At the 2018 CareerXroads Talent Acquisition Operations and Analytics Colloquium, 50 leaders in the field convened to discuss what’s happening and what’s next in operations and analytics. Across the two-day session, it became clear that these two TA disciplines are continuing to grow in importance and the organizations that are best at using ops and analytics skills will be at the forefront of our industry.
While it’s been clear to talent acquisition leaders for some time that an analytics team must be proficient in spreadsheets and analysis, it’s more vital than ever that they can accurately and concisely interpret the data they’ve collected and scrubbed. More and more often we heard the analytics professionals describe themselves as “data storytellers,” and their stories are increasingly being compiled for talent acquisition and the business at large. Talent acquisition analytics teams provide depth and quantitative meaning to the more holistic “story” of talent acquisition.
Are you telling the story or still creating the outline?
As dashboards and technology get more sophisticated and more comfortable to implement, more of the traditional analytics work is being compiled automatically. This is a prime example of technology freeing up valuable resources. Instead of preparing and distributing standard time-to-fill and recruiting funnel reports, data analysts are now able to devote more time to studying trends and genuinely analyzing the data.
At the Colloquium we found there was a reasonably distinct split between companies just starting the process — paying much closer attention to their data — and those that are already developing deep insights and predictions. Regardless of the state of analytics in an organization, analytics teams as a whole now realize that they are no longer just constructing dashboards and presenting data. TA analytics specialists should between the lines and pull together insights from business metrics that will allow the company to answer tough questions intelligently as well as anticipate related needs of various hiring functions.
State of talent acquisition: what teams are doing
- More experienced teams: Develop the narrative around the data to help leaders make decisions
- Newer analytics teams: Setting the stage to evaluate data — defining the factors and behaviors
- All analytics teams: Testing the story and managing data integrity
One of the more exciting findings in this breakdown is who is being hired to do the analytics role. More companies than ever before are hiring people with a data/analytics background — not necessarily with any experience in talent acquisition.
What’s next in recruiting analytics?
As analytics continues to develop at all stages, analytics teams are being asked to take on larger and more significant roles in talent acquisition. Their work is setting the narrative around the data to make more informed decisions and set stronger strategy.
As the CareerXroads Colloquium turned from what’s happening now to what’s coming next, all eyes were on recruiting automation. A few select members are already dabbling in using machine-learning to help build dashboards and reports. It will be interesting to see the impact of these early efforts when the Operations and Analytics Colloquium gathers again next year.
Learn more about what’s happening in talent acquisition operations and analytics with this podcast from the 2018 CareerXroads Colloquium.