here's what data obsessed TA teams are tracking.

The movie Moneyball highlighted the true story of Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane who used rigorous player statistics to predict future performance and assemble a winning team. Interestingly, organisations that have sterling reputations as powerhouses of talent (and business performance as well), have shown the same path and passion to top-notch talent acquisition.

They follow a data-driven approach to recruitment.

A powerful approach – and a sound basis

Any recruitment system is a huge repository of data that is waiting to be mined for hitting the talent jackpot. Combine this with a powerful data- and predictive analytics-driven approach (as against the unsupported intuitive and past practice-based approach), and we have a true winner.

A data driven approach is a sound basis to decipher the magic code in the following critical aspects of talent acquisition:

• The most effective selection criteria for the best candidates in specific job requirements – this boosts screening accuracy, leading to higher efficiencies and reduced costs
• ‘Performance differentials’ of job positions – so that the right investment in time, effort and costs are made in the positions that have the potential to yield the highest revenues
• The right ‘job-boss-company’ fit - the use of correct candidate segmentation and predictive analytics enable the right fit candidate to have the right employee experience and reach their peak productivity levels faster
• Recruitment efficiency through accurate forecasting capability, skill mapping, ‘right-time’ communication and efficient scheduling
• Measurement of true employer brand strength and the impact of recruitment marketing materials
• ‘Quality-cost’ optimisation of talent acquisition

A seamless connection – of data and intelligence

Data-driven recruitment seamlessly connects all aspects of employee data through the recruitment life cycle to an organisation’s workforce planning. This lends business intelligence to the talent acquisition process to provide the following benefits:

• Enhanced quality of hire - through a deep dive into past performance recruiters can design a successful present and future
• Accurate prediction of hiring time estimates – enables business stakeholders to plan for better revenues
• Leveraging of the most effective channels for different recruitment drives
• Improved candidate experience – better workforce intelligence results in more accurate mapping and consequently, enhanced candidate engagement

A dependable enabler – for a pipeline of top-tier talent

Creating the most appropriate pool of true talent may be effectively achieved with a data-driven recruitment strategy that enables the right data aggregation and candidate segmentation by answering the following questions:

• Where was the company’s best employees sourced from?
• What are the current and emerging job seekers’ trends?
• Which are the skill communities that map best to the organisation values and culture?
• How effective is the organisation’s job board effectiveness?
• Which marketing strategies are the most effective for building specific pipelines?

A strategic guide – for continuous efficiency improvements

Data-driven talent acquisition provides a real-time platform to enhance the efficiency of the recruitment process. Recruiters can, at any time, perform quick analyses and extract insights to speed up the fulfillment process at reduced costs. Diagnostic reports across the recruitment cycle can identify:

• Areas of strengths and weak links
• Individual recruiter performance
• Potential best practices as well as redundant steps

Such a meaningful leveraging of data gives the recruitment team the ability to be a bridge between the business objectives of their clients and the career goals of the talent they discover every day. It also gives them the confidence to showcase their contributions to the organisation’s outcomes and success. Besides earning the right recognition, it enables the HR function to have a more credible presence in the organization’s strategic decision-making process.

As the war for talent intensifies, and as data-driven recruitment dominates talent acquisition, the recruitment team needs to realise and leverage the biggest benefit it has presented them. Data and analytics have freed up the recruiting professional’s bandwidth for purposeful strategising and elevating recruitment to higher levels of relationship-, community- and network-centric engagements. With the depth of content that data enables, they can become better ambassadors of their organisations and engaging curators of the right messages.