Why Haven't You Hired a Recruitment Analyst Yet?

June 17, 2016 at 10:33 AM by Rob Stevenson

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Every talent team readily accepts the need to monitor recruitment metrics. But who's really keeping count?

There's a serious discrepancy between which recruitment metrics talent teams think they should be tracking, and what's actually being tracked, according to research by Kyle Lagunas, IDC talent acquisition research manager.

So why aren't most talent teams analyzing recruitment data? For one thing, doing so requires at the very least, manual data pulling and Excel know-how, and at the most, technical chops to the tune of R and MySQL. Whose role is it to measure and crunch the details?

Cue the Recruitment Analyst.

Jen Boulanger, Head of Global Recruitment at Booking.com, has a dedicated recruitment analyst who does no recruiting or sourcing, and has no previous experience in HR or talent. This employee's job is to export data from the organizations various sourcing tools, and to turn it into actionable insights for the team. I followed up with Jen after her recent Talent 42 panel discussion to learn how her team is leveraging this hire to more effectively source candidates.

How did you decide it was time to hire a recruitment analyst?

It was the first hire I asked for when I joined Booking. At the time, I was digging through Google sheets and doing analysis myself. I showed my manager early insights and said “If I had an analyst, think of what we could do! I need this role to scale.”

What’s the ideal background of this person? Do they necessarily need to have a history in talent?  

No HR or talent required. In fact, I think it's better to not have that – they look at things in a new way. What you're looking for is a background in data science or analytics, and experience in R, programming, and Google analytics.

What metrics should this person look at to best help the team?

Funnel metrics, recruiting workflows, recruiter ratios, attrition, time to hire, source and quality of hire. They should be able to forecast, build models and identify trends.

Boulanger isn’t the only one who sees the need for a dedicated analyst on her talent team. McKinsey & Company is also working to build a team of recruitment analysts. Here’s an excerpt from the job description:

  • Maintain weekly/monthly pipeline reports. Identify important trends, measure performance against goals, and alert teams to concerning issues
  • Conduct key analyses on annual basis to support recruiting effort (e.g., success of assessment techniques, monitor effectiveness of recruiting programs (workshops, events), etc.)
  • Respond to ad hoc requests from recruiting leadership, recruiting teams, internal departments, etc.
  • Prepare documents and materials for leadership meetings, reviewing results and modeling different strategic options for future recruiting
  • Communicate analysis in both written and oral formats to a wide range of audiences

This job description can help you envision the breadth of the role at your own organization, and the value a dedicated analyst can provide to your recruiters and company.

What are your thoughts on hiring a dedicated recruitment analyst? Let us know in the comments!

Related posts:

Kyle Lagunas on Why Talent Teams Aren't Tracking Recruiting Metrics
3 Recruiting Metrics That Don't Tell the Whole Story
How False Negatives and False Positives Are Both Sabotaging Your Hiring Process

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