Data-based decision making helps recruiters thrive

Whether it is predictive analytics to assess behaviour, time-to-hire metrics or in-depth market intelligence, data can aid decision making in all areas of recruitment
Thurs, 23 April 2015 | By Sue Weekes

FROM MAY 2015'S RECRUITER MAGAZINE

Whether it is predictive analytics to assess behaviour, time-to-hire metrics or in-depth market intelligence, data can aid decision making in all areas of recruitment.

Data-based decision making isn’t a natural fit for all recruiters. To excel in their core job, they rely on soft skills, their instinct and powers of judgement. 

Like it or not, though, hard data is likely to play an increasingly important part in their lives. “In the same way that the internet killed poor recruiters over the last 10 years but allowed the best ones to thrive, then data will kill the poor recruiters in the next 10 years and allow the best ones to thrive,” says Giles Guest, director of online recruitment specialists Enhance Media. 

Meanwhile, Dan McGuire, founder of visual analytics company cube19, believes that if recruiters aren’t using data to make decisions, especially their own proprietary data, they are “wilfully” creating a competitive disadvantage for their company: “The leaders in the recruitment industry, in fact every industry, use data all day, every day to make smarter decisions in every function of their business.”

What decisions can be data-based? 

Data has a part to play in the vast majority of business decisions. It isn’t a case of switching off instinct and all human behaviours used to arrive at a conclusion but using them in tandem with hard evidence. 

Guest believes that in five to 10 years’ time, big data will take over much of the decision making in recruitment. “There are simply no downsides to using data correctly,” he says. “There can’t be. Data is truth — nothing more, nothing less — and as soon as it is treated like that much more business advantage will be gained from it.” 

McGuire says that in an ideal world, most decisions will be based on data. “That’s not to say you need to look at a report every time you want to do something, a lot of data is already in your head or known by someone on your team,” he says. “If you’re making decisions based on gut-feel alone it should be because no data exists to support those decisions, no one else has a useful view or the decision needs to be made there and then.”

Who is responsible for the data?

The simple answer is everyone. Each department will have its own system and therefore its own data. It’s down to each one to work out how it can be put to best use for their respective function but also the business as a whole. Collaboration across different departments makes the data potentially even more powerful. If responsibility is assigned to one person/department, it is important that the individual/s can be as much a business partner/s as they are a data scientist or technology specialist. 

“Organisations need people who don’t just create and analyse datasets but understand how you can use the data to influence the business and decision making, and add commercial value,” says James Ballard, director of specialist HR and IT recruiter Annapurna Recruitment. “Are they the sort of people who understand the problems/issues facing the business and can come back with a dataset that might help to bring about a business improvement?”

Incentivise data-gathering

Those organisations serious about making better use of data must put effort in the front end to ensure the data is being gathered. McGuire says that the biggest problem for most companies that want to have a proper data-driven approach is that they don’t record information properly in the first place. 

“There needs to be an incentive for recruiters to add data to their systems in an accurate and timely fashion,” he says. “One of the best ways to encourage the right behaviour is to put useful, actionable data into the hands of the people you want to record in the first place so that they directly benefit.”

Beware bad data

The computer adage ‘garbage in, garbage out’ can be applied to data-based decision making and McGuire cites bad data (data that is out-of-date, duplicated, mis-formatted, badly structured or just plain incorrect) as the chief danger to it. And it can dent the bottom line: according to Experian Data Quality, inaccurate data can lose a business as much as 12% of revenue. Systems and processes at the front end of data gathering can minimise/eliminate bad data and, while implementation of these in most organisations is likely to fall within the remit of IT, all of those involved in input need to be made aware of its dangers.

Equip and train people 

Ensure individuals have the necessary tools to extract and exploit data. As Ballard points out, how data is visualised is a major weak spot in many organisations and advises looking at third party products that can help to make it more accessible. 

A range of business intelligence tools and real-time dashboards make the process of extracting and analysing data far more accessible — so do your research. Ballard explains that at Annapurna, the training and development manager invests a lot of time into helping individuals become masters of their system and able to extrapolate reports and information. 

“Recruiters tend to be relationship builders and their natural skillset isn’t based around systems so they need support,” he says. “In future every professional will have more expectation of the need to be more system and data savvy.”

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