People analytics is defined as the data-driven and goal-focused method of studying the people processes, functions, challenges, and opportunities at work and using the learnings to achieve business success. When it comes to bringing in talent and retaining teams, a data-driven approach could revolutionise the results of talent teams in a range of industries. As an industry, recruitment isn’t always at the forefront of data analytics, even though so much data is available. The truth is if people analytics was used more thoroughly throughout recruitment and if we utilised learnings from recruitment marketing, the hiring process could be much more well informed, and people strategies could become more strategic.
So, will 2022 be the year that more talent and HR teams adopt people analytics?
Well, there’s never been a better time. There are more data points now than ever before, which means whether you’re analysing the skills and performance of your current teams or trying to evaluate the effectiveness of your talent acquisition efforts, a data-driven approach could put you ahead of the competition.
The talent market in 2022 is set to be as competitive as in 2021, if not more so. With tech talent still in high demand, and companies of all sizes fighting for the same skills, scaleups and startups need to ramp up their talent strategies. Finding the right people for the right role at the right time as fast as possible is a challenge faced by almost every organisation right now. People are the biggest drivers of every company’s success, so companies of all sizes must work harder to attract the right talent. One way to do this is to become more intelligent than your counterparts, using the information you have at your disposal to your advantage. Data can inform decision making, whether it’s analysing which roles you need to hire in the next quarter or assessing the performance of your teams to determine which teams may need additional support. Data-driven recruiting has been proven to improve some of the most common hiring metrics such as time to hire, cost per hire and quality of hire. Still, it also helps you identify any issues in your recruitment process or company culture.
People analytics isn’t a new principle, but it’s becoming far more advanced. With developments in data science and data visualisation, people analytics is the most dynamic that it’s ever been and the most accessible. With the right technologies on hand, companies can assess all aspects of their recruitment process as well as their operational environment, making it easier to evaluate both the talent you’re attracting and the capabilities of existing teams. In 2022, as we adopt more remote working technologies and more companies embrace HR tech to refine their company culture, more data points will be accessible. Therefore, there will become more opportunities to use people analytics to your advantage.
The last two years have made many employers realise how valuable their people are. When we were faced with uncertainty, the agility and commitment of teams meant businesses could adapt and carry on. Retaining teams and attracting talent have come to the fore, as businesses realise many employees are seeking new ventures and leaders realise new skillsets are vital for business continuity. Therefore, in 2022, more companies will likely invest in their people strategy, which includes looking into people analytics.
How can you use people analytics to help your tech recruitment and people strategies in 2022?
Analyse the employee experience
The employee experience is crucial to your retention efforts but also to building your employer brand. How your teams feel about coming to work has a huge reflection on your employer brand and your ability to attract talent. Its employees who present an authentic picture of your company culture, and so keeping them engaged and happy is key to your employer brand development.
No one could have predicted the massive change to the employee experience created in the last few years on a global scale, as we were all forced into home working almost overnight. As hybrid working comes into play more often, and candidates expect the opportunity to work from home, teams need to take their employee experience seriously to ensure teams are happy even when working in various locations. Surveys and HR tech will enable employers to better understand how their employees feel about the world of work and how their experience can be improved. Using this data will allow you to identify how to repair your company culture and create a more productive workforce. A better employee experience will create a better, happier company culture that will help you attract and retain talent to improve your employer brand.
Improve quality of hire
Looking at the data from previous hires will help you improve the quality in the future. People analytics teams can analyse productivity, absenteeism and other aspects to determine the quality of your hire and the impact they have on the business over time. They can also identify whether the team’s balance of skills and personalities is working, which could help recruitment source and select the right people when developing teams that will add value to the business. Skills, personality and diverse experiences help to build productive teams. Using a data-driven approach to improve the quality of hires will ensure high performance. It also means that you can identify why if hires have been unsuccessful hires. Are they being tempted by another offer? Is there an issue in line management? Did they apply directly, or did your teams hunt them down? Once you identify the cause of the problem, you’ll be better placed to adapt your ways of working or your tech recruitment strategy to avoid similar mistakes.
Improve your recruitment marketing
Like in consumer or b2b marketing, the data retrieved from knowing your people can help with your recruitment marketing efforts. Just like knowing the audience you’re selling your product to, getting to know your people and the messaging that would appeal to them will help you find like-minded individuals who are a great cultural fit. Plus, looking at where your current hires came from (was it LinkedIn, Facebook or Indeed?) could help you to identify where you should be advertising roles in the future. People analytics and recruitment marketing data can work together to provide an informed, intelligent approach to sourcing talent. Whether it dictates the platforms you advertise on, the elements of your EVP that you celebrate or even your targeting, the golden rules of marketing are to know your audience and experiment, using the data gathered to influence more decisions. Practice this, and you’ll be ahead of the game when it comes to attracting tech talent in 2022.
Identify opportunities to upskill
Sometimes, it makes sense to upskill teams rather than bring in new talent in a competitive recruitment market. If time is on your side, which often isn’t in a tech scaleup, you can retrain employees with specific skills. This will encourage loyalty as you are investing in their future but will also ensure you have the desired skillsets within your business. Data can help you to inform this. Using people analytics, you can identify the skills you already have and those you need, tailoring your learning and development strategy to reflect this. You can look at potential future managers by looking at the longevity of service and productivity stats then offer development opportunities. Having people analytics on the side to analyse performance can also help reduce your need to recruit, which means that your hiring efforts are focused more on urgent roles or skills that are much harder to pick up.
Plan for future tech recruitment
As a scaling business, future hiring will be inevitable. Firstly, you need people and their skills to be able to grow. Secondly, some team members will inevitably leave you, whether for a new challenge, for personal reasons or eventually to retire. Using people analytics, you can use a succession plan to identify when your talent is likely to leave you so that you aren’t caught off guard. There will be many warning signs that you can spot within the data, from talking to them about their attitude to work to looking at productivity or even how long they’ve been with you. Looking at the data will also help you predict future business demands and needs, ensuring your hiring plans remain one step ahead. You’ll be able to spot industry trends and plan accordingly so that you’re ready to adapt alongside consumers and your competitors.
When used successfully, data can help you to plan and prepare. If you’d like help planning your talent acquisition strategy in 2022, whether it’s refining your employer brand, running recruitment marketing campaigns or sourcing tech talent, Talent Works can help.
As a flexible RPO provider, we’re able to help businesses from startups to established enterprises with their tech recruitment strategies, using data-driven and insight-led approaches. We act as a strategic recruitment partner, helping our clients make the right decisions for their business and planning for future hires based on our data and knowledge.
View our work to see examples of how we’ve helped some of the world’s most exciting tech businesses solve talent acquisition challenges.
Contact us to see how we can help you.
