Smart Hiring Choices: From Data to Decisions

Below is a quick overview of how data analysis facilitates smart recruiting decisions, which tools can be helpful at different stages of the recruiting pipeline, and the top tips on using data-driven recruiting as a chief business driver.

Importance of Data Analysis in Smart Hiring

Traditional recruiting, with manual resume screening and multiple stages of pre-assessing the candidates’ skills, is not only time-consuming; it is also prone to human error and stands a high risk of bias. Automation software alleviates most of these risks while significantly reducing time-to-hire. Depending on the company’s hiring needs, AI-powered software can also address other challenges – for example, it can assess a candidate’s cultural fit or ensure full compliance with DEI practices.

The main benefits of a data-driven approach to recruiting include:

Focus on objective, clearly traceable metrics to eliminate even subconscious bias and ensure 100% unprejudiced hiring;
Easy scalability to accommodate different pipelines, even if hiring goals change or volumes increase;
Full automation of repetitive tasks, such as initial resume screening or interview scheduling;
Predictive intelligence to identify potential hiring needs;
Advanced customization options, suitable for different hiring needs;
Straightforward communication tracking for everyone involved in the hiring process;
Psychological candidate assessments and reasonably accurate predictions on how each candidate might behave in the established work culture;
Enhanced candidate experience at every stage of the recruiting funnel.

Automation Software for Every Step of the Way

While no company, even in the same niche, is exactly alike in its job specifics and hiring needs, recruiting pipelines always follow the same logic. The following tools can help automate all the essential hiring stages, taking recruiting to a totally new level.

Candidate Management Systems (CMS)

An efficient recruiting pipeline starts with choosing a quality CMS that meets business goals and hiring needs. Today, most available tools are backed up by AI, at least to a certain extent. Depending on the business and hiring specifics, one can go with universal market favorites like Monday and Zoho Recruit or choose any other advanced CRM suitable for its corporate goals.

Of course, it’s also possible to start with an applicant tracking system (ATS) as a simpler and generally more affordable solution. However, the main benefit of using CRMs is that they ensure a more candidate-centric approach and are better suited for working with passive candidates, who make up about 70% of the global workforce and are generally seen as more valuable human assets due to their established work experience.

Global Contact Databases

Professional contact lookup databases come to the rescue when the recruiter’s immediate circle of connections simply does not have a suitable candidate, and time is of the essence. While social media, including LinkedIn or more narrowly specialized platforms like GitHub, can help connect recruiters with relevant professionals, the whole process may be a bit too slow for proactive hiring. Tools like SignalHire are designed to speed up this process via a global database of contacts that supports bulk searches by industry, location, job title, years of experience, and other customizable parameters.

Besides, the service also offers a LinkedIn email finder extension that pulls individual contact data directly from social media without even switching browser tabs. Both approaches are incredibly useful for engaging passive candidates – a process that usually requires more creativity and attention to detail on the recruiter’s part.

AI-Driven Resume Screeners

Screening, traditionally the most effort- and time-consuming part of the larger recruiting process, is now a breeze thanks to AI-powered resume screeners. Unlike previous-generation CV parsers, which were helpful while working with already pre-structured data, AI screeners are more versatile and are taught to ‘make’ decisions of their own.

In this category, one of the top, truly versatile solutions is HireVue. The tool works according to the recruiters’ input and can filter out resumes that are a definite mismatch. This functionality saves tremendous amounts of time when screening active job seekers, but it can also apply to passive candidate screening if you upload a batch of profiles downloaded from a contact database.

Pre-Employment Assessment Tools

These tools are designed to pre-test the candidates’ skills and abilities after they’ve made it past the screening stage. Depending on business specifics, it’s possible to choose from a variety of services designed to test coding skills (i.e., HackerRank) or tailored to behavioral tests and questions to pre-assess the candidate’s cultural fit and soft skills (Caliper, SHL, The Predictive Index).

However, tools aimed at testing hard skills are not programming-exclusive.  Some services, i.e., Test Gorilla, are more versatile and cover a larger scope of hard skills tests, like language proficiency, typing speed, and other non-coding assessments. Once again, the choice of software will largely depend on business specifics and hiring needs.

Automated Interview Scheduling

Another nightmarish stage of the recruiting process, with the endless cycles of emails going back and forth, can finally be put to an end with automated interview scheduling software. Most currently available tools work the same – they allow candidates to self-select open slots on a recruiter’s schedule; however, there can be minor variations in features and pricing. Here, the choice can be made almost randomly, but if you’re looking for a tool that has already gained trust and has lots of free features, Calendly is a good app to consider.

Making Data-Driven Hiring Work for Your Business

Like all other tools, automation software helps those who know how to operate it. In the context of recruiting, this involves having a clear hiring strategy – a process that starts with understanding long-term business development goals and hiring routines that can accommodate these goals. Short-term, successfully leveraging automation software includes:

Setting clear KPIs and metrics for specific periods, vacancies, etc. Identifying ‘classic’ weak areas, such as high employee turnover or poor performance, is a good start, but it’s not always as simple as that. Often, it is important to understand both short-term and long-term hiring goals, including the time it takes to fill specific vacancies, the projected hiring needs, etc.
Constantly analyzing data and searching for ways to improve current operations. This involves analyzing any hard data (cost-per-hire and quality-of-hire, campaign duration, etc.), as well as gathering feedback from other recruiters, hiring managers, and new employees to identify areas with room for improvement.
Training teams on data literacy to make sure everyone involved understands the hiring needs, is focused on specific KPIs, and operates the same data.

Finally, recruiters should always aim for the best candidate experience possible. First, candidates who have not made it to the specific job opening are still part of a larger connection network  – and they may prove to be ideal for another vacancy sometime later. More importantly, positive candidate experience has a direct influence on the company’s reputation – and in a world where brands are constantly competing for the best human talent, a good reputation is key to success.