// Knowledge base

How to use data analysis to improve your recruitment strategy

By Mitchel van Luit

2 min read

With data analytics, you get more out of your recruitment strategy. In eight steps, you will learn to collect relevant data, assess recruitment channels, track KPIs and even predict future hiring needs.

In short

✔ Gather data from your ATS, social media, job boards and internal HR systems.

✔ Analyse which recruitment channels deliver the most qualified candidates and optimise your budget.

✔ Monitor KPIs such as time-to-hire, cost-per-hire and quality-of-hire to identify bottlenecks.

✔ Predictive analytics helps you plan future recruitment needs.

Data analytics is a powerful tool that helps recruiters refine and optimize their recruitment strategies. By using data, organizations can make more informed decisions and make their recruitment processes more efficient. Here are some steps to effectively use data analytics in your recruitment strategy.

1. Collect relevant data

Identify important data sources: Collect data from various sources such as applicant tracking systems (ATS), applicant portals, social media, job boards and internal HR systems. This data may include information about applicants, recruitment channels, time-to-fill and other relevant metrics.

2. Analyze candidate sources

Assess the effectiveness of recruitment channels: Use data to determine which recruitment channels produce the most qualified candidates. Analyze the number of applications, the quality of the applicants and the costs per channel. This helps optimize your budget and target the most effective channels.

3. Track key KPIs

Determine and monitor KPIs: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as time-to-hire, cost-per-hire, and quality-of-hire provide insight into the effectiveness of your recruitment process. By continuously monitoring these KPIs, you can identify bottlenecks and implement improvements.

4. Use predictive analytics

Predict future hiring needs: Predictive analytics allows you to identify trends and patterns in your recruitment data. This helps anticipate future recruitment needs and plan your long-term recruitment strategy.

5. Optimize the candidate experience

Analyze the application experience: Use data to evaluate the interview process from the candidate's perspective. Identify points of friction, such as long response times or complex application forms, and improve them to optimize the candidate experience.

6. Benchmarking

Compare your performance with the industry: Use data to benchmark your hiring performance against industry standards. This helps identify areas where you are lagging and where improvement can be made.

7. Measure the quality of hires

Analyze the performance of new employees: Use data to track and analyze the performance of new employees. This can help measure the quality of hires and adjust recruitment criteria if necessary.

8. Personalize recruitment strategies

Use data for targeted campaigns: Analyze candidate data to create targeted and personalized recruitment campaigns. This increases the chance of attracting qualified candidates who are a good fit for your organization.

Conclusion

Data analysis provides valuable insights that recruiters can use to improve their recruitment strategies. By collecting relevant data, monitoring key KPIs and applying predictive analytics, organizations can optimize their recruitment processes and better meet the needs of both candidates and the organization. Integrating data analysis into your recruitment strategy leads to more efficient processes, higher quality of recruitments and ultimately to a stronger and more competitive team.

marketing psychology
The summary at the top (the “in short” block) lowers the barrier to entry: anyone who sees the core message first is subsequently more likely to read the whole article.

// Frequently asked questions

Questions about this subject.

Which metrics do you track if you want to improve recruitment?

Start with the question which source yields which candidates, how many applications remain per step, and how long it takes for a vacancy to be filled. Those three together show whether your problem lies in reach, in selection, or in speed.

How do I know which recruitment channel yields the best candidates?

By not only counting how many applications a channel generates, but also what happens to them afterwards. A channel with many applications that all drop out is more expensive than a channel with few applications that frequently make it to an interview.

What is predictive analytics in recruitment?

Based on previous recruitments, estimate when you will need which roles and how long they typically stay open. This allows you to start earlier instead of beginning at the moment the vacancy is already open. However, this does require you to have recorded those previous recruitments.

Written by

Mitchel van Luit

Behavioral psychologist & digital strategist with 8 years of experience in digital marketing and strategy.

// Read more

More from the knowledge base.

  • Article: 6 min read

    5 Best Alternatives to a Recruitment Marketing Agency (Netherlands)

    Alternatives to a recruitment marketing agency in the Netherlands: guide to [...]

    Read on →

  • Article: 4 min read

    International recruitment marketing agencies: how do they approach it?

    Introduction The labour market is no longer local or national. Talent [...]

    Read on →

  • Article: 6 min read

    5 Alternatives to a Recruitment Marketing Agency in Haarlem

    Alternatives to a recruitment marketing agency in Haarlem: guide for [...]

    Read on →

// Get started yourself

Would you rather we just do it for you?

All the knowledge from these articles is built into our approach as standard. In a 30-minute introductory meeting, you will hear what that means for your situation.