Data works to help paint clearer pictures of candidate and employee experiences. As more information is collected, it allows HR data results to improve and HR data strategies to come into focus. Without vast amounts of data, however, the purpose of HR analytics becomes clouded. This shortcoming causes many HR leaders to rely on inaccurate and homogenous data.

What’s the fallout of an abundance of undefined, irrelevant, and untargeted workforce metrics and analytics? It bars HR departments from using the kind of customized communication and engagement tactics required to arrive at the results and insights they truly need.

Take talent recruitment, for instance. Traditionally, it lacks the strategy, efficiency, and information needed to bring the most ideal candidates to the surface. To this point, recruiters have relied on standard Boolean search strategies that scour multiple channels to find candidates. Instead, they could use HR metrics and analytics to tailor their approaches and meet the right candidates in the right places.

A polished and fleshed-out HR data strategy is the only way to capitalize on this information and garner the kind of talent acquisition and retention results HR leadership covets. To achieve that vision, though, HR leaders need to understand the difference between HR metrics and analytics and the critical role each element plays. Here’s a breakdown of the two terms:

HR metrics

The purpose of HR metrics is to put a numerical spin on the effectiveness and efficiency of one (or several) HR policies. If a noticeable change occurs, HR metrics can put that shift into the proper perspective.

Let’s say, for example, that employee retention dipped from 7.5% to 5% over a year at a given company. Those data points tell the story of a 12-month trend, while the 50% decrease is a metric that the company’s leaders can apply to their HR data strategy and employee engagement strategy.

HR analytics

While HR metrics offers a no-frills look at differences in data points, HR analytics looks at how employees affect business outcomes. The purpose of HR analytics (or people analytics, as it’s sometimes called) is to explain why something occurs and what that impact is numerically.

Going back to those retention numbers, HR analytics could be useful in terms of establishing context. HR analytics can attach reasoning to why employees or candidates do the things they do, enabling HR leaders to act accordingly.

HR metrics and analytics allow companies to make talent decisions in good faith and with proper context. Familiarize yourself with the kinds of figures specific to each term to arrive at the conclusions needed to make the best decisions for prospective and current employees.

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Ask a magic eight ball in January of this year whether a pandemic of seismic proportions would rock the foundation of global life, and that’s probably the answer you’d get. The impacts of the coronavirus may have been unexpected, but it will continue to redefine what it means to do a lot of things — including job searches.

Suggested resource on hiring strategy: How to build HR flexibility and resilience post-COVID

Finding the best candidate will no longer be about having the right values and qualifications in place. It will require you to have the kinds of AI recruitment tools and software that can connect you with talent that won’t have your magic eight ball saying “ask again later” in 2020 and beyond.

The future of recruiting and hiring with technology

Technology will play an essential role in the future of work. Similarly, recruitment technology will help HR personnel and recruiters gather what’s necessary to assemble top-notch teams. But when considering how technology can help recruitment, it’s essential to take a look at what the job landscape will look like the rest of this year — and for years to come.

For starters, flexible work environments are quickly moving from accessory to necessary as many organizations shift some, or all, of their workforces to a remote setup. If potential hires have the technology to conduct remote work, then organizations will need the right recruitment tools to reach those candidates.

As you’re pursuing a remote workforce, it stands to reason that some of your talent acquisition will be contactless. Virtual recruiting tools can help foster connections that put candidates at ease with a company — even at a distance. These tools also open your organization up to a wealth of global talent that can help your team expand its physical borders.

It’s equally important to have the resources on hand to create a solid company. The future of employee onboarding and retention will rest heavily on having the kinds of online collaboration tools necessary to help teams connect and create from anywhere.

Suggested reading on recruitment tech: Discover how AI is being leveraged for the recruiting industry

What’s more, the future of human resource management will likely have a top-to-bottom technological influence. Outfitting your talent acquisition efforts with recruitment technology will help you feel confident that you’ve left no stone unturned to find the best talent.

Using virtual recruiting tools to find top talent

Recruitment technology is an efficient and insight-driven way to connect employers with talent that checks a company’s boxes for skill set and cultural fit.

If you’re still not sure how to integrate employee recruitment tools into your candidate search, try these three strategies:

1. Forget what you thought you knew. 

To see clearly how technology can help recruitment, start by adjusting how you previously viewed it — as well as onboarding. Understand that technology can benefit both the recruiting and onboarding processes, and then tailor your methods to those solutions.

Invest in chatbots, software, and other assets to build rapport with potential candidates and new employees. Find ways to use those solutions in your everyday processes to create a more organic approach to talent acquisition.

2. Map out your strategy. 

With the litany of challenges and opportunities affecting the future of human resource management, it’s best not to leave anything to chance. Put a proper plan in place that leverages tools that will lead you to your ideal candidates.

Create a blueprint for each aspect of recruitment, attaching some element of your tech stack to each step. You stand a better chance of finding the right candidates if you connect recruitment solutions to the most critical aspects of your search.

3. Invest in subscription solutions. 

You should be able to test virtual recruiting tools free of charge, and they should come with fewer strings attached in terms of commitment. The future of recruiting and hiring technology will focus on subscription technologies that allow users to try several solutions until they find one that works.

No one can truly predict what will be most effective in the talent acquisition landscape. Pay-as-you-go video conferencing, messaging, and online collaboration tools provide recruiters and companies the flexibility they need to use tools that can scale with their needs.

Unfortunately, finding top talent isn’t as easy as shaking a magic eight ball. To make the search process smoother, implement technology into your recruiting and onboarding system that will help bring the challenges and opportunities affecting the future of human resource management into focus and empower you to find the best talent.

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They can spend just as much time analyzing break room snacks, color schemes, and other elements that in no way carry the same weight as tasks like product launches and brand narratives.

