Posted by Jonathan Kidder on March 6, 2023March 28, 2023

In the past, traditional recruiting heavily relied on luck and intuition as opposed to data, which was often time-consuming to gather and analyze. This made it difficult for recruiters and hiring teams to determine the effectiveness of their hiring methods. However, with the abundance of software and analytics tools available in today’s market, anyone can now establish a data-driven recruiting process.

How to create a data driven talent sourcing strategy?

Data-driven talent sourcing involves using concrete facts and statistics to guide hiring decisions, from candidate selection to developing hiring strategies. By leveraging data, recruiting teams can improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance the overall quality of their hiring process. By having internal and external data you can better strategize how and where to source for leads online.

Using data in talent sourcing is important for several reasons:

Objective decision-making: Data provides an objective basis for decision-making, which helps to minimize biases in the hiring process. By relying on data, recruiters can make more informed decisions about which candidates to consider and which ones to reject, based on objective criteria such as skills, experience, and performance.

Improved candidate matching: Data can help recruiters to identify the specific skills and experience that are needed for a particular role and then match those requirements with the skills and experience of potential candidates. This can lead to more accurate and effective candidate matching, resulting in better quality hires.

Increased efficiency: Data can help recruiters to streamline the talent sourcing process by enabling them to quickly and easily identify potential candidates who meet the required criteria. This can save time and resources, allowing recruiters to focus on other aspects of the hiring process.

Better retention: By using data to identify candidates who are likely to be a good fit for the company culture, recruiters can increase the chances of retention. When employees are a good fit for the culture, they are more likely to be happy in their roles and stay with the company for longer.

Cost savings: Effective talent sourcing can help to reduce recruitment costs by minimizing the need for costly job advertisements and recruitment agencies. By relying on data to identify potential candidates, recruiters can reduce the time and money spent on sourcing and recruitment.

Overall, using data in talent sourcing can lead to better quality hires, increased efficiency, improved retention rates, and cost savings, making it a crucial tool for recruiters and hiring managers.

Creating a talent mapping strategy:

Talent mapping is a process of identifying and tracking potential candidates for future hiring needs or for succession planning. It involves creating a detailed profile of individuals who possess the skills and experience required for specific roles in an organization.

Talent mapping involves a strategic approach to talent management, where companies proactively identify and track top talent both internally and externally, to ensure they have the right people in the right positions, and are prepared to fill any talent gaps that may arise in the future.

The process of talent mapping typically involves several steps:

Defining the roles and positions that need to be filled, both currently and in the future.
Identifying the key skills and experience required for each role.
Creating a list of potential candidates who possess the required skills and experience, both within the organization and externally.
Gathering and analyzing data on each potential candidate, including their career history, education, skills, and experience.
Creating a detailed profile of each candidate, including their strengths, weaknesses, and potential fit for the role.
Maintaining and updating the talent map on a regular basis to ensure it remains relevant and up-to-date.

By creating a talent map, organizations can ensure they have a pool of qualified candidates available for future hiring needs or succession planning. This can help to reduce recruitment costs, improve the quality of hires, and ensure the organization is prepared for any talent gaps that may arise in the future.

Pulling the right data to drive results:

To begin, it’s important to select the most relevant hiring metrics to track. Quality of hire is a valuable metric for all companies as it provides insight into the effectiveness of their hiring process. Other common metrics include cost-per-hire, time-to-hire, source of hire, and candidate experience scores such as application conversion rates and feedback. However, different companies may prioritize different types of data, and it’s important to consult with senior leaders and hiring managers to determine what matters most.

To collect data efficiently, it’s helpful to utilize software and tools such as applicant tracking systems with reporting capabilities. Additionally, consider different ways to collect data, such as through Google Analytics or surveys. By selecting the right metrics and streamlining data collection, companies can more effectively track and analyze their hiring process to improve efficiency and overall quality.

To improve your talent sourcing efforts, you should track the following recruiting data:

Candidate sources: Tracking where your candidates are coming from is crucial in determining the most effective sourcing channels. This data helps to identify which channels are producing high-quality candidates and which ones are not worth the investment.

