Talent acquisition is an incredibly important part of any business, and the top businesses know it - according to a report by the Harvard Business Review, 71% of CEOs see human capital as the most significant factor for sustainable economic value. On top of that, 43% saw investing in their workers as a major priority. And as the quality of the people in your organisation is so important, many businesses have turned to data analytics to make sure they get their hires right.

As of 2018, 50% of hiring professionals use big data as part of their talent acquisition strategy, and that number will likely only have increased in the years since. Because of this, it isn't enough to just use data analytics, you need to have a stronger focus on and understanding of them to stay ahead of your competitors.

What is Talent Acquisition Analytics

Put simply, talent acquisition analytics is about using data to make hiring decisions. Recruiters have always used some data in their decision making, talent aptitude tests and educational qualifications have always played a role, but there is more data than ever for those who want to use it to go the extra mile. Hirers can now analyse their existing workforce and attempt to pinpoint what makes employees successful in order to identify top talent, and the type of candidates generally that they should be focused on making the company appealing for.

Reducing Bias

Unconscious bias, also known as implicit bias, is a human tendency to make decisions about people based on stereotypes and snap judgements which may not be well informed. In the workplace, it can mean that applicants who are of a marginalised background may not get as fair a chance during the hiring process as applicants who are most similar to the recruiters.

Any business should be looking to cut down on unconscious bias during the hiring process, not least as it can mean missing out on some of the best candidates! Using more data based on statistical profiles and aptitude tests is a great way to stop high-quality candidates from being unfairly overlooked before they get to the final stages of the hiring process, and can help you stay a step ahead of your competitors.

Identifying areas for improvement

When you track the results that your current hiring process is achieving in a data heavy fashion, you have more opportunities to see where and how it is falling short. The more data you are able to gather at each stage of the talent acquisition journey, from candidates seeing your business for the first time to successful candidates being hired, the more insight you'll gain into whether your strategy is working.

For example, if your current adverts are not enticing employees enough, you can alter them to highlight the benefits of your business more, or even reconsider some of the benefits that the job includes.

Looking beyond CVs

Most businesses now use ATS - or Applicant Tracking Systems - to filter through CVs and reduce the volume that human readers have to look out, with the effect that 75% of resumes are rejected at this stage. But to look past scanning CVs for key words relating to the position, data analytics is hugely important.

Once your business has used past hiring data to build a statistical profile of successful employees, predictive analytics and semantic analysis can help take a deeper look at CVs, comparing them piece by piece to the job description and then producing an early ranking of candidates. This can help speed your hiring process up hugely by focusing on the top candidates at an earlier stage, and cutting down your interview list. Not only can this speed up your hiring rate, it can also increase your hit rate.

Staying in touch with the labour market

Maintaining a strong focus on data isn't just limited to making full use of the data your business produces, it includes using data to stay clued up on what the labour market looks like, and using that knowledge to make alterations to your hiring strategy. For example, research has recently shown that culture and employer branding are becoming more important to candidates - they want to work somewhere that has a strong reputation.

84% of job seekers believe that a company's reputation is important when choosing where to apply to a job, a huge number. When you are in touch with changes in what workers want from their company you can highlight these areas in your online presence to ensure that your business remains attractive.

We hope that this article has been helpful to you in demonstrating why it's so important to maintain an even stronger focus on data in your talent attraction process. If you're interested in doing so, then look no further than inploi for improving your data and analytics. inploi's tech will give you 20/20 vision over your talent attraction process and how candidates move through it, with data on conversion rates, cost per applicant/hire, and other essential success metrics, letting you make evaluations with precision.

ITo learn more about inploi, get in touch today.