Most organizations we speak with are “data-rich and insights poor”. Companies have tons of data but lack the tools and resources to make sense of it. At Mindfield, we break our customer’s data strategy into three categories – employment branding and candidate sourcing, assessment and selection, and post-hire surveys.

#1) Employment branding and candidate sourcing 

We track and measure data on two core things: data on the job seeker and how job seekers interact with the careers site, job advertisements, and email campaigns.

All activities on the careers site are measured by using Google Analytics. The key data points that we monitor are:

  • Conversion rates – visitor to applicant
  • Unique and total visitors
  • Percent of mobile job seekers
  • Time spent on site
  • Visitor workflow
  • Traffic sources
  • Conversion rates per source

We use all these data to increase the volume of visitors and the conversion rates on our customer’s career sites. On average, Mindfield has a conversion rate of over 18% of website visitors to applicants.

This data allows us to objectively evaluate what is working in driving interest in our customer’s employment brand.  Career site information supports the changing of web pages, search engine optimization strategies, regional and job board strategy and improving the candidate experience.

#2) Assessment and selection

Mindfield runs our Like-minds Predictor (LMP) as the last step for every job seeker application. The LMP is a 90 question assessment that measures 10 key behavioral traits to help us determine an applicant’s cultural and behavioral fit for a specific company and job. Through consistent tweaks and improvements, we have been able to accomplish an average drop off rate of less than 12%. We generate tremendous insights on whether the candidate is a good fit, their strengths and weaknesses and the likelihood of being a cultural fit with our client

This step in the process provides Mindfield with data on which applicants are the best-fit, what behaviors are most associated with performance, which source (job boards / social networks) these individuals came from and if they were a first-time or repeat visitor to the site. Our data also tracks how long it took them to complete the application, and provides us with the ability to evaluate them against multiple roles within an organization.

Assessment data can provide deep insights into a company’s ideal candidate profile and also provide an objective benchmark for quality. It helps remove any doubt on what a great candidate should look like.

#3) Post-hire surveys

There are three key surveys that reveal critical pieces of information in completing the data-driven hiring process.

  1. New-hire performance – Gain insight from a new hire’s manager on how well they are performing to date and why or why not their performance is acceptable. This is the first step in understanding post-hire data.
  2. New hire onboarding – In parallel with the new-hire performance survey, we like to send new employees a survey at 30 days to better understand the hire’s overall satisfaction and experience. This includes quality of training, engagement levels, feelings of integration into the organization, and if the employment brand promise meets the reality of the job and company.
  3. Exit surveys – If you don’t know why quality people are leaving your organization, focusing on things such as EVP or selection tools can be a waste of time. What’s critical is to understand the top 3-5 drivers of why individuals are leaving your organization voluntarily. These drivers can equip you with more information than any other survey as it relates to improving your workforce with data. There are many services firms and web applications that can easily capture, analyze, and report on the key drivers for voluntary exit.

Conclusion

When approaching the development of a data-driven hiring strategy, categorized your data into three sections. Here’s a simple checklist to get you started:

  • Ensuring Google Analytics is set up on your careers site
  • Conversion goal tracking is set up on the last page of the application process
  • Electronic assessment tool is in place that measures behaviors
  • An ATS that can pull ad hoc reports
  • A system to administer electronic surveys to key stakeholders.

Every department in your company leverages data to improve decision-making and results, shouldn’t HR?

To learn more about how Mindfield can improve the quality of your hourly workforce with data-driven hiring strategies, click here.