It’s an exciting time in the human capital business… and more specifically, in the business of both acquiring the right talent, and in driving effectiveness of that talent once they cross the threshold of your organization’s door as an employee.
In talent acquisition there is typically a strong understanding of how efficient recruitment efforts are—measured in units of time and cost. Where a gap currently exists however, is in linking efficiency of recruitment to effectiveness of recruitment—that is, connecting pre-hire measurements to first-year outcomes including new hire performance, turnover and quality of hire.
Data, information, and most importantly, insight can bridge that gap
As an industry, human capital is rich in data yet poor on insight. The time is now to start making connections across data and building on the insight these connections generate. We need to make use and sense of the information that is literally at our fingertips—but locked away. Unlike our colleagues in marketing and sales, finance and operations—who are using their information in a big way (i.e. Big Data) for making strategic business decisions—many of us aren’t using our data and we must to stay relevant.
In every aspect of our lives we are immersed in the information age. New businesses and services are coming along that two or three years ago we could never have imagined—and that includes amazing new capabilities in the talent acquisition space.
Take LinkedIn as likely the most obvious. We all know that recruiters are some of the most active and powerful users of LinkedIn—using this incredibly powerful and valuable information service to grow and harvest talent pools. Think of how much we know about candidates because of this!
What is interesting though—and a ripe opportunity area—is that something goes awry when candidates are hired. Once these candidates become your employees, it’s often a struggle to have accessible information about them. It’s tough to really know what they do, how much value they create for the organization, and how well they do it. Dare I say it, but you likely had more accessible information on them when they didn’t work for you.
While there are many reasons why we are in this situation today, the tables can be turned, and quickly.
New platforms, business models and innovations can enable rapidly deployed and highly cost-effective workforce and business analytics not only in the talent acquisition space—but across the entire human capital lifecycle.
At QuIRC, we believe workforce analytics is going to play a major role in the next wave of innovation in human capital and talent acquisition. And not only because think-tanks like Gartner and i4cp say so, but because we are seeing it first-hand with our clients.
With accessible, business-focused and beautifully represented workforce insight, we are seeing clients act like a weight has been lifted off their shoulders. They are feeling smarter, and acting in ways that are more business savvy and action-oriented in their business partner roles.
Here are 3 little secrets about analytics and Talent Acquisition that I’d like to share with you:
Little secret #1—you don’t need big budgets to make sense out of complex and vast amounts of big workforce data
To help you make sense of the vast amounts of Big Data, you don’t need Big Budgets. In fact, some services are available in the marketplace for just a few hundred dollars a month….squarely focused on small and medium sized organizations.
The traditional on-premise and fully- integrated systems are being challenged by spry and nimble cloud-based upstarts with arguably tighter and better managed security. We are in a disruptive state with technology solutions and new analytics and insight-as-a-service solutions are both affordable and highly effective.
Little secret #2—you don’t need 12+ months to deploy workforce analytics and start making business decisions. How about days?
Another little secret we want to share is that full suite workforce and business analytics are possible within days, not months or years. This means that businesses can get started with workforce and business analytics in about the same time as it would take an individual to develop a LinkedIn Profile (i.e. 2-3 hours). Insight can be available within 48 hours.
Talk about disruptive. Talk about being nimble and responding to the needs of small and medium sized businesses.
Little secret #3—analytics have the power to raise your game in your organization
Talent acquisition is uniquely positioned to take the lead in information integration within the organization. Analytics is something you can leverage for the organization and for yourself within the organization. With a solid understanding of recruitment data and connections to first-year outcomes such as new hire performance, turnover and quality of hire, you can start to confidently, credibly and concretely link talent acquisition to business outcomes. With rich analytics and insight you can generate awareness, stimulate dialogue, and drive action. From here you can reach across the business and work to integrate other data, building a holistic view of people and business data.
It’s your workforce data. You should use it.
About the Author
John Pensom is CEO of QuIRC, a Canadian company delivering cloud-based workforce and business analytics through their insight-as-a-service offering called PeopleInsight. He has spent 20 years in the “people” business and gained deep knowledge in how technology, information and analytics drives business and culture change. PeopleInsight connects and unlocks traditionally disparate HR, talent, engagement, business results and external market data to deliver rich insight through analytics in clear, visually appealing and actionable ways. John and his expert team are always happy and available to discuss the “current state of workforce analytics” in the Canadian business environment. He can be reached at [email protected]
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/johnpensom
Website: www.quirc.ca/peopleinsight/
Twitter: @QuIRCInc
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