5 Ways Personal Data Can Help You in Talent Acquisition

Data-driven strategies for talent acquisition can be beneficial in many ways. Whenever you’re in need of recruitment, using data can help find and acquire the best candidates for the business.

It comes as no surprise that many of individuals have found themselves out of work due to the pandemic. Whilst that might be useful for your business when hiring, it does mean you’re likely to have a lot more volume to sift through.

Having access to data can make sure you’re posting up the right type of job listing, distributing it onto the right platforms and picking out the right talent.

In this guide, you’ll get a better understanding of how data can be beneficial to talent acquisition. It’s helpful to know how you can incorporate this use of data into any future hires so that you can continue to hire only the best for your business.

Why talent acquisition is important to get right

Talent acquisition helps you look beyond the candidate’s credentials and to find the potential and possibilities for the future. Whilst most can be trained for a role, it’s all about finding the right person for your company. It can make a big difference to the success of your business in the long term.

Getting talent acquisition right the first time is going to save time and money, as well as helping to stay competitive amongst all those you’re up against. If you’ve not used data for your recruitment drives thus far, then you could be limiting your business’ potential by settling for less.

As it’s been mentioned already, the pandemic has resulted in job loss across many industries. However, according to iCIMIS, more than 90% of employers report they’re hiring for new roles in 2021. With that in mind, you may find yourself competing with other businesses over the top talent available.

Five benefits of using personal data for talent acquisition

The recruitment process can provide a wealth of data, that if mined successfully, can help in many ways when acquiring talent for your business. Below are five examples of how personal data can benefit your talent acquisition.

1. Increases quality of hire

It’s essential for the business, not just in the short-term but for the long-term too, that you have picked out the very best quality of hire. When you track any new hires for your business, you can start to develop an insight into what makes a good candidate and what makes a bad one.

According to a recent study, 87% of human resources leaders have made employee retention one of their number one priorities for the next few years. Employee retention rates are important to lower because it can end up saving a lot of resources and money when you’re not going through a recruitment process every few months.

The type of data metrics that you could look at when it comes to assessing the quality of hire could be as follows:

• The number of qualified applicants per role. This will indicate whether your talent acquisition practices are effective in providing the right employees.
• Resignations and terminations of employees who’ve been employed a short time.
• Top talent characteristics, i.e. what factors make up a quality hire.

Increasing the quality of hire through the use of this data will hopefully reduce the number of employees that end up leaving.

2. Improves experience for the candidate

Personal data on previous candidate experience can help improve it and how your brand is seen on the outside. It’s worth knowing what this data is and examples of personal data that you need in order to influence the experience that the candidate has.

Delivering an efficient recruitment process is going to speak volumes to all those who apply for a job through your company. If you have a positive reputation for your recruitment methods, then you’ll naturally attract more candidates as a result.

Candidate feedback can be useful to collect as this can give you an indication of what needs improving. From the time taken since initial contact to the number of interview stages, it’s all relevant to measure the effectiveness of the recruitment process.

Not enough employers spend enough time on improving the candidate experience and it’s something that can influence the rate of success when interviewing. The data you track from here is going to show what’s increasing or decreasing the likelihood of candidates withdrawing their applications.

3. Provides more diversity within the recruitment process

The subject of diversity within the workplace is something that’s becoming increasingly important. The employment rate for ethnic minorities in the UK is only 62.8% compared to employment rates for white workers at 75.6%. There’s a clear gap between the two and more people are starting to notice.

If you’re not found to be hiring enough diverse employees within the business, then it’s going to clearly show. It’s something that may end up affecting your brand image in a negative manner, especially when information about the team is readily available to the public.

Traditionally some recruitment methods make it difficult to see whether or not you’ve hit a diverse market. However, this is where data and analytics can help you monitor whose applying to your roles and what ethnic minorities are moving further down the recruitment funnel.

The data metrics to track are demographics on gender, ethnicity and even veteran status. As a result, you’re going to be able to make a conscious effort to bring more diversity into your company. It also proves as evidence that you’re seeing enough diverse candidates, should complaints be made.

4. Helps test the candidate’s skills in real-time

It’s important to incorporate pre-employment skills testing when it comes to figuring out whether or not they’re the right match for the business. The type of pre-employment screening method can help understand the candidate’s personality, whilst also assessing their skills.

With the right data, it can help you create an array of tests that challenge the candidates in real-time.

There are lots of skills testing examples that are worth setting up when it comes to acquiring talent. Here are a few suggestions to get you started.

Work sample test

These are a great way to closely resemble the typical tasks and responsibilities that the employee would carry out in the role.

This might be a situational judgement test, whereby the candidate delivers their approach to a particular scenario. It could also be case study presentations as these can be helpful to assess the candidate’s ability to problem-solve.

This type of test can be good to mimic how they would perform in the role that’s expected of them.

Hard skills assessment

A hard skills assessment can help access the candidate’s skill in a specific area. This might be typing, to mathematics or software knowledge. It can check that they have the proficiency to carry out the relevant activities needed within the role.

This is another critical assessment that will determine if they’ve got the right skills or experience for the role.

Personality test

Personality tests are a useful part of assessing a candidate, even if it’s not a particular tick against the job role itself. You want to have a new hire who is going to fit the dynamic of the workplace and most importantly, fit in with everyone else.

Saying that though, you may need more outgoing and extroverted individuals for your sales role or customer service department. A personality test can determine whether or not they have what you’re after.

5. Sets realistic expectations for stakeholders

Given what data is available, it can help you set realistic expectations for your stakeholders. It’s important to determine goals and to know what you want from the employee roles you’re recruiting.

For example, you may be looking for roles that are highly complex in their skills and experience requirements. From the data you have, there may not be enough applicants out there to fulfil all the roles needed. With that being said, you have the evidence through the data to adjust the goals of the stakeholders.

It’s important to remain realistic with what you’re after, otherwise, you could find yourself spending more time and money on recruitment.

You may need to extend your search range when it comes to finding people with the requirements you need or consider what may be stopping candidates from applying. Sometimes it might be a case of the salary being too low or a lack of clarity on some of the job’s expectations.

Use personal data to help acquire the best talent for your business

Data is effective in many industries and businesses. It provides extra insight that can help positively influence your decision-making. For recruitment, data can help influence the success of each hire. Hopefully, the hires you make for your business by using data are likely to be the best match for the role and a long-term member of staff for the business.