Improving Employee Engagement and Productivity via Big Data Recruitment
Last Updated May 28, 2019
EHarmony has mastered the ability to connect people based on data, and it plans to use the same strategy behind its business model to tap into the market of people in search of the perfect job, rather than the perfect mate.
The new job recruitment platform, Elevated Careers by eHarmony, matches job seekers with potential companies based on factors involving culture, personality, and skill using a “Compatibility Scorecard” that uses the information provided in a questionnaire to tell you how compatible and satisfied you are with your current job and company. The scorecard breaks down individual and company values so both can see what they have in common to understand compatibility. Along with eHarmony’s matching technology, the scorecard pairs candidates with job listings.
EHarmony is the latest firm to tap into the new and growing trend of data-driven recruitment, in which organizations use this information to help find talent. A number of corporations are learning how to gather big data through things like behavioral analyses to reveal the things they don’t know or aren’t even thinking about when it comes to their employees. Another common HR tool that is fueled by data is predictive workforce planning, which aligns the employee needs of a business with how HR plans to supply that need.
A company culture driven by data uses credible, objective, measurable information to guide decision making. As technology evolves, data-driven cultures are going to become more common in the business world. Even though the recruiting world has taken its time latching on to this trend, things are beginning to change quickly.
Data-driven recruitment may also increase a company’s performance and boost employee engagement. Information about a candidate’s personality and how the person fits within a particular company’s culture could play a much bigger role in addressing retention, engagement, and productivity among employees.
Big data provides corporations with the reasoning behind issues concerning employee engagement and productivity. By looking closer at this data, companies can gain a better understanding of how issues like these can be addressed and over time how to avoid them in the future.
Despite the benefits of a data-driven HR model, most companies are hesitant to adopt a new process because they don’t know where to start. However, companies that want to stay ahead of their competitors may have no choice but to join in on the growing trend of HR data (turnover rate, ROI, promotion rate, absence rate), ready or not.
“Analytics will take action or make a recommendation,” said Holger Mueller, Vice President Principal Analyst at Constellation Research. “As such, they make a recruiters’/business users’ life easier.”
Using Big Data to Find Talent: Elevated Careers by eHarmony
Elevated Careers, which launched in April, requires job candidates to upload a resume and fill out a profile. Profile information is then paired with eHarmony’s matching technology to connect individuals with job matches based on skills, values, and personality. Searches can be conducted based on keywords and other parameters. Job seekers can directly apply for jobs matching search queries, as well as view compatibility information and predicted job satisfaction with a specific organization, helping lead to higher productivity and retention among employees.
Employers who want to begin using Elevated Careers are not required to complete a compatibility questionnaire. The site’s database is constantly being updated using offline research and information from similar companies and other job seekers. With that information, Elevated Careers creates a culture profile for a firm, and that is how the site matches a company with potential employees compatible with an organization’s culture.
Sites like Monster.com and LinkedIn.com do not pair job seekers with positions based on compatibility, skills, values or any kind of data; instead, those sites present candidates with thousands of job openings.
Elevated Careers has also partnered with Simply Hired to provide job seekers with access to the job postings on that site. Over the next 12 months, eHarmony hopes to add more partners to Elevated Careers and get 1 million job seekers using its platform. Their goal: “to make employees happier, while reducing churn and adding performance for the company,” according to a TechRepublic article.
Using Big Data to Drive Engagement and Productivity
Since the economic crash of 2008, Americans in the workforce have been struggling to adapt to the fluctuating economy. However, while the economy has improved immensely over the years, the attitude of Americans in the workforce has remained stagnant.
According to Gallup, only 35% of Americans can say they feel engaged and happy to be in their current position at work, which is causing a lot of companies to lose money. The results of another Gallup study found that disengaged employees cost the U.S. somewhere between $450 billion to $550 billion per year in lost productivity. An employee that isn’t feeling engaged or motivated isn’t going to be as productive as an employee that is passionate about what they are doing.
“The general consciousness about the importance of employee engagement seems to have increased in the past decade,” said Gallup’s Chief Scientist for Workplace Management and Wellbeing, Jim Harter, Ph.D., according to a Gallup article. “But there is a gap between knowing about engagement and doing something about it in most American workplaces.”
With the implementation of data-driven processes, companies should begin to slowly close that gap. Using things like predictive analytics can provide companies with information about employees looking to leave, identify the need for mentoring, new jobs, or advancement which in turn will improve employee satisfaction and engagement ultimately decreasing employee turnover and increasing productivity.
Wells Fargo recently developed a predictive model to help them with selecting qualified candidates for teller and personal banker positions, according to an article in the McKinsey Quarterly. The company worked with Kiran Analytics to identify qualities that engaged high-performing employees in client-facing positions and looked for those specific qualities in potential candidates. At the end of the program’s first year, new employee retention was up by 15% for tellers and 12% for personal bankers.
Using data analytics, companies can better select employees whose values and qualities align with the organization and identify the reasons behind current employee disengagement, ultimately resulting in happier and more productive employees.
How to Implement Data-Driven Recruitment
Most companies already use analytics to improve other functions throughout the business, making it easier for recruiting leaders to implement a new data-driven HR model. Here are seven ways to help promote a data-driven recruiting culture at your company, according to Jibe, a company specializing in recruiting software.
- Get Executive Buy-In – Having the support of your organization’s senior leaders is a necessity when it comes to exploring data initiatives and acquiring the funds needed for training on new skills and tools.
- Empower Your Team with Technology – Without having access to the right technology and training on how to make the most of it, your team will cease to have a true data-driven culture.
- Test Your New Program First – Deploying your new system in small increments or to a small number of applicants at first will give you a chance to start collecting feedback and looking at the results without messing up your entire talent acquisition strategy.
- Establish Clear Goals – Before launching new data initiatives, clear goals need to be established and specific responsibilities need to be assigned out to each member of your team.
- Let Tech Users Lead the Charge – Someone that is already familiar with the latest advances in the tech world will adapt quickly to new data tools.
- Incorporate Change Management into Your Approach – Not everyone is a fan of change, so have a plan in place to address resistance and concerns among your employees.
- Don’t Forget to Continuously Improve – Demonstrating the ability to adapt based on results will make your data-driven culture stronger and over time, produce better recruitment.
