optimize recruitment channels and budget allocation.
For example, LinkedIn might be highly effective for certain technical roles, while job boards may work better for entry-level positions.
Time-to-hire: How long does it take to fill a position? This metric can be broken down into stages, like sourcing, screening, interviewing, and final selection.
A long time-to-hire might indicate bottlenecks at a particular stage, such as delays in candidate assessment or scheduling conflicts for interviews.
Cost-per-hire: How much is each hire costing your company? Cost-per-hire tracks the financial investment required to hire a new employee, providing insights into the efficiency of your recruitment budget.
Retention rate: How long are employees staying with the company? Tension rate measures how long employees stay with the company after being hired, indicating satisfaction and alignment with the organizational culture.
New hire performance: New hire performance evaluates the effectiveness of the recruitment process in selecting high-performing candidates.
Tools and Technologies for Data-Driven Recruitment
Explore key tools and technologies that empower recruiters to make data-driven decisions.
Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)
90% of Fortune 500 companies use Applicant Tracking Systems or ATS.
ATS streamlines the recruitment process and improves candidate experience. This happens in this way: ATS collects all job applications and parses them, extracting key application information. With their help, recruiters could review and compare candidates easily. No manual work is needed.
It is interesting that 73% of current job seekers are considered passive. However, ATS could help increase engagement. Stats also show that with the help of ATS, the average hiring cycle was decreased by 60%.
Each ATS system has its own features and nuances. So, the tricky part is to choose the right one for your business.
AI and Machine Learning
There is possibly no way you haven’t heard about the effects AI has on business now. Earlier, we mentioned that ATS could do a lot for the recruitment. However, AI-powered ATS could do even more.
Almost 65% of recruiters have already adopted innovative technologies (and reaped the benefits as well).
AI in recruitment can go far beyond searching by the typical keywords. It also applies Natural Language Processing or NLP to understand context in a candidate’s work history, skills, and accomplishments.
Interesting fact: AI can even help in interview analysis. Smart algorithms assess the tone of voice of the candidate, their facial expressions, and word choice.
Implementing Data-Driven Recruitment
What are the critical steps you can take to implement a successful data-driven recruitment strategy?
Setting clear goals — Set clear, specific, actionable goals for your rollout. Remember: your goal is not simply to fill in the gap, but to build a strong team.
Defining your objectives in alignment with your organization's long-term goals will help you target candidates who not only meet the qualifications but also fit well with your company culture and values.
Collecting and analyzing data — First, specify exactly what you are looking for. A few common recruitment KPIs are time to fill, time to hire, cost per hire, or offer acceptance rate.
Adhere to the data hygiene standards. Ensure that all data collected is accurate, consistent, and up-to-date, as errors or outdated information can lead to misguided decisions. Clean and organize your data regularly to prevent duplication, errors, or incomplete records that could skew your analysis.
Leverage technology — Adopt ATS, HR analytics software, or AI-driven platforms to streamline data collection, analysis, and decision-making processes. Ensure the tools you choose integrate seamlessly with your existing systems.
Summing up…
In this article, we have discussed the power of data-driven recruitment and the change it could make in your business processes. Relying on solid data makes things transparent and easy. It benefits your recruiting in so many ways that you won’t believe your own eyes, comparing before and after.
Ready for change? Start leveraging data to find top IT talent effortlessly.
Devler.io can help you with effective and quick remote hiring. We have a network of highly-qualified and well-versed IT specialists from Europe ready to address projects of any complexity.
Visit Devler.io today and discover how data-driven recruitment can help you make smarter and faster startup hiring decisions!