Similarly, certain aspects of recruiting and hiring can quickly eat up a manager’s time. Of course, business leaders should never take hiring and sourcing talent for granted. The right mix of personalities and expertise at every level of a company can spark collaborative and exceptional results. But overdoing recruitment in terms of time and money spent can carry long-term consequences.

On average, companies need 42 days to complete a hire. But when you look at data across all industries, the process averages somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 to 63 days. For small businesses, certain hiring challenges can push the process toward the longer end of the spectrum. And when forced to balance hiring and urgent day-to-day matters, one (or both) of those duties can suffer.

With affordable and automated small business hiring resources, however, leaders can kick-start the talent sourcing process without taking themselves away from big-picture issues that require immediate and undivided attention. Here are three challenges in hiring that innovative recruitment tools can help solve for small businesses:

Lack of a dedicated hiring team

Small businesses and startups tend to leave hiring to sales, marketing, finance, and other departments. Those departments are already balancing other daily responsibilities, making it a stretch to add talent sourcing to their crowded plates.

A viable candidate sourcing AI platform like Leoforce can take some of those big-picture recruiting tasks out of employees’ hands and automate them efficiently. With Leoforce, companies can source candidates, correspond with them, build talent pipelines, and track successful hires to help guide future searches.

Instead of building a whole new team or pulling from other departments, recruitment tools like Leoforce optimize talent sourcing to ensure the right candidates are with you from the start.

Limited budget and resources

According to a 2019 LinkedIn study, small businesses typically spend $3,000 to $5,000 filling one vacant position. When hiring is a constant need, this expenditure can wear lean companies with even leaner capital.

Leoforce Pulse is a flexible candidate sourcing AI tool that is ideal for companies looking to make small numbers of quick and effective hires. Once you add a thorough job description and adequate company details, you’ll get a fleshed-out list of candidates in 48 hours.

The basic package and full-service options are $599 and $599 per position, respectively, but a volume discount exists for companies that need to make multiple hires. With a reasonable one-time fee, Leoforce Pulse brings qualified candidates to companies without breaking the bank.

The absence of talent sourcing avenues

One of the frequent challenges in hiring for small businesses is the shortage of platforms. Most companies subscribe to LinkedIn Recruiter or use some other job board to build a list of suitable candidates.

Those solutions might be effective, but they aren’t always the quickest or most all-encompassing options for finding top talent. Leoforce Quantum, meanwhile, uses machine learning to build AI sourcing algorithms. With Leoforce Quantum, an entrenched sourcing process gradually builds to make hiring a quicker and less intense process for small businesses.

Talent sourcing is an essential part of small business operations. By embracing the power of candidate sourcing AI solutions, you can give this process the attention to detail it deserves without letting other priorities slip through the cracks.

References:

• https://www.hirevue.com/blog/eight-recruitment-metrics-that-matter
• https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/resources/talent-strategy/smb-attracting-top-talent#:~:text=Close%20to%20half%20of%20small,the%20right%20person%20in%20place.

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Unfortunately, finding top talent — specifically with regard to candidate engagement — is a struggle many small companies face.

Suggested reading on talent acquisition: Unlocking the Hidden Talent Pool.

Small business hiring can be a tedious process, but companies that focus on engaged applicants put their big ideas on the path to fruition.

Engagement and Hiring Challenges for Small Businesses

For small businesses trying to pinpoint engaged candidates, the overarching issues usually boil down to three elements:

Resources

Enterprise companies have every tool and medium available to find and engage top-shelf candidates. Small business hiring, on the other hand, isn’t always afforded the overhead or team to engage candidates at every step of the hiring process. Without hiring managers or recruiters following up with qualified applicants, those potential hires can grow disinterested and take their talents elsewhere.

Capital

Candidate engagement can suffer when small businesses don’t have the finances to attract top candidates. Whereas larger corporations lead with competitive salaries, small businesses have to offer within reason and highlight other elements of the company that might appeal to quality candidates.

Data

Aside from capital and resources, small business hiring might lack the data and statistical insights necessary for proper candidate engagement. Information that helps better source, connect, and personalize the hiring process isn’t always available to smaller companies struggling to find top talent.

Suggested reading on candidate engagement: Why candidate engagement is critical: How to measure & improve

Connecting With Engaged Candidates

Any of the above can help source and keep top applicants in the pipeline, but they might be in short supply for small businesses trying to identify qualified and interested talent for their openings. For companies trying to assess candidate engagement, here are three areas to focus on:

1. The questions they bring to the table. 

Candidate engagement comes down to a company’s ability to sell itself to potential hires. How well businesses did selling can shine through in the types and depth of questions candidates ask during different stages of the hiring process.

Sure, you’ll want to hear their thoughts on the company, its culture, and the role; but questions that show candidates envisioning how they fit into their potential jobs can be just as illuminating. It indicates these people vetted your website, learned more about what specific roles look like at similar companies, and asked questions that will help better aid their search and your company’s ability to engage future candidates.

2. The detail their answers contain.

“Tell me about yourself” can be a loaded question with equally heavy answers. Some candidates share too many personal facts; others go into overdrive bashing their current employer while thinking it might score them points with your business.

Companies want interviewees to provide detailed answers to such open-ended questions, but all detail isn’t good detail. When trying to suss out engaged candidates, look for those who use that question to tie back to their professional goals and personal accomplishments. These candidates already see themselves as important cogs in the company wheel, and they’ll comport themselves well with their team and potential clients.

3. The experience they offer. 

A good rule of thumb for figuring out how to engage candidates is to source those who have applicable traits and backgrounds. Talking with past supervisors, perusing résumés, and looking at previous documented work are great ways to start finding top talent with strong pedigrees.

