Today’s current labour challenges, including increased turnover, a growing skills gap and the continuing labour shortage, have impacted nearly every industry across the planet. However, those employers with high-volume demands, such as manufacturing, call centres, major retailers, warehousing and logistics, have been especially hit hard with talent challenges.
These employers must fill a large number of positions in a short period of time without risking quality. Failure to fill these positions can result in costly production delays, increased safety violations and decreased product quality. At a time when many companies are still working to recover from the global pandemic, most employers are looking for ways to control costs, not add to them.
Thanks to the advancement of computing technology, including AI and machine learning, organisations have access to a wealth of data that, when analysed correctly, can improve the recruitment process, especially for employers with high-demand talent needs. This strategy is referred to as people analytics, and it has the power to align your recruitment and business efforts together to drive improved hiring results.
Keep reading to find out what people analytics is and how it can enable your company to create an efficient recruitment process that allows you to attract and retain the talent you need, despite today’s highly competitive job market.
harnessing the power of data
Chances are that your company has been collecting various types of workforce data for years. Unfortunately, without transforming this data into meaningful results, it’s not very helpful. This is where people analytics can help. This methodology takes this big data, analyses it and transforms it into real-time workplace insights. In turn, your company can use these insights to make informed business decisions regarding recruitment and total workforce management.
People analytics, along with valuable subsets, such as HR analytics and talent analytics, is especially beneficial for businesses with high-volume talent demands. Some of these benefits include:
- ability to source high-quality candidates
- speeds up the hiring process
- reduces overall recruitment costs
- increases talent retention rates
- enhances employee engagement
- increases productivity rates
- improves workforce planning management
how to utilise people analytics for high-volume recruitment
People analytics software programs are ideal for employers of all sizes and industries. However, these tools are particularly helpful at improving the quality-of-hire and time-to-fill rates, which are critical metrics for employers with high-volume talent demands. Here are some tips for incorporating people analytics, especially talent analytics, into a high-volume recruitment strategy.
set company goals and objectives
The first step of any business strategy is to set clear goals and objectives. With HR analytics, typically the HR department handles this process with little to no input from company leaders. People analytics is different. Since the desired result is to gain company-wide insights rather than just HR data, it’s critical that your company leaders, HR team and supervisors all take part in setting goals and objectives. This step requires a high level of communication regarding what data to collect, who has access to this data and how to deliver results.
Remember, people analytics is about understanding the why or how behind the problem. So, rather than setting a basic goal, such as tracking turnover rates, dig a little deeper and set a goal of determining why turnover rates are increasing. You also don’t have to limit your goals to just HR objectives. For instance, you can set goals for predicting future talent needs and estimating costs associated with acquiring these skills.
determine data collection parameters
One of the first steps you should take when developing a people analytics strategy is to set clear data collection parameters. Determine exactly what types of data can be collected and what types of data are off limits. Bring in the legal team to ensure your data gathering and management processes meet all employment laws and data privacy regulations, such as General Data Protection Regulation in Europe.
Since people analytics is a business-wide practice, more people than just the HR team may need access to some or all data points. Determine right from the start exactly who has access to what information. When using data analytics in recruitment, you’ll likely want to give at least some data access to all parties involved in any stage of the recruitment process, including the HR team, company leaders and hiring managers.
Finally, you need to bring in the IT team to set up security protections regarding the data you’re gathering. The last thing you want to do is have a data breach with your employees’ information. Even though some of the data you’re collecting is company-wide rather than individual employees' personal information, you still want to make sure to follow data security protocols and limit access to it.
build a data-based culture
For some companies, the recruitment process hasn’t changed much in the last few decades, especially the interview and job offer process. Unfortunately, standard interviewing tactics oftentimes allow interviewer bias to skew results. For instance, studies show that interviewers tend to make a decision about a candidate in under 7 minutes. Certainly, not enough time to determine job fit.
Other companies may bring some types of analytics to the selection process, such as pre-hire assessments, yet still rely on their gut instinct when selecting the right candidates. While this is a good start, people analytics can deliver more valuable insights to help make informed hiring decisions.
