A recent trend in recruiting and hiring is to use intuition and non-quantifiable factors to decide which candidate to hire. However, hiring decisions based on data can lead to better hires. Why? It is largely because data-driven hiring practices deliver more consistency than can be achieved by simply “playing it by ear.” How Data Informs Recruiting Recruiters in times past could really only reach those who were actively looking for work, even on social media sites like LinkedIn, but recruiting algorithms can now pinpoint individuals who are open to a new opportunity even if they have not signaled that they are actively looking. eBook: Using Social Media for Executive Search – Learn how to leverage social media in your executive search process more effectively. The process of executive recruiting is now largely dependent on finding individuals who would be good candidates for a job, identifying one or more who would consider leaving their present employer for the right opportunity, then becoming that opportunity. Data can be used to find and narrow down the pool of potential candidates, and even to rank them according to their ability to meet criteria most closely matched to the position. Using Data in Executive Recruiting Data can be collected from many different sources; employment applications and resumes are only two examples. There are also a number of other data sources, including information gathered from social media and information about individuals’ internet habits purchased from companies that specialize in gathering this data. The more you know about your potential candidates, the more you can gauge whether they fit the qualifications you are looking for before you engage in recruiting them. For example, looking at factors like commute times, articles people read online, and what people buy can yield valuable information about candidate viability. It’s important to weight the value of your data appropriately so that you do not overdo it in your tracking and analyzing candidates. Casting a broader net can be useful, but only if you can control the flow of data and use it properly. Using data and algorithms can yield better qualified candidates and aid in employee retention efforts. It can also limit the number of potential candidates to decrease the time spent in recruiting so that you can concentrate on the candidates that have the best chance of working out if they are hired. Avoiding the Pitfalls of Data Data can be overwhelming, and it is not useful to have lots of data if you do not have effective ways to analyze it. Software programs with strong data analytic functionality can help you make sense of your data more thoroughly. ThriveTRM software provides data analytics that can be easily understood and used in recruiting, focusing on the data that will matter most and centralizing it into one unified resource that makes tracking and ranking candidates easy. ThriveTRM integrates with Slack and can also import data from existing tracking systems. Schedule a demo of ThriveTRM today and put the power of data to work for your recruitment strategies.