But, again, listen to what they tell you. Listen to how candidates mention their past experiences during interview answers. Present situational questions that allow them to draw on past work and apply it to your current clients and offerings. Experienced candidates are already locked into whatever role they’re seeking, and they can slip right in to take ownership of any position they accept.

Small businesses may not have all the tools at their disposal to attract, engage, and secure top talent on their own. By listening to potential candidates and using their experiences as a jumping-off point, small businesses can stand out to the level of talent that can turn their ideas into big successes.

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HR’s goal since the beginning of its fundamental existence was to hire the right people in the right companies. To gather the right talent, to form the best teams, to make the biggest dent in the universe with their unified teamwork and success.

Here’s what changed

So, what happened? Life happened. Greed happened. Politics happened. Anything but honoring that foundational goal of HR became the norm. We began to compromise talent to appease the public eye, the greedy stakeholder, and the narcissistic leader. We compromised the heart of our companies for power and market dominance. We compromised our people and the talents and sacrifices they made to do good work. We minimized the value we brought to their lives. We even diluted making diversity initiatives (for the right reasons) a fundamental pillar of every team. We fell short of what HR was meant to accomplish.

Tech: the new foundation?

Then we started creating and adopting technologies that made those fundamental shortcomings in our companies worse. We never went back to the basics and redefined our strategy of putting people first. We never acknowledged what needed to change. We believed technology could be the new strategy. That tech was going to guide our newfound diversity initiatives and support upskilling in our organizations. That tech would mitigate our unconscious biases and make certain that we wouldn’t have any lawsuits on our hands or critiques from the public about what we stood for. Tech was the new answer. The new foundation. The new end all be all.

Wrong again.

Technology was the band-aid. The band-aid that we slapped over a bleeding wound we never let heal, in hopes that it might get better someday. We missed an opportunity to grow. To mend what had become so fundamentally broken. That’s really what technology was meant to help us do at its core. To be a tool that would help us redefine, track, and reach our goals faster, to gain insight into data we hadn’t measured consistently, and to make complex work more simple and efficient. It was never meant to be the strategy. Just the catalyst for its growth.

So, what’s left?

When Covid entered our worlds and the market crashed, what were our companies left with? Power? Greed? The unnecessary politics we battle daily in our organizations? Applicants from fancy schools? Ping pong tables? Happy hours? Eclectic buildings? Press mentions? Literally none of the above. We were left with our people. That’s it. We didn’t have an immediate answer of how to respond because we’ve never faced a crash like this in our lifetimes. There was no crutch. Technology couldn’t save us. Diversity committees weren’t the solution. Greedy, corporate power instantly carried no weight or meaning. We were suddenly, in what felt like a snap of a finger, back to the roots of what HR was built on. Our people. And all of a sudden, they were all that mattered. Supporting them, caring for them, acknowledging them, valuing them, hearing them, and providing for them. The new strategies we will or have already incorporated in regards to our companies over these last few months have DEMANDED us to put our people at the top of the list. Their livelihood depends on it, their mental health depends on it, and the state of our companies depends on it. All the hang-ups and minor technicalities that have distracted our foundational strategies and diluted our values in our businesses for so long, have suddenly been turned on their heads. Because at the end of the day, they don’t matter. They’re not saving us or defining us. Our people are.

As we’ve all witnessed, the importance of those distractions have simply lost their worth overnight. But our people haven’t. They’ve been the constant in the face of the unknown. The foundation guiding new initiatives and strategies. The roots branching off to invest in new and creative ventures in hopes of bringing life back to the brokenness. THAT’S WHAT MATTERS. Those are the kind of people we want to hire. The kind we fight to get. The kind we need on our team to be successful in the next world of work.

Final thoughts

Tom Peters, acclaimed business author and speaker, recently published a few thoughts worth repeating.

1. “I wonder if there is even one business school on earth that puts people ahead of finance?”
2. “Soft skills will be 10x more important in a virtual/work-at-home world. Team dynamics, individual growth, and team creativity will dominate effectiveness.”

Julie Taylor, CHRO at Broadridge Financial Solutions, a New York-based financial firm with about 10,000 employees said, “The crisis of Covid, quickly followed by the crisis around the social justice movement and responding appropriately to that has really been a crucible to the HR function where just talk or unimportant fluff — that’s all burned away. And that’s focused our minds on what’s important.”

And one final thought from Ben Eubanks, one of my favorite HCM analysts in the industry, “If the last few months have shown us anything, it’s that HR is a human-focused profession. But it’s incredibly challenging to scale the human touch without tools and technology.”

At the end of the day, Leoforce is a technology company. But our technology is worthless without people. Without a strategy guiding our efforts. Without a heart that beats for humans to be in jobs that make them happy and to support the growth of successful companies that will make a dent in the universe someday. We just want to be part of the process. Not the foundation of it. That’s your job. And it’s the one job HR has failed at for far too long. Covid has collectively brought us insurmountable challenges both in our personal and professional lives, but it’s also demanded agility and growth from us. And it’s provided an uncomfortable but pivotal opportunity to get back to the foundation that we’ve all so easily abandoned. It’s time for us to wake up, respond, and start working for our people again.

The post Let’s [finally] get back to the foundation of HR appeared first on Leoforce.

That said, nobody could’ve correctly predicted the effect the novel coronavirus would have on so many things, HR included. The very nature of work looks different than it did a mere four months ago.

Opportunities in remote work, IT, and healthcare logistics are on the rise. At the same time, the 1 in 5 Americans who have filed for unemployment since mid-March are all indicative of the future challenges facing HR.

Recruiters are working with fewer available positions, plus more of those jobs are being redefined and redesignated as remote. Those two realities, in tandem, create a job market that’s become more challenging to navigate for both job seekers and recruiters. Companies trying to move through this shift while asking questions about the future of HR will soon realize that adjusting to these changes enables them to better engage and secure the best talent.

