Data is becoming increasingly important to drive predictability in the recruitment process

One size does not fit all and a size that fits well today may need to be altered at a later date. It needs meticulous planning

Data is becoming increasingly important to drive predictability in the recruitment process

Research quotes that every wrong hire costs the company three times as much as the actual cost of hiring him/her. Globally, organizations are experimenting with talent acquisition in terms of technology, demand, social media and the overall outlook on the process. But all of this is futile without getting a solid handle on numbers and data.

There isn’t a better function in the HR domain where you can have fun with numbers. Attempts to measure the metrics will make it an objective process, thereby creating better predictability for both outcome and output. I would attempt to illustrate this with three myths that all of us experience in recruitment.

Recruitment is an Art

Recruitment is a “data-based decision making process”. A systematic recruitment technique rests on a sumptuous pool of candidate profiles. That, having said, is the only ARTY side of recruitment; the rest is all science – the science of demand-supply. The term art signifies the diligence of the recruiter in drawing inferences out of data history, which is a 70 per cent objective, service-level driven, well-governed and monitored process.

Talent is Just in Time

Lack of predictability has hampered recruitments. Imagine the joy of being able to forecast demand with 80 per cent accuracy in time and skill-sets. Talent requirement of the company is all about meticulous planning. One size doesn’t fit all and a size that fits well today may need to be altered at a later date.

 There is no Right Metric

Most of the recruitment metrics are limited purely to record management and hindsight. Recruitment metrics will need to be decided on three main dimensions:

 Hindsight – The “What”: Analyze what is happening. Understand the efficiency of the current systems and architecture. Cycle time, fulfillment ratios are some of the metrics that will give you hindsight.

Insight – The “Why”: Investigate the exact or the probable reasons of the occurrence of an event. CV adequacy ratios, source vs channel performance, will give you the insights for better decision-making.

Foresight – The “How”: The foresight aspect will take into account the “how” factor, as to how things will shape up in future. Probability ratios of fulfillment, impact on sales revenue numbers, and employee productivity in 12 months will be some of outputs you can expect when you start looking at foresight.

Ultimately, it’s not what you implement, but how you implement with a consistent approach, that would make the change for you. In conclusion, I would say in God we Trust, everyone else brings data.