Heading into 2021, staffing agencies need to be creative, resourceful and strategic with their operations in order to both stand out from the competition and to ensure their survival in a touch-and-go economy. Analyzing candidate data is one of the best ways to get to know your talent base; who they are, how to work with them and how to appeal to them in the most constructive ways possible.
Mining for candidate data can also help you to identify strengths and weaknesses in your strategies, then determine how to better connect with candidates and boost return on investment in your recruiting practices. There are hypothetically countless candidate metrics that can be calculated, but some of them are much more beneficial to improving your recruitment strategy, especially now, in the unique professional climate we have found ourselves in.
Want to make the most of your candidate data? Here are some of the key candidate metrics that will help boost your recruiting efforts in 2021.
Sourcing Channel
The sourcing channel metric determines which avenues your candidates, and importantly – your most successful candidates – are coming from. Popular sources include job boards, social media, company websites and personal referrals. However, spreading oneself (and one’s wallet) too thin across too many channels, especially when some of them aren’t bringing in qualified talent, can mean wasted effort and money. In a time when all resources need to be allocated as effectively as possible, this can pose a big problem.
The ways that candidates search for jobs is constantly changing. Figuring out exactly where your candidates are coming from can allow you to cut back on the methods that aren’t working for you and focus on the ones that are. Or, if you are determined to make a certain channel work, you can strategize how to better allocate funds in order to make that possible.
Because of its wide reach, a channel that is becoming increasingly prevalent is Google Jobs. 7 in 10 job seekers begin their job search on Google, where Google Jobs (of course) gets prime real estate. For this reason, boosting your presence on Google Jobs is typically a smart starting point when it comes to improving your sourcing strategy. Mindscope’s marketing division, TopTalent Communications, has developed an industry-leading job board that not only pushes your listings to Google Jobs, but directs candidates through Google to your website. TopTalent’s job board is designed to skyrocket your visibility on search engines, ensuring that more candidates than ever apply to your open positions. Find out more about our job board here.
Cost per hire
Your cost per hire, or on average how much money goes into the hiring process for your candidates, is one of the most common candidate metrics that staffing agencies use on a regular basis. Found by dividing the total costs of recruitment by the number of candidates hired in a certain time period, measuring your cost per hire can help you identify weak points in your financial strategy. 2020 showed us just how fragile the economy can be and how careful businesses need to be with their resources, so finding ways to save money by reallocating funds has never been more important.
The average cost per hire is around $4,000, so getting that cost down even a little bit can mean big returns at the end of the year. However, recruiters must make sure to not sacrifice quality of their recruitment practices in order to cut costs. Staying committed to offering top-notch service is one factor that all of your partners will be privy to, and brand reputation should never be compromised.
Automated communication can play a big role in cutting down on time and energy per placement. Mindscope’s Outlook integrated quick-response buttons allow recruiters to connect with candidates within seconds, potentially reducing the time-to-fill, which goes hand in hand with cost-per-hire. Creating mass email and SMS texting templates can also allow you to reach more candidates faster and with less effort.
Applicants per opening
All recruiters know the feeling of sifting through a seemingly endless list of applicants, only to conclude that there are but a handful of viable choices for the position. This can end up eating up a lot of recruiter time that could be better spent on activities like interviewing, onboarding and of course, recruiting more candidates.
The average applicant-per-opening is around 36 candidates. In a professional environment where time and energy expenditure are at a premium, sifting through nearly forty applications per job isn’t always a reasonable request. If your applicants per opening rate is high, there could be a few different reasons why, including vague job descriptions or ineffective search methods.
Getting this figure down is a little more difficult, because there will almost always be some unqualified candidates that apply to virtually every job that is posted, but there are still potential routes of action. Narrowing and specifying your job descriptions and requirements more can help to attract more suitable candidates, thus cutting down on applicants that do not quite fit the description. Reconfiguring your search methods to source more qualified candidates right from the start can also be helpful at reducing your applicant count.
Mindscope’s Reports
Candidate data is undeniably beneficial to making your recruiting efforts effective and exact in the new year and beyond. However, the accuracy of this data is critical – one miscalculation and your outcome could be completely skewed. Determining these numbers manually can be time-consuming and pose the potential for error, so harnessing this data from within your applicant tracking system is an efficient and competitive option.
A prime reason leading staffing and recruitment agencies choose Mindscope is because of our reporting functionality. Mindscope’s reports are more intuitive and flexible than ever before. Like every module in the system, the processes of running reports and collecting data from them have been streamlined and simplified, saving your team significant time and energy.
Some of the most powerful and insightful recruiting reports on the market exist within Mindscope’s innovative product. However, clients can hand pick the specific reports they find the most beneficial and save their preferences for future use. Users can now find valuable data on marketing sources, pipeline activities, timesheets and documents such as licenses and credentials, as well as countless additional data with just a few clicks.
Want to learn more about Mindscope’s new system and how it can help improve your recruiting strategy? Reach out to us today at support@mindscope.com or start your free 7-day trial.