Address the Challenges Facing HR Management

The new HR normal is going to take some getting used to, as recruiters and talent acquisition professionals begin to target virtual and remote talent pools. To keep pace with a talented and global candidate market, these three strategies need to be kept in mind when confronting the future challenges facing HR:

Put your goals out there

With the question of “What is the future of HR?” changing by the day, companies need to adjust by putting a strategy in place that keeps up with that outlook.

Determine the “why” behind your recruiting strategy, and then give your team members the resources and freedom they need to bring it to fruition. Be thorough about every step of your plan and tie it back to the overall goal of hiring a good fit for the role and the company as a whole.

Adjust your onboarding approach

The way you recruit and hire talent is changing, and so is the way that talent is integrated into new jobs. The future of employee onboarding is becoming decidedly more digital while still maintaining and amplifying standard portions of the process.

From virtual office tours to user-friendly collaborative tools, technology and the future of work can humanize the training and integration process for new talent despite it becoming increasingly contactless. Recruiters who embrace these employee recruitment tools and applications expedite onboarding and set new hires up to get into a groove faster while showing more ROI.

Build a sustainable tech stack

Just as onboarding is progressing, the future of recruiting and hiring technology should be able to grow and shrink along with your talent acquisition needs. This collection of technology should be complementary and optimize end-to-end HR functions.

Your stack should be built to fix the issues facing HR and contain solutions from trustworthy vendors whose products have values and goals that align with your own. Once you put this technology into place, measure the success of your hiring and onboarding processes to determine whether you’re finding the right kind of talent and coaching them up as needed.

As the nature of recruitment and employment changes, the responsibilities of an HR department will evolve. Be flexible in developing a strategy that stands up to the challenges and opportunities affecting the future of HR management, and you’ll be equipped to deal with anything that comes your way.

The post 3 Ways to Prepare for Changing Hiring Landscape appeared first on Leoforce.

This is why investing in employees is still critically important to organizations of all sizes. The benefits of employee engagement are plentiful, especially as the coronavirus pandemic foreshadows an increasing number of companies relying more on remote work than in-office operations.

An estimated 56% of American workers have jobs that can at least partially be performed away from traditional office spaces. The future of remote work will be prosperous due to the availability of virtual and online collaboration tools designed to streamline communication and increase productivity.

Those shiny and new toys represent just one manner of investing in employees. As companies find more ways to invest in their people, they will continue to discover the benefits of employee engagement.

The Value of Investing in Employees

Pouring resources into employees tends to simplify work routines and maximize productivity. More than that, however, it provides relief and aid that employees welcome — especially in a world completely altered by COVID-19.

During times of uncertainty, many businesses make economic ends meet by ignoring essentials such as learning and development. When those considerations are left on the cutting room floor, the present and future challenges facing HR grow because team members inevitably feel personally and professionally unsupported.

Left untreated, personal struggles tend to morph into professional problems. A Mind Share Partners survey found that 61% of respondents say their mental health can bleed into their productivity; this proves that companies need to find a way to invest the full weight of their resources into employees and get their complete buy-in.

The benefits of employee engagement are apparent: Engaged employees are happy contributors whose enthusiasm is contagious and whose advocacy is invaluable. When employees feel supported, companies can achieve successful results in all scenarios.

How to Give Employees What They Need

Investing in employees should be a given for companies looking to thrive in the current and future work landscape. Depending on the caliber of resources and approaches organizations have at their disposal, that investment can take on different forms. Implement these strategies into your employee investment outlook during and after the pandemic:

1. Touch base regularly. Time means just as much to employees as their employers investing in all the hi-tech solutions they can. No matter what the future of recruiting and hiring technology holds, you should always make regular time to check in with your team.

Put time on the calendars of your team members each week, every two weeks, or every month to see where their heads are. With the future of remote work looking brighter, it’s even more critical to ensure that people who might be disconnected physically are still able to get the attention and support they need to perform at a high level.

2. Integrate online collaboration tools. Whether staff members are spread throughout the world or separated for only a day or two, the lines of communication can’t break down. Get them the tools they need to make those connections happen.

Add communication tools like Zoom and Slack to your tech stack to create a digital culture and keep your teams in constant contact. In particular, Zoom enables you to leverage the visual components to build personal connections with remote workers. It’s a small ask, but it can pay enormous dividends for employee engagement down the road.

3. Add resources to track changes in behavior. Monitoring the benefits of employee engagement must go beyond surface-level observations and metrics. Use technology to assess engagement and alter your processes.

A tool like ProHabits, for example, can connect remote employees and provide tactical and inspirational insights to distant co-workers. Track employee temperament to see the real impact of your employee investment strategy.

People are the most valuable resource any company has. Invest in them with collaboration tools and proper support — both professionally and personally — to make sure they never lose the passion that brought them to your organization in the first place.

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That said, time to hire doesn’t always align with another important metric: quality of hire. Take, for example, what happens when recruiters work with third-party staffing vendors to fill openings. These large staffing agencies look for quick placements that illustrate short-term ROI to the companies that hire them.

That speed is great, but the goal for any company is to onboard the right candidate — not just the most convenient one. For that reason, recruiters weighing factors to consider when recruiting employees should view quality of hire as the unquestioned top priority.

How to measure quality of hire

Make no mistake. Embracing quality-of-hire metrics isn’t easy, and it doesn’t mean time is suddenly no longer a factor. While this change might require you to rethink your recruitment process, it’s worthwhile as long as you find the best candidates.

Whether recruiters conduct searches themselves or outsource work to vendors, finding quality hires boils down to answering three questions:

1. Can they do the job that’s advertised?

It can be easy to get lost in the weeds with some candidates, but every recruiter should weigh this as one of the top quality-of-hire metrics. If candidates seem capable of meeting — and exceeding — the needs of positions, keep them in the pool.

