Unlock hiring success through data-driven insights, optimized outreach, and competitive awareness.
Talent acquisition leaders are experts at moving fast when business demands speed. Still, slower times offer a moment for improvement if recruiters know where to look and what to measure, says Shannon Pritchett of HireEZ.
Measurement is the key to improving hiring quality when business is good; talent acquisition practices are often played fast and loose. Hiring speed becomes everything, usually at the cost of hiring quality or efficiency. But when things cool off (as they always do), the ability to move fast isn’t up to recruiters and hiring teams; it’s up to the market. Suddenly, what companies thought was working to draw in talent before isn’t holding up. And a lack of understanding as to what was truly moving the needle is holding employers back.
In other words, when business is slow, suddenly, every move matters, and hiring teams can’t afford to be unsure about which aspects of their recruitment strategy are helping or hurting. This is where proper measurement separates the winners from the losers. The challenge for recruiters? To get comfortable with looking at data.
It sounds simple, but I see too many hiring teams shrug off measurement activities because it can seem like a lot of work. In truth, doing the work upfront liberates recruiters from the grind and all of the bad habits and bad candidate experiences the grind mindset enables.
Marketing teams know how critical measurement is to creating efficiencies and driving better experiences for prospects and customers. There’s an entire industry underpinned by marketing measurement to generate great customers better; it works the same for recruiting to generate great talent.
Fortunately, unlike the norm in marketing, recruiters don’t need layers of technology to capture valuable insights from data. There is plenty of data at their fingertips. And when it comes to figuring out which data points to look at? The good news is that every data source can be a viable source of valuable insight and immediately affect success.
Once you start measuring, you’ll understand more clearly who your target should be and how to appeal to them. All you have to do is start. Because many recruiters don’t know where to begin, I wanted to share a few examples.
See More: Measuring Performance Using a Native CRM Tool
Surprisingly, many recruiters fail to optimize their outreach based on performance metrics. If there’s only one thing you measure, the quality of your candidate outreach should be it. If you don’t know how, here are some do’s and don’ts:
See More: Are You Tracking These Employee Performance Metrics
Qualitative measurement can be a useful way to keep tabs on the competition and inform your strategy. Have you ever wondered how your company’s candidate experience differs from your competitors?
Try role-playing as a job candidate at both your company and the competition. Look at their careers page, job descriptions, and the makeup and experience of their hiring team. How do they describe themselves and what they are looking for? Do they share salary ranges or detailed benefits packages in job descriptions? Do they use inclusive language or represent a diverse team? What about the hiring process do they reveal upfront?
Then, go through the application process. Is it simple and easy, or frustrating? How accessible is it on different devices? Is there a line of communication opened up between you and the employer, or does it feel closed off? How could the experience be made better?
Going through this exercise infrequently will give you valuable qualitative data on your competition that can be used to improve the experience you provide job candidates.
In addition, some tools can be used to monitor other aspects of the competition, such as recruiting platforms that can provide insights into company talent diversity or the length of time job postings typically stay open.
The best recruiters are interested in talking to fewer, higher-quality candidates versus marathoning through the masses. But it’s hard to know what signals can identify candidates that make the best fit for your organization. Fortunately, there are ways to measure it.
In one of my favorite examples, Brendan Browne, VP of Global Talent Acquisition at LinkedIn, devised a framework that scores candidates based on “quality” and “affinity.” In the framework, quality was based on ideal qualifications, and affinity was based on three criteria: Does the candidate follow the company, share relevant content on their social media profile, and have a first-degree connection with someone at the company?
When measuring candidates against these criteria, 35% ranked highly for quality and affinity. They then tested the performance from this select group against the rest of the candidate pool. (One interesting fact: 100% of the select group had a first-degree connection at the company.)
When measuring response rates for candidates within this group, the recruiting team measured a 57% increase for initial outreach compared to their benchmark. The select group also got through their interview process faster and more successfully than any other candidate persona had before.
The more you can measure, the more insight you can capture about your strategies’ effectiveness, the perception your talent has of your company, how the competition is winning (or losing), and understanding what will appeal to the right job candidates.
All you have to do is make measurement a habit.
Have you considered data-driven recruitment for improved quality, efficiency, and competitive edge? Let us know on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from you!
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Head of Community, hireEZ