Last month I talked with Nicolas Speeckaert, skeeled’s Co-Founder and Managing Partner for a live chat show; Predictive Hiring – The Key to Talent Acquisition Success. I’m delighted that he’s now sharing some further thoughts on how predictive hiring technology can help companies make the best hires and avoid costly mistakes.
A report last year from The Predictive Index™ highlighted the top challenges for most CEOs were people strategy and talent management, with their number one challenge being finding the right talent.
Making poor hiring decisions is more common that people think. A study by the IBM Smarter Workforce Institute suggested that on average, 39% of recent hires would not be rehired, which means a lot of hiring mistakes are being made. This can be extremely costly.
A report from the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) found that although more than a third of companies believed hiring mistakes cost their business nothing, a poor hire at mid-manager level with a salary of £42,000 can cost a business more than £132,000, as a result of the accumulation of costs relating to training, lost productivity and more.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a sharp rise in redundancies, more people will be chasing the same jobs, making it even harder for companies to select the right candidates for a role. And, as businesses seek to recover from the crisis, having the best talent has never been so critical.
To address this issue, hiring managers and recruiters are rethinking their approach and some are embracing a data-driven hiring strategy to improve recruitment decision making and select talent more quickly and efficiently.
Predictive hiring is a recruiting technology that uses data and analytics to improve recruitment outcomes by recommending best-fit candidates. Bringing in a new hire is always a risk, but using predictive hiring technology, companies can minimise risks, and offer an innovative and unique way to improve and boost talent acquisition.
Below are the six key benefits of a predictive hiring approach:
Improving the quality of hire
While traditional hiring practices are often based on the brief screening of CVs and the recruiter’s gut-feeling during interviews, predictive hiring leverages historical data, statistical algorithms, and machine learning techniques to identify the likelihood of future outcomes. The goal is to go beyond knowing what has happened to provide a best assessment of what will happen in the future.
Lower staff turnover
Making sure employees have the ability and aptitude to perform well in a job is essential for them to stay long term. Using the right type of pre-employment assessments enables recruiters to accurately screen candidates and identify the right person for the job.
Previous experience alone will not tell hiring managers how well a candidate will perform; how the candidate will behave at work; or what motivates them. By assessing candidates’ personality, motivation and cognitive ability recruiters are more able to determine whether they will succeed and thrive in a position.
Faster recruitment
Using predictive talent acquisition software also helps employers streamline many repetitive and time-consuming processes involved in talent acquisition, particularly in the early stages of recruitment in attracting, sifting, and selecting candidates for interview. From the publishing of vacancies, to the screening of CVs to the scheduling of first phone interviews and face-to-face interviews, this software can save recruiters significant time and money.
Make consistent hiring decisions
Predictive hiring technology helps ensure consistency across the recruitment process. Predictive hiring tools come in various forms and can be used in almost every stage of the hiring process, from sourcing to screening to interviewing and selection. They can also be used beyond hiring to evaluate performance.
Diversity and inclusion
Many companies want to strengthen their diversity and benefit from the increased creativity, innovation, and diversity of thought a diverse team can deliver. However, a stumbling block has been the unconscious bias that creeps into the recruitment process, which can see candidates rejected because of their age or surname on their CV.
Predictive hiring technology ensures bias is removed from the early stages of the process and supports companies to make better and fairer hiring decisions. A pre-screening tool accurately sifts and selects only suitable candidates based on the details of their CV. It ranks and evaluates them against an employer’s job specification, selecting only candidates that meet and match the requirements.
Providing an excellent candidate experience and boosting the employer brand
Predictive hiring technology facilitates an improved applicant experience. For example, by doing pre-hire assessments that are based on predictive models, companies are better able to assess candidates and make data driven decisions. The assessments also contribute to an extraordinary user experience as they are often gamified (fun to do) and provide personalised insights into candidates.
If a candidate has had a good experience, even if they do not get the job, they will leave the process with a much more positive view of the organisation.
Nicolas Speeckaert recently took part our Live Chat Show series in a session called ‘Predictive Hiring – The Key to Talent Acquisition Success’. Click here to listen.