You should also consider building a success profile with an ideal candidate for each position in your company. These attributes then serve as guiding factors to consider when recruiting employees, and your team can instantly review those attributes to determine whether you’re measuring quality of hire effectively.

2. Did they nail the interview?

 An interview is the first chapter of a candidate’s book. It’s your first impression of them, and their best chance to sell themselves. As such, it should factor heavily into your quality-of-hire metrics.

Interviewees should hit a few marks: They should be engaging enough that you think they’ll gel with their hypothetical team; they should be experienced and informed enough that you think they can handle the role; and they should leave you — the recruiter — excited and ready to sell them to the higher-ups.

3. Can they grow in this role?

Hire quality is as much about the future as it is about the present. A quality-of-hire metric that can’t be overlooked is a candidate’s ability to realize his or her potential to grow in the role — and with the company.

This question requires you to forecast a hire’s trajectory and potential skills, which can be incredibly difficult. But if a candidate has a stellar resume and flashes certain innate qualities during the recruiting process, consider it a good sign for growth.

The importance of selecting the right employee quickly and efficiently isn’t lost in recruiting teams. Linking success to straightforward quality-of-hire metrics gives you and your team a guide to bringing the best, most qualified candidates into your professional family.

Resources:

• https://www.glassdoor.com/employers/blog/calculate-cost-per-hire/

The post How to determine the quality of a potential hire appeared first on Leoforce.

In the past, data has dictated business practices to a certain extent. But the reliance some organizations have on data has kicked into high gear in the past few years. According to research by the Corporate Research Forum, 69% of companies that employ 10,000 or more people use dedicated data analytics teams. These teams support any number of departments, including talent acquisition.

The sheer amount of information HR departments collect during one recruitment period makes data a useful and invaluable asset. Large datasets that contain general and niche candidate information allow HR professionals to target and tailor their approaches, engagement, and outreach efforts while improving their internal decision-making.

The larger and more comprehensive a dataset is, the more likely it is to provide a full spectrum of the options and approaches at a department’s disposal. With the litany of important choices that HR departments must make, a commitment to data positions these teams to make decisions that are in the best interest of the organization as a whole. The more diverse the dataset you have, the more diverse your decision-making will be.

Data is the foundation of recruiting

Data analytics can factor heavily into how your organization identifies recruiting software that best fits its needs. Look at reviews, statistics, and results on prospective solutions. Exasery CEO Wim de Smet forecasts that technology will “analyze work production instead of work time,” leading to “more result-driven performance analysis” in HR as well as more important results.

Here are a few examples of the role data analytics can play in realizing an recruiting department’s long-term goals:

Making the right hire from the start. 

CareerBuilder estimates that a bad hire can cost companies $7,000 to $10,000 for an entry-level or mid-level role and closer to $40,000 for a manager. With as tricky (and expensive) as hiring is, data analytics can be a useful resource to help mitigate any inherent risk.

Using data in recruiting allows organizations to evaluate everything a candidate brings to the table. Examples of qualitative data include determining how well someone might fit into a given role and how long he or she is likely to stay with the company. Recruiters can use these data points to ensure they bring on someone who will excel in the role and contribute to the company’s long-term growth.

Making more efficient decisions. 

HR folks spend a lot of time recruiting and interviewing the most suitable candidates, which is costly. When equipped with the right information, however, companies can more effectively sift through lists of applicants and only interview top candidates that are right for the role.

With proper data analytics, recruiters can eliminate guesswork and land the right hires quicker and with more certainty. They can then devote more time to candidate engagement.

Making successful hiring patterns a habit. 

Data’s real value comes when it helps decision makers settle on better choices. When it becomes routine to make these “right” decisions, companies will bring on more useful people with long-term potential and derive greater value from their data.

But data alone can’t make those processes repeatable. While data analytics steers companies toward those decisions, artificial intelligence and machine learning log the intricacies of those picks and save the nuances for later use. Wells Fargo, for example, practices data-driven recruitment by applying predictive methods to verifiable data such as areas of expertise, job history, and tenure.

The application of big data in HR functions is rife with possibilities for optimizing hiring, onboarding, training, promotions, and retention.

Data analytics in a nutshell

With all the talk about data analytics, it’s crucial to understand what it means. In short, it involves taking a slew of raw data points and drawing conclusions from them. For example, data analytics in HR helps recruiters with sourcing and mining information on potential candidates.

The information itself can be granular, but data can be analyzed for different functions: Do you want to Learn More about a past initiative? Do you want to predict how a future initiative will go? Both are possible. Data analytics typically falls into four categories, all of which can be used across various business functions:

Descriptive

This analysis makes sense of large amounts of data, and it’s the most frequently used function. It helps humans identify and understand patterns. Using descriptive data, departments break down large datasets, develop key performance indicators, and summarize their findings for stakeholders. This form of analytics necessitates collecting relevant data, processing that data, and then analyzing and illustrating the information. HR might use descriptive analytics to determine turnover rates, for instance.

Diagnostic

This analysis helps humans answer questions about why things happen. The performance indicators are researched in greater depth before a conclusion is reached. That research process includes identifying anomalies and attempting to find trends and relationships within those anomalies. For example, HR might use diagnostic analysis to find out why people are choosing to leave the company or why there is low engagement on job postings.

Predictive

This method attempts to forecast what might or will happen in the future based on past occurrences. For example, healthcare companies might use predictive analytics to predict someone’s future health based on genetic and lifestyle factors. Predictive analysis leverages machine learning, decision trees, neural networks, regression analysis, and multiple other approaches. Recruiters might use predictive analysis to guess how long candidates might stay in a given position.