Time-to-hire: Measuring the time it takes to fill a role is essential in assessing the efficiency of your hiring process. By tracking time-to-hire, you can identify bottlenecks in the hiring process and make improvements to reduce the time it takes to fill a role.

Candidate quality: Assessing the quality of your candidates is critical in determining the effectiveness of your talent sourcing efforts. Metrics such as the percentage of candidates who make it to the interview stage or receive an offer can help evaluate the success of your sourcing efforts.

Cost-per-hire: Tracking the cost-per-hire can provide insight into the efficiency of your hiring process and help identify opportunities to reduce costs.

Conversion rates: Measuring the conversion rate of each stage in the hiring process, from initial contact to job offer acceptance, can help identify areas for improvement and optimize the recruiting funnel.

Retention rates: Evaluating the retention rates of new hires can help determine the effectiveness of your talent sourcing efforts in identifying and hiring employees who fit well within the company culture and have the potential for long-term success.

Persuading a Hiring Manager in making decisions:

To persuade a hiring manager’s decisions using recruiting metric data, you should follow these steps:

Understand the hiring manager’s goals: Before presenting any recruiting metric data, it’s important to understand the hiring manager’s goals and priorities. You should know what type of candidate they are looking for, what their timeline is, and what their budget is.

Gather relevant recruiting metric data: Once you understand the hiring manager’s goals, gather recruiting metric data that is relevant to their needs. For example, if the hiring manager is concerned about time-to-hire, you could provide data on the average time it takes to fill similar positions in the industry or company.

Present the data in a clear and concise way: When presenting the recruiting metric data, be sure to present it in a clear and concise way. Use graphs and charts to make the data easy to understand and highlight the most important findings.

Connect the data to the hiring manager’s goals: When presenting the recruiting metric data, be sure to connect it to the hiring manager’s goals. Explain how the data can help the hiring manager achieve their goals, such as reducing time-to-hire or improving candidate quality.

Make a clear recommendation: Based on the recruiting metric data, make a clear recommendation to the hiring manager. For example, if the data shows that using a certain sourcing channel has been effective in the past, recommend using that channel for the current position.

Be prepared to answer questions: Finally, be prepared to answer any questions the hiring manager may have about the recruiting metric data. If they have concerns or objections, be ready to address them and provide additional data if necessary.

By following these steps, you can use recruiting metric data to persuade a hiring manager’s decisions and help them make more informed hiring decisions based on data-driven insights. I wrote a post that goes more in detail on this topic here.

Using the data to improve your process:

Once you have collected your recruiting data, it is essential to determine how you will act on it. Here are some examples of common recruiting issues that data can help uncover, along with ways to address them:

Time to hire: If your time-to-hire is consistently higher than industry standards, you may need to identify and address bottlenecks in your recruiting process. You can consider diversifying your sourcing methods, including qualifying questions on your application forms, using software to schedule interviews, and writing effective job offer letters.

Low offer acceptance rates: If you are experiencing a high percentage of job offer rejections, you may need to create more competitive job offers, gauge candidate interest early on, ensure a positive candidate experience, and write job offer letters that accurately reflect the role.

High new hire turnover: If your new hire turnover is too high, you may need to improve communication with candidates about job duties and requirements, create an effective onboarding process, and provide opportunities for meaningful work.

It’s important to note that data has its limitations. While it can provide insight into what your team does well and areas that need improvement, it cannot explain why something is happening. Interpreting your findings requires a combination of different types of data and human judgement. Ultimately, what you choose to do with the data is at your discretion.

Recommend Reading:

What is Talent Sourcing?

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How Tech Recruiters Can Stay Relevant Even During Downturns

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Jonathan Kidder

With more than 12 years of recruitment experience, Jonathan has helped startups and small businesses find the talent they need. He runs the blog WizardSourcer, which explores the latest trends in talent sourcing, provides reviews of recruitment tools, and features interviews with prominent figures in the industry.