Last week we started digging into our sales data to begin seeing what our trends look like (and kudos to those of you who took me up on my challenge and made a bar chart of your data!). This week we’ll do a similar exercise but we’re going to focus on a specific function within HR, talent acquisition, and lay out a few ways that practitioners can use HR analytics and data to be more strategic.
Think Of Your Bottom Line
When I ask CHROs and HR practitioners about how they use HR analytics, I usually hear about their turnover rate…..but not much else. There’s so much more that your HR data can tell you! And I’m not just talking about “nice to know” things, I’m talking about insights that directly relate to your goals and affect your bottom line. Here are just a few of the ways that you can leverage this resource and start capitalizing on the stories your data’s telling you.
Talent Acquisition
I often recommend starting your HR analytics journey with Talent Acquisition (TA) because it’s a way to literally begin at the beginning. Start at the point of how your applicants find you, and then move through your TA flow: how many applied, how many progressed to each successive stage of the hiring process, until finally how many actually showed up on Day 1 ready to jump in. (Bonus: Calculate not just how many continued, but how many didn’t continue at each stage.*)
You might already be using some applicant tracking software which generates this for you and if so, then you’re a step ahead of the game! If not, an Excel spreadsheet (or even pencil and paper) work just as well. However you generate your counts, though, the key to optimizing this data is to actually use it. So once you’ve either downloaded those reports or calculated your counts through each stage, then sit back and look — really look — at the data. Then start tying these observations into your larger goals, your annual objectives and your company’s strategic plan.
What Questions About Talent Acquisition Should I Ask?
Even narrowing down to just looking at talent acquisition leaves quite a lot of content and data for you to look at! Get started with questions like these:
- What’s going on with the TA counts for different job types?
- How about for different departments?
- Even for different managers?
- What about DEI variables like gender, race, and physical ability?
And last but definitely not least: How much is this current process costing you? What are the direct and indirect costs for each hire? How much time did HR team members spend bringing a specific hire on board? This is where you show how hard you and your HR team have been working, and just how much you contribute to the bottom line.
A Final Thought…..
Keep in mind while you’re working through your HR analytics that some of your TA objectives might run counter to objectives in other parts of your organization. For example, you may want to minimize the time to hire, but by aiming for that, you’re likely to reach out to sources/channels that worked in the past. If you’re simultaneously trying to increase your diversity, that might require you to reach out to new, different sources/channels. Building those relationships will take time, and so might end up increasing your “time to hire” metric.
Connect With Me
If you find yourself grappling with some of these issues or have questions, sign up here for a free 30-minute consultation via Zoom. We can talk through your Talent Acquisition funnel, or talk about creating one if you don’t have one yet.
I’ve also put together a free worksheet that walks you through how to calculate your conversion rates — a similar idea to what I mentioned above with calculating applicants’ progression through your TA funnel. Join my email list here to download it.
I look forward to connecting!
*Tracking the number who progressed from stage to stage of the hiring process is crucial, but it’s also important to track how many didn’t move from one stage to the next. This is often referred to as “leakage,” and by keeping an eye on it, you’ll be able to see if there are stages in the hiring process that are causing problems.