Prescriptive

Here, data crunching helps us determine what should happen. Machines will sort through inputted data to find the easiest, cheapest, or otherwise most valuable options. Using predictive points, analysts can give advice on which decisions serve an organization’s best interests. If HR uses predictive analysis to determine whether someone is at risk for leaving the company, for example, prescriptive analysis could suggest which training regimen might engage that individual further.

When considering what data driven recruiting means for HR, these four pillars can make a significant difference. Each category plays a role in the use of recruiting analytics — especially when it comes to assessing and projecting the trajectory and qualifications of candidates.

The types of data that support HR functions

At this point, we know there are several methods of using data analysis to solve business and HR problems. Just as there are multiple ways to use data analytics, there are numerous types of data that support HR practices. Suggested resource on HR practices: How to build HR flexibility and resilience post-COVID. Here are three data types used in the HR industry:

• HR analytics is a blanket term that covers such areas as payroll, salary history, resume information, and job growth. The information itself is vital to HR departments that have to track and monitor employee information for compliance and bookkeeping purposes. The data helps indicate what resources — if any — a department needs to be effective.
• People analytics, also known as talent analytics, is the sweet spot for recruiters. This information includes a candidate’s resume, time spent with other companies, development in previous roles, education, online presence, and any personal branding specifics. In short, people analytics is the type of HR data that puts candidates on recruiters’ radars and indicates how well they’ll fit within a company.
• Workforce analytics is the type of HR data collected to determine how effective an employee or group has been since being hired. Employee experience, for example, is a vital workplace analytic metric that can shed light on retention and an employer’s ability to foster a productive and supportive work environment. This type of HR data also helps assess how people thrive in certain positions or within an organization, offering insights on how to hire in the future, what kind of tools are needed, and how best to support employees.

In its own way, each metric addresses one or many of the HR challenges that companies face. Each piece of information can pinpoint gaps in hiring strategies and catalyze more efficient and logical ways of operating.

How data supports decision-making in recruiting

Data-driven decisions require a data analytics strategy that illustrates what information is needed and how success or failure will be measured. To apply that approach to a recruiting team’s decision-making process, an organization might need to craft the profile of an ideal hire. That profile would include specifics about the initial outreach, conversations, successful interview techniques, on-the-job successes, and relevant sources to find similar candidates.

All of these are easy-to-verify pieces of information that are essential to hiring top talent every time. Here are a few ways recruiting leaders can improve their data-driven decision-making as it relates to recruiting and hiring:

Research promising candidates

If someone seems like an attractive candidate on paper, look for particulars that confirm (or deny) that hunch. This could be time spent with a company, LinkedIn reviews, or other resources.

JetBlue Airways previously listed “niceness” as the most crucial trait its flight attendants should possess. After partnering with the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business on a consumer data survey, JetBlue found that customers valued helpfulness above other attributes. To its credit, the company took that information and incorporated it into its next round of hiring. HR analytics can narrow searches and fuel data-driven decision-making.

Look into hiring trends

Look at how similar candidates or similar job searches have fared and then apply those findings to your current crop of candidates. Big data decision-making is built on spotting successful patterns to replicate and unsuccessful ones to avoid. Most AI tools will do this for you.

Workforce analytics can help companies improve productivity by pinpointing habits of effective employees and applying those tendencies to team members or areas of the company that need bolstering. Take insightful information into your data-based decision-making to pick up trends and solidify your strategy.

Suggested resource on candidate pipeline strategy: Recruiting Strategies to attract a more diverse candidate pipeline

Show recruiters successful techniques

Pull data regarding successful hires and use them as examples for recruiters to follow. Do a deep dive into numbers to determine which candidates look for which jobs, encouraging recruiters to look for that information when making data-informed decisions.

Using data to drive organizational decisions can be a massive undertaking without a solid foundation. Once the hiring strategy is locked in, find a way to make the transition seamless so that data-backed decision-making operates as intended.

Implementing data into recruiting practices

HR professionals must build effective HR analytics strategies that make the most of their datasets. Start by writing down what your business needs, what it does well, and every facet of what your recruiting team is currently doing. Examine parts of the process that data has the most insights on, and apply your findings there.

Don’t get too complicated too fast, though. Trust us when we say data will be the most helpful when it fits naturally into your everyday processes. It should meet you where you are and work for you instead of the other way around. Here are four critical steps to implementing a data-driven HR strategy:

1. Focus on goals rather than technology. Following through and staying committed to your recruiting data strategy should hinge on your vision — not a technological solution. Polish and perfect your vision before data, technology, or anything else is brought into the fold to ensure you have a solid foundation.
2. Decide what to track, monitor, and measure. There’s a difference between metrics and analytics. Metrics are measures of operational success and efficiency — analytics are used to hone in on decisions. Using data in HR requires differentiating between the two, picking a direction, and basing your data collection and decision-making on that choice.
3. Pick the right data for your team. Do you need recruiting analytics? People analytics? Workplace analytics? All of them? Find out before putting anything into motion. Maybe your needs focus on employee fit, benefits, or professional development. Data has every possibility covered and can better inform your vision and decision-making.
4. Understand your strengths and weaknesses. Build an HR data strategy to get a sense of both aspects. Thankfully, you can use HR data to Learn More about the pluses and minuses of your recruiting strategy. Most recruiting is wide-ranging and crosses multiple channels. If your data says that approach works for you, great. If it appears something else is needed, use data to chart your next move.

Data alone isn’t a fix — and getting your people on board with using it can be a challenge. At the end of the day, you should base your data implementation on your overall vision and values while finding natural ways to plug in data-driven strategies.