For these reasons, it’s crucial to build a culture of data-based decision-making. Everyone involved in the recruitment process from start to finish must understand the value of people analytics and its purpose in the hiring process. This type of data-driven culture is crucial when you need to hire a large number of workers in a short period of time. Additionally, using this real-time data can remove some of the bias in the recruitment process and allow your teams to identify the best candidates for the roles.
acquire the necessary analytical skills
Even if you already have an HR analytics strategy in place, you need to acquire skills specific to people analytics. As mentioned above, people analytics differs from HR analytics in both scope and purpose. To achieve the best results possible, you need to have employees within your HR team who understand people analytics and know how to interpret the results and use them to improve recruitment outcomes.
This step means more than taking an HR analytics course or two. You want talent with a People Analytics Certification or similar training, such as a SHRM People Analytics Speciality Credential or a People Analytics for HR certification from the Human Capital Institute. You can obtain this talent through recruitment efforts or work toward training several members of your HR team. If you opt to recruit talent with people analytics skills, our teams at Randstad can help you find the right candidates for your company.
As an employer with a high demand for talent, you likely need more than the analytical capabilities of a computer software program. Instead, you need in-house talent who understands how to turn the data you collect into analytical results and how to present these results in an easy-to-use format, such as reports or charts. You don’t necessarily need a statistician, but you do need to acquire talent with data-science skills who can transform your data into meaningful results.
invest in people analytics tools
For any data-driven talent acquisition strategy to be successful, you must have the right tools in place to collect, store, manage and analyse workforce data.
First, you need a number of tools for sourcing talent data. For example, you may want to source information from candidates’ applications and resumes, various pulse survey results, employee performance reviews, pre-hire assessments and attendance records. You want to track this information for individual employees and candidates as well as for the company as a whole to achieve greater results. Platforms such as Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) software are a great place to store this type of information.
You’ll also need outside insights, such as trends regarding workers in your specific industry and location. You may need to use a third-party vendor to gather this information. For example, our teams at Randstad collect a wide range of data pertaining to workers’ expectations, behaviours, and motivators, as well as salary ranges and industry trends. We provide these valuable insights to all our Randstad partners. Additionally, you need a way to incorporate business data, such as financials.
Collecting workers’ data points is just the first step. You also need a way to transform this data into meaningful analytical insights. Many HRIS platforms offer limited analysis capabilities. While this is a good place to start, you may want to increase your people analytics capabilities by using both ML and AI technology to provide accurate and predictive analysis.
As a high-volume employer, you may want to hire tech employees who are skilled in statistical data, methodology, formulae and data science. This step prevents you from being limited to what HRIS software offers and allows your company to tailor your people analytics strategies to meet the unique needs of your company and to alter this strategy as your company’s needs shift.
prioritise tech and touch
People acquisition analytics data can be a powerful tool in the recruitment process, but it can’t replace the human element. It’s critical that you don’t lose track of the fact that candidates are more than just data and statistics. The good news is that the combination of ‘tech and touch’ can drive great results for sourcing, attracting and onboarding candidates.
For instance, salaries are the number one motivator for workers changing jobs. However, this doesn’t mean that every candidate you extend a job offer to will rank salaries as the most important part of the compensation package. Some workers may value other benefits, such as flexible scheduling or wellness benefits, more. It’s important that you see each candidate as a unique individual so you can better understand their needs and expectations. This way, you can highlight the benefits that really matter and entice them to accept the job offer.
partner with an HR services company
We understand the talent challenges businesses are facing today, especially those with high-volume demand. To help alleviate some of these stressors, Randstad provides end-to-end recruitment solutions, including sourcing, recruitment, onboarding, training and workforce scheduling. As always, our client solutions are completely customisable so you can determine exactly what aspects of the recruitment process you want our teams to handle and what parts you want to keep in-house.
Our teams have a complete understanding of people analytics and the value it brings to the recruitment process. When combining your company data with our worker insights, we can help you create a recruitment process that allows you to identify, attract, engage and onboard skilled candidates who are a great fit for your team. Thanks to our massive pre-vetted talent pool, we can speed up the time-to-hire process to ensure shifts are filled with qualified candidates.
Are you ready to implement a people analytic strategy in your company? Download our step-by-step guide for using data to build a recruitment process.