5 Steps for Coaching HR to Improve Analytics Recruiting Results
Talent acquisition teams in corporations are generalists by necessity. It is impossible for corporate HR and talent acquisition teams to be experts in every niche and discipline and it makes little commercial sense to hire specialists for niches like Analytics (even if you could find them). So the process of recruiting these niche, rare candidates can be time-consuming, labor-intensive and expensive.The good news is that there are a few simple tweaks that you can make to your process and the way that you interact with your corporate HR team that can increase your chances of success.If I was the VP of Analytics at XYZcorp and I had to fill a key position I would follow the following 5 steps which would require me to invest two and a half hours over a 2-3 week period to set my talent acquisition team up for success.Step 1: I would sit across from my recruiter for 30-minutes or until I was sure they understood:
- The role - What does this person do every day, what impact does that have on the team, business unit & the company, what tools do they use, what experience do they need, what would make someone successful and happy in the role?
- The marketplace for talent - Where do these people sit today? What is the size of the target market? What is likely to be motivating to them? How much are they making?
Step 2: I would invest 30-minutes sitting with them to run through candidate searches in the company ATS and LinkedIn to see what combinations of keywords and search criteria seem to yield the best profiles. This will:
- Give your recruiter a headstart on how to structure their search
- Help you calculate the size of the market and help you refine your qualifications and criteria
- Come up with a plan to iterate the search criteria as needed
Step 3: From there I would ask my recruiter to put together the best 10-15 profiles that they can find. I would spend 30-minutes reviewing the profiles and talking about what is positive and negative about each. This will help to fine tune the priorities and make sure you and your recruiter are on the same page in terms of what you are looking for.Step 4: Next I would spend 30-minutes on messaging. What is going to be motivating to these people? How do we describe our opportunity in those terms? These people get several inquiries a week. How do we get them to invest the time to explore our role?Step 5: The final 30-minutes would be spent on screening. Most HR people want to do a first round phone screen. What are they asking candidates? How are they evaluating them? Perhaps most importantly, how are they describing the opportunity? Are they selling it correctly and honestly?I know how hard it can be to carve out time, but if you run through a process like this with your HR / talent acquisition manager you can expect to see much more consistent results.Have an analytics job to fill? Learn more about how we can help.
