Destroying Talent Acquisition to Save It.

Talent Acquisition and the way companies hire has evolved from “gut instinct” to measurable engineered processes led by people analytics. I am not just talking about time-to-fill metrics and decade old ratios on hiring. The growing field of Talent Analytics is aimed at making hiring predictive, attrition low and employee satisfaction and performance high. If recruitment (and HR) were to embrace the many artificial intelligence (ai) and machine learning tools available and recruitment leaders learn analytics the industry would earn itself a prominent seat at the executive table.

Why the need for change in hiring? In HRE's article, "Will Data Science Save HR—or Kill It?", Peter Cappelli discusses hiring as a "gut decision" made by local leaders vs. data science that optimizes performance and outcomes with rules derived from objective principles. Cappelli explains that the human relations movement of the 1930s ushered in debates over engineering orientation (Theory X) and the newer behavioral orientation (Theory Y) and in the decades that followed, Theory Y has allowed randomness in hiring allowing managers to use no criteria or measures to ensure practices are working. "Human judgment", Cappelli points out, is the problem for which algorithms (Theory X) are the solution.” The article is fascinating look at the evolution we are seeing in HR.

"Human judgment is the problem for which algorithms are the solution.”

How do we get there? Like most things, it begins with admitting we don’t know everything and then learning. As a financial analyst turned recruiter from the last 2008 recession, the evolution of analytics in hiring has been, admittedly, an obsession of mine. I’ve made People Analytics the kickoff talks for all of our 1-day TechRecruit Conferences with speakers offering deeper dives on the TechRecruit Podcast. We’ve even hosted several “Women Leading Data” panels through our CTO Roundtable tech mixers and recently I enrolled in Heather Whitmans Future Workplace Academy while assessing my own role as a strategists in the pursuit of talent.

Where do you see analytics role in hiring? We’d love to hear your thoughts!