Common challenges recruiting faces when using data

As you implement data into your HR processes, you will likely face some common sticking points. Data can indeed help solve HR challenges and solutions, but it can be difficult for human beings to change mindsets, adapt to new technology, and embrace new systems. There are a few challenges you can expect to overcome as you incorporate more data into your processes:

1. Lack of innovation

Not much has changed in the past 20 years for HR departments. The goal of building and fostering a great team and environment remains the same, but so have ways HR professionals have gone about achieving those goals. New approaches can be challenging to come up with and even harder to gain buy-in for, so it’s no surprise HR departments stick to what has worked.

Even if the technology is integrated into an established process, that won’t make a difference if the core steps are still in place. Workforce analytics is a type of HR data that can speak to this gap.

2. Lack of urgency

Most organizations only use data that aligns with their processes. In the case of HR, a department might rely on the same three vetting prerequisites while ignoring five others that could be useful.

This indicates a lack of urgency and an absence of ambition to find the best candidates. HR analytics exposes recruiters to volumes of information that can lead to an improved vetting process. Workforce analytics and people analytics, for example, can each unearth new and unique data related to effectiveness and employee satisfaction — both of which are essential for effective HR work.

3. Lack of strategy

For some people, it’s more appealing to think about shiny objects than to understand what they actually do. In the case of using data in HR, that means people might not know what types of data support HR practices or how to effectively leverage them.

Workplace, people, and HR analytics all shine a light on strategy and force HR departments to take a long look at what data they have and how it can be used to make recruiting more effective. Strategy will help you know what you can achieve in the present to make the most of the future.

4. Lack of tracking

If successes and failures aren’t properly tracked, routines can’t be optimized. Tracking takes time to review and is tedious by nature, but a failure to do so puts any initiative behind schedule.

HR analytics represents logistical and compliance-focused figures that tell recruiters whether their approaches are in line with established oversight and industry competitors. Incorporating them into tracking is an excellent way to ensure operations are going as they should.

The future of data in talent acquisition

Data will only grow more accessible and essential to the future of talent acquisition management. As these datasets grow and become more common, AI and other resources will be trusted to analyze and turn these findings into useful HR data strategies.

HR and data are just scratching the surface of their partnership. As recruiting teams look to sharpen their approaches, here are three ways they can use data in their recruiting capabilities of the future:

1. Track your success

Future recruiting practices should come from successes (or lack thereof). Look at your recruiting data strategy and determine what works, what doesn’t, and what’s contributing to your bigger goals. Stay on top of new findings, compare them to old patterns, and see how each contributed to the current state of your recruiting strategy.

2. Keep an ear to the ground

Data is only helpful when it’s integrated into real-life scenarios. Gather that data by surveying candidates and asking employees what they need. You can then take those findings and apply them to your recruiting strategy.

Look at candidate feedback in comparison to your hiring metrics to find correlations between the two. HR big data use is most effective when you’ve established those patterns and applied them to future HR practices.

3. Stop at the water cooler

A recruiting data strategy is helpful in acquiring talent, but you can also leverage it to learn how your company can be of better service to employees. Look for the data and analytics that will give a glimpse of what they need to be more valuable to the company.

For instance, IBM analyzed sentiments gathered from its internal social network to build a new review system. The responses varied, though most team members expressed dissatisfaction with being graded on a curve. The company heard the feedback and responded accordingly. This information can give you a glimpse into the present while building toward a future in which data can help enact change.

Suggested reading on talent fostering: Unlocking the Hidden Talent Pool

Data tells stories, kick-starts initiatives, and brings about change. Incorporate it into your strategy to light the way for the future of recruiting.

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For HR departments, hiring mangers, and recruiters, the greater emphasis on privacy and consent with regards to personal data means a lot more red tape for the candidate engagement process. The trick for recruiters will be navigating current data regulations while preparing for the ones still to come.

The impact of data regulations on HR and recruitment

Consent has always been necessary before a company can hold employee data. What GDPR now mandates is that consent be “specific, informed, and unambiguous,” as well as revokable. Essentially, this means the current way of doing things is likely obsolete.

GDPR isn’t the endgame of data regulation — it’s the first step toward a future that’s more protected and compliant. Here are a few GDPR HR implications that recruiters should expect to encounter going forward:

Candidate data will no longer be free.

In our current environment, data is easy to access for free. People are beginning to wake up to this fact and are putting real value on their personal information.

As GDPR broadens the definition of personal data, the value people put on their information will only become more critical. For recruiters, this likely means they will have to consider each candidate’s data an asset they must pay for before hiring managers will be able to see it.

The way HR accesses third-party data will change.

HR tech vendors currently pay to access third-party data. But now that Europe-based platforms must comply with GDPR, many of those partnerships could change or dissolve altogether.

For the most part, GDPR’s impact on HR will force vendors to take new approaches to third-party data collection. This also means that recruiters and hiring managers will need to make sure vendors have a backup plan.

There will be a new avenue for lawsuits.

GDPR HR compliance is going to be a common subject of lawsuits in the future. Whether it’s a failure to get permission before contacting a candidate or an instance of someone viewing personal data through an unsecured browser, there are plenty of ways companies can get sued for violating these laws.

HR providers already have run into trouble with data breaches, such as PageUp in 2018. As more global companies comply with GDPR, the frequency of these data breaches will only increase.

Data regulation helps make information more private and keeps people’s information safe. But that doesn’t mean it won’t create a lot of headaches for companies — especially when it comes to recruiting new employees.

That’s one reason automated, or AI-led systems, are attractive: They can handle a lot of the red tape for you, ensuring you stay compliant while making the process as easy as possible. The future of candidate engagement will be complicated, and companies should start preparing for it today.

Data privacy and compliance isn’t something to be taken lightly. So don’t. Find a vendor you can trust to handle each law and regulation, so you can focus on growing your business.

The post How data regulation affects candidate management appeared first on Leoforce.

