Securing qualified talent amid today’s tight labor market and the growing skills gap is more difficult now than perhaps ever before. According to a recent study, the world could face a talent shortage of over 85 million workers by 2030. These challenges make hiring for job and company fit a top priority for many organizations across the globe.
These factors become even more important when filling executive positions. Company executives directly influence business outcomes, company culture, and organizational success. It’s critical to fill these roles with candidates that are not only the best match for the position, but also for the company as a whole.
This is where talent analytics can play a pivotal role by helping you fill these positions with the right candidates.
What Is Talent Analytics?
You might think talent analytics is about collecting data. While gathering workforce and candidate data is an essential element, talent analytics goes much deeper than just accumulating data. It also involves analyzing this data to obtain key insights regarding workforce performance and management.
For example, talent analytics can help you better understand the qualities, attributes, needs and expectations of your current workers and potential applicants, as well as predict future performance. When used correctly, these insights can help employers improve various workforce management processes and strategies, including their recruitment efforts.
Benefits of Using Talent Analytics in the Executive Search Process
Studies show that 70% of employers are already using some form of talent analytics to make informed business decisions — and for good reason. Organizations of all sizes can benefit from incorporating data analytics into the executive search process, including:
- Hire for Job Fit: Talent analytics can help you identify which candidates not only have the skills and qualifications your company needs but also determine job and company ‘fit’.
- Reduce Bias in the Decision Process: Filling executive positions directly impacts the success of your business. You can’t leave something this important to ‘gut feelings’ or ‘instincts.’ Talent analytics can reduce bias in the hiring decision and help you identify the best candidate for the role, not the one you like the most.
- Predict Future Performance: One of the most powerful insights talent analytics offers is the ability to predict a candidate’s future performance. These insights can prevent the risk of hiring a low-performing candidate.
- Improve the Candidate Experience: Using data analytics to better understand your candidate’s needs and expectations allows you to improve the candidate experience. This, in turn, can enhance your recruitment efforts by enticing applicants to accept the job offer.
- Forecast Future Talent Needs: Data analytics can also help predict the future hiring needs of your company. With this information, you can start building a strong pipeline of potential candidates before the need arises.
- Create Accurate Candidate Personas: Using the insights you gain from analyzing your talent data can help you develop an accurate depiction of your ideal candidate.
Best Practices for Talent Analytics
While creating a talent analytics strategy can improve your executive search process, there are a number of things you should keep in mind. Below is a look at several best practices to follow when using talent analytics.
Set Clear Goals and Objectives
As with any business strategy, it’s critical to set clear goals and objectives for using talent analytics in the hiring process. These goals should align with the overall mission of your business. Determining the type of results that you want to achieve from analyzing your talent data can ensure you meet your goals.
Develop Comprehensive Policies
If you’re going to collect data pertaining to your employees and candidates, you must set clear policies pertaining to how you plan to collect, store and use this information. You also want to determine who has access to this data. Be sure all policies are in compliance with state and federal regulations.
Measure Strategy Outcomes
Don’t make the mistake of developing a talent analytics strategy and then fail to measure its success. Instead, track key metrics, such as time-to-fill, cost per hire, offer acceptance and new hire turnover, to determine what’s working well and what aspects of your strategy you may need to change.
As you can see, talent analytics can help you match applicants to the right roles and to fill executive positions with the best candidate. Follow MRINetwork for more talent analytics tips.