Here at Purple Tree, a large part of our time is spent on collecting and analyzing candidate data to help our clients find talent faster, onboard them more efficiently, and keep them around for the long-haul. Even as companies are increasingly relying on data in their operations, many organizations are still struggling to integrate successfully into their recruiting process.
What is Data-Driven Recruiting?
Data-driven recruitment places emphasis on collecting and analyzing data to inform recruiting and workforce strategies in order to attract better candidates and retain them for longer. The primary objectives in a data-driven strategy are to understand what motivates individuals to join your team and what compels them to stay.
Opportunities for data collection occur throughout the lifecycle of an employee. From job advertising and on into an employee’s tenure with the company, organized data-collection will help you continuously improve your recruiting and retention processes.
The Candidate Journey
The candidate journey is the name we’ve given to the experience a candidate has when applying, interviewing, and onboarding at your organization. Best-in-class companies take the time to understand their audience’s needs and build a candidate journey that speaks to those needs. Understanding the candidate journey is the first step to understanding what motivates and attracts your ideal employee.
Candidate Personas
A key outcome to a data-driven strategy is the Candidate Persona. The candidate persona is a detailed picture of your ideal candidate and their preferences. Candidate personas are an extremely useful tool in developing job marketing and employee retention strategies. Many organizations use data to help them understand their employees, but far fewer take the time to develop strategic personas. Personas are especially important when trying to understand what motivates employees other than money. With a clear picture of their candidates and employees, companies are able to create reward strategies that help mitigate the loss of employees to competitors who offer nothing more than a small improvement in wages.
With the help of a candidate persona, we can answer a variety of questions including:
- What motivates your ideal candidate?
- Who and what are you competing with?
- How do you attract the right individuals?
- How do you create loyalty in your employees?
Better Job Marketing Using Data
In addition to building the candidate persona, you can use data to craft a successful job marketing and outreach strategy. By taking a little time to understand the target audience, you can create marketing materials that appeal to what motivates them.
When marketing open positions, we’ve found that the most successful companies are able to create a strong connection between their brand and the needs of their ideal candidates. This brand promotion becomes especially important when competing with large companies who seek to simply “buy the market” instead of focusing on what is most important for job seekers to achieve career satisfaction.
By connecting your offering to what potential candidates value the most, you significantly increase your chances of attracting hard-working, motivated individuals who are a natural fit for your team.
Retaining exceptional employees
Improving retention improves ROI, efficiency, and productivity. While many companies collect data on their employees and use it to inform compensation and benefit strategies, best-in-class organizations take the time to understand the personal side of the data. Particularly with positions such as drivers and warehouse workers, companies often struggle with losing employees to competitors paying as little as 25 cents more. As long as you’re competing solely on price, you’ll be at risk for losing employees to the competition.
When looking to improve employee retention we recommend an audit of your current programs and policies combined with a strategy for soliciting employee feedback. When preparing a successful retention strategy, factors to consider include:
- Culture and environment
- Rewards and recognition
- Compensation
- Benefits
- Training and mentorships
Many employees find satisfaction in their employment, yet often feel unfulfilled. “What’s next for me?” is a question on the minds of many employees, and a best-in-class employer will find ways to help them answer this question. An effective retention strategy will help you maximize the value of the people you have working for you and help you uncover fresh ways to keep them engaged and happy.
Questions to ask when building your retention strategy:
- How does the company manage and support the careers of the current employees?
- Are you maximizing the potential of every employee?
- How much time, energy and resources do you put into your lower-level employees?
- Do you know your audience?
- Do your managers understand what these individuals want?
Collecting Data
Data can be collected throughout the recruiting process and beyond. Tools for data collection range from simple manual collection by a single employee or HR team to software solutions and external consultants.
Data-collection opportunities include:
- Social Media
- Email Marketing
- Paid advertising
- Sales Calls
- Market Research Surveys
Tools and resources for data-collection include:
- Sales Team
- Marketing Team
- Human Resources
- Outside Consultants
- Sales/Marketing Software
- Market Research Specialists