The company recently unveiled a proposal to cultivate a more diverse and inclusive workforce by 2030. The three-point plan aims to increase the percentage of women (a target of 50%) and people of color (a target of 25%) on staff through updated hiring, retention, and education methods.

D&I initiatives are something every company should pursue, but success won’t come from good intentions alone. Recruiters need relevant and updated information to ensure they approach diversity with the proper context.

Applying diversity and inclusion data in your hiring process can help fill the gaps.

What is diversity data?

Like most modern processes, technology nurtures recruiting. Tech solutions automate and repeat what we say, what we do, and what we learn. They also alert us to patterns and deficiencies while presenting optimal, objective solutions to complex problems.

But unintentional biases plague technology. Artificial intelligence and other technologies function on algorithms and models created by human programmers. These programmers often integrate their natural biases into AI systems, which can cloud results, recommendations, and decisions. This presents an impossible barrier for recruiters who rely on tech to implement diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Suggested reading for unbias hiring: Combatting Bias in Machine Learning Algorithms: For Recruiting

Leveraging big data for HR analytics can free recruiters from those jaded algorithms by providing raw, unfiltered information that they can incorporate into hiring decisions. For recruiters wondering how to implement diversity and inclusion into the workplace, data is a great place to start.

What data does for Diversity

Diversity and inclusion data help recruiters understand patterns and conduct searches genuinely and productively.

This data is particularly useful for:

Identifying biases

Small data sample sizes tend to spark doubt in those assessing them. But expanding data sets by adding more and better information provides recruiters with a clearer picture of all available talent.

Large swaths of diversity data widen the scope of any search while putting potential biases in front of recruiters. Without substantial data pools that are both niche and general, your analytics will be narrow, skewed, and unable to align with any proposed diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Improving decision-making

Imagine a scenario in which 50% of your candidates are minorities, but less than 10% of your hires are people of color — those figures would cause most recruiters to take notice. They’d probably want to convince higher-ups that something needs to be done about how they make hiring decisions.

One such solution is adopting HR platforms that include diversity and inclusion data. These help recruiters make more informed decisions and recommendations. The more data you gather from diverse sources, the more relevant and actionable the HR data analytics will be to your hiring decisions.

Casting a wider net

Traditionally, geography limits most candidate searches. If a company can only attend 10 college job fairs, for example, they may miss out on the perfect candidate from a different university.

With a more diverse data pool, recruiters can collect several data points — covering a larger geographical area — and factor them into hiring decisions. Stephanie Lampkin, CEO and founder of Blendoor, sums it up best: “Even the most advanced AI won’t affect the results of job recruitment if the data isn’t using the full scope of the qualified talent pool.” Add variety to your selection pool to ensure you’re hiring from a complete field.

A surefire way to implement diversity and inclusion in the workplace is with a diverse set of data. Once you have that information, use it to steer your recruiting — and your company — toward a more inclusive future.

Resources

• https://www.hrdive.com/news/dell-prioritizes-women-people-of-color-in-10-year-culture-strategy/567205/
• https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/agents-for-change/why-these-companies-are-rethinking-the-use-of-ai-in-hiring

The post 3 ways to improve your diversity initiatives at the workplace with recruiting data analytics appeared first on Leoforce.

The recruiting industry itself bears some of the blame for the mystery. In sales, the value of software is assessed by the number of new opportunities created or leads converted. However, neither of these measures accurately assesses the effectiveness of a recruitment tool and the average cost per hire. More candidates coming through your doors does not always imply a good return.

It takes time to determine the true quality of new hires when using recruiting tools. When it comes to retention rates, it can take time to make a difference. With the exception of the cost per hire, it may take some time to see a real return.

Consistent and measurable results are emerging. If you’re working with AI-powered recruitment tools, you’ll likely see that change in much less time. AI recruitment tools are designed to analyze and replicate successful results. They can provide recruiters with an analysis and strategy in the future.

Suggested resource on hiring strategy: How to build HR flexibility and resilience post-COVID

The true ROI of AI recruitment tools, however, is the flexibility they provide.

Determining ROI on Recruitment Software

Aside from flexibility, modern recruitment technology offers a number of other benefits, some quantifiable and others not. Be patient, but keep the following items in mind as you develop your ultimate recruitment ROI formula:

Quality of Candidates

The quality of candidates is the most important metric associated with the ROI of recruitment tools. Of course, quality can be subjective. Depending on the role and the needs of the company, you’re looking for people with practical skills, industry knowledge, and a strong work ethic who would excel in this specific role.

Aside from that, an ideal hire will be a team player, a good communicator, self-motivated, and problem-solving savvy. Consider a rise in the number of qualified and interested candidates as a significant signal of return on investment.

Improved Diversity

There are numerous reports of AI recruiting bias. Amazon had to scrap its AI recruiting tool because it was biased toward men. AI can, for the most part, eliminate confirmation and other unconscious biases in recruiting.

AI can detect instances of bias, such as when hiring managers ask different questions to different candidates to confirm their beliefs about who should get the job. Whether AI removes bias and promotes diversity is frequently dependent on how the system is trained and how frequently its results are monitored (your vendor should be doing this consistently).

Suggested reading on DEI hiring: Blueprint to drive DEI hiring in the workplace

Data-Driven Decisions

In recruiting, intuition is long regarded as a necessary skill. It is still the case. Strong feelings about candidates can certainly pay off, but there is some luck involved in the equation. However, with AI, decisions are driven purely by data rather than intuition, giving humans a lot more to consider before making a decision.

Analytics assists in tracking, measurement, and evaluation of candidate data and hiring decisions. AI also detects potential barriers in the recruitment process. However, this can then be removed before they become major issues.

Naturally, your recruitment ROI formula is different from your competitors’. With enhanced candidate quality, a larger application pool, and superior talent decisions, you can be confident in your AI recruitment tool.

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