NAS Talent Talk

The numbers don’t lie.

In the dynamic world of analytics, strategies abound: pay-per-click, programmatic media, Facebook promoted posts, social media campaigns, e-blasts, online job postings, event landing pages, your own career site performance…Here’s the thing: unless you can track results of your efforts with unbiased analytics, how can you possibly determine and validate the effectiveness of your HR recruitment spend? How do you know if you need to revise your approach and try other tactics?

Analytics help you to understand candidate behavior and allow for more refined strategies that yield better results. Although employer branding and the candidate experience will always be paramount, smart companies are also adopting a data-centric approach to how prospective candidates engage with job advertising.

One of the hot-button topics in talent acquisition is the desire for analytics. HR leaders know that real data can help them make informed decisions, and that it will give them the support they need when building a budget, justifying their spend and determining how to create content for their site. There are two basic types of analytics that every HR professional needs to consider:

1. Tracking candidates from source to hire

Imagine being able to understand where the individuals who actually get hired by your organization are coming from. It’s the only way to really know what media is performing and where you should put your dollars. This is, by far, the most powerful metric available to you. When we bring up this topic, these are the responses we often hear:

“We don’t track this information at all.”

Then, you have no idea, aside from anecdotal evidence, where to spend your budget to get the best results. You are essentially making your media selection in a vacuum. Often, what you think is working the best is not. Analytics will open your eyes and allow you to make the right decisions. You might end up saving money that you can reallocate to other important efforts.