Article: 3 reasons why recruitment is becoming scientific

Talent Acquisition

3 reasons why recruitment is becoming scientific

Recruitment today is becoming progressively statistical and hence very scientific in nature, here are three cornerstones behind this upcoming trend
3 reasons why recruitment is becoming scientific
 

Recruitment is not just about hiring, it includes planning for and answering who, when and where

 

Recruitment today is becoming progressively statistical and hence very scientific in nature, here are three cornerstones behind this upcoming trend

Acquiring great talent has always been one of the core functions of HR. As HR moves to becoming a strategic partner in business growth, the challenges become thrilling. Recruitment reaps its quintessence from the fact that it is the first step of the people plan. Getting the right person for the right job at the right time is imperative in any scenario. “It isn’t just about hiring but about smart hiring today”, echo industry experts. Even with heaps of CVs and a plethora of tools at their disposal, they insist that talent acquisition is a hard nut to crack.

Recruitment is not just about hiring, it includes planning for and answering who, when and where. Taking a methodical approach with befitting supporting elements, mass or niche hiring can be concluded efficiently. On brainstorming to look for simplified solutions for this process, three fundamental dimensions emerge as essentials for business excellence in this paradigm.

• Objectifying the recruitment strategy
The selection mechanism is now more rigorous than ever before. Himanshu Aggarwal of Aspiring Minds stresses on the indisputable effect that statistical design could have on accuracy while testing the capabilities of a candidate. “If we can objectify what we are trying to evaluate and make the process secure through statistical measures, then we can reach a substantial level of scalability too,” adds Himanshu. Industry experts feel that besides domain expertise, the big question remains – identifying what attitude an individual brings to the table. Today, this is typically done through psychometric and situation testing. Also, companies are trying to learn from the personal experience of the candidates that come in, regardless of the fact that they are selected or not to objectify the process. “Soliciting feedback from the interviewers as well as candidates about their interviews and related interventions, company perception and the entire experience in general is very helpful in assessing the talent strategy in an objective way,” commented Adil Nargolwala of WNS Global.

• Employing data analytics in hiring
Scores of data is collected on people planning, management and retention today. Though all this data is crucial while devising a hiring strategy for the company, it isn’t the easiest task to make sense of all the numbers together. “Demographics of the economy from a talent perspective keep changing over the years, but HR managers today have to find the right way to connect the dots and assess what works for the company from a performance, retention and qualifications perspective. Also important is revisiting these demographics periodically to update standards,” advises Monica Trehan of Genpact. Prosenjit Das of Sears IT and Management Services says, “The employment of statistical assessment and analysis in the entire recruiting process is regardless of the volume of talent being acquired.” Talent analytics help companies create a predictive index so that they can manage their people potential in most effective manner.

• Correlating performance and recruitment
Coming a full circle, companies today further gauge the effectiveness of their recruitment function by correlating their hiring data with the performance results at the end of a specified period of time. Experts believe that performance rating at the end of the year is a crucial criterion when assessing the talent strategy, but it can’t possibly be the sole criteria. Calculating this correlation might not always be consequential though – considering the time frame to be considered could be different for different situations and organizations. “Figuring out the ideal time frame for an organization to evaluate the return on investment on a candidate is a challenge that HR managers encounter,” comments Rohit Ramani of RBS. Also, determining the effectiveness of recruitment on the basis of performance is not feasible since multiple other functions of HR like training, learning and development, engagement et cetera also get involved once a candidate is on the floor.

We have come a long way since the time when hiring was based on just domain expertise and emotional connect at the interviewing and testing helm. The industry today is looking at hiring professionals who are committed to work because it relates to the interests of both: the company and the candidate. Thus, in order to bring some amount of standardization to recruitment, this progress through scientific methods is definitely a step in the right direction.

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Topics: Talent Acquisition, Technology

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