Today’s human resources departments may have to consider utilizing additional methods to recruit the next generation of hires because the days of newspaper advertisements and phone calls to the secretary are for yesterday’s applicant pool. Through the use of HR software solutions, Big Data and social media, hiring managers are sitting on a “gold mine of data,” Success Factors vice president Thomas Otter told HR Magazine UK.
“HR is at a point where marketing was 20 years ago,” Otter said. “Marketing is now deeply numerate and they know how to use analytics to make a point.”
Otter added that the use of data analytics makes it easier to sift through a larger applicant pool. At first glance, utilizing the internet as a place to find prospective hires can be overwhelming, but HR software solutions can simplify this process with specific filters.
Before utilizing data, HR needs to solve this issue
However, how can human resources departments maximize their recruiting efforts when they have yet to make the most of their in-house HR systems? According to a survey from SilkRoad, an HR solution provider, about 73 percent of hiring professionals have yet to fully integrate hiring, training and payroll processes in one place.
This means that many of the issues that staffers had before going digital are still happening because of the many steps it takes to transfer employee information.
Information like a worker’s profile, activity spreadsheets and other work-related functions have yet to be fully optimized to improve the department’s overall operations, Bloomberg’s BNA reported. Most of the integration that has been made within is for onboarding and recruiting purposes. While expediting the hiring process is important, human resources are responsible for other tasks like processing paid time off and retirement packages.
Out of 380 participants in SilkRoad’s study, only 13 percent of respondents have said that their business’ HR software is integrated to complete many tasks. When HR professionals were asked about including Big Data in hiring strategies, only 19 percent of participants said that their company is working on implementing these solutions.
Businesses that want to make the most out of the Big Data may want to start analyzing soon because it is projected to impact multiple work sectors, including human resources.