A PeopleFluent White Paper 5 Ways to Improve Talent Acquisition with HR Data Integration In the struggle to acquire, develop, and manage the right talent, your success depends more and more on the ability to integrate and leverage data. In the never-ending war for talent, data and data integration are quickly becoming your greatest weapons. The reason? Organizations that can tap into multiple data sources, and then put all of that information to use efficiently, have a tremendous advantage not only in acquiring the right talent but also in deploying
talent effectively, redeploying it nimbly to meet changes in the business, and developing people to their full potential. Fortunately, the pool of data that enterprises can tap into is wide and deep, and it s growing all the time. As an IDC report states, From 2005 to 2020, the digital universe will grow by a factor of 300, from 130 exabytes to 40,000 exabytes, or 40 trillion gigabytes (more than 5,200 gigabytes for every man, woman, and child in 2020). From now until 2020, the digital universe will about double every two years. Exabytes 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Source: IDC s Digital Universe Study, sponsored by EMC, December 2012 http://idcdocserv.com/1414 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 Of course, data management and integration are tall orders for many organizations. HR executives now identify data management as their primary technology focus, more than twice as much as any other, according to a 2013 article on the Argyle Journal s website. One of the main factors that makes data management and integration so challenging is the sheer number of data sources, systems and tools used by their various departments and functions. Aberdeen Group says that, on average, organizations integrate 19 external data sources. What s worse, these sources, systems, and tools often aren t connected. HSBC is one well-known example of the systems integration problem run amok. At one time, the bank had roughly 700 HR systems spanning its global operations. HSBC spent millions of dollars and worked for several years to pare down and integrate these systems. Data integration and continuous data management from multiple disparate systems are headaches for any enterprise. Transforming all your HRMS, payroll, financial, and talent management data into liquid data allows you to leverage it in new and powerful ways across systems. It future-proofs the ability to deliver faster implementations while reducing complexity and lowering overall costs of implementations and data management. Kevin Grossman Director, Content Development, PeopleFluent, Inc. While HSBC may represent an extreme example, Josh Bersin, founder of Bersin by Deloitte, says that large organizations typically have seven or more different systems managing HR data. Bringing this data together for meaningful analysis has become mission-critical, driving tremendous demand for integration tools to help rationalize, integrate, and analyze people-related data, he states. 5 Ways to Improve Talent Acquisition with HR Data Integration 2
And make no mistake the challenges of sound data integration and meaningful analysis are definitely worth the effort required: Aberdeen Group reports that organizations in which managers are able to find data they require with a frequency of 80% have greater operating profits and better client retention than those that do not. Regrettably, many recruiting functions operate without integrated data. They rely upon standard recruiting key performance indicators measurements such as time to hire, quality of candidate or hire, cost per hire, turnover rate, etc. But these indicators only incorporate data from within the recruiting system itself. Integrating data from other systems and sources opens up your base of knowledge and, therefore, your vision of the entire talent acquisition process. Operating from this wider base of knowledge, you can raise the level and intensity of your analysis and actionable results significantly. Naturally, to integrate and analyze our people data effectively we need to choose tools and systems that work well together and that best suit our organization s unique requirements. But that s only half the battle. The other half is determining the types of data we need to integrate. Here are five that are essential: Which HR Technology trend is the main focus of your organization for the remainder of 2014? 43% HR Data Management 19% Investment in Software 14% Recruitment & Retention 14% Boosting Engagement 10% HR Data Management Argyle Journal s website http://www.argylejournal.com/content/newscontent/data-management-voted-main-hrtechnology-focus/ 1. Compensation Data Compensation data is useful throughout the entire talent management lifecycle, not just during performance appraisals and career development sessions. During recruitment, for example, you need to make sure the offers you re making to candidates are competitive. And it would be wise to draw on information from a variety of sources to accomplish this perhaps one source for data related to the position itself, another source for geographically pertinent data, another for data related to years of experience, and so on. If your system integrates all of this data and all of these sources, your work will be far more costeffective and time-efficient. 2. Workforce Planning Data Workforce planning generates models of hiring needs based on data such as attrition, performance, flight risks, growth, and retirements. Integrating these models and data types into your system enables your recruiters to analyze and adjust talent pools based on anticipated hiring demands. For example, if you expect to lose staff in a specific part of the country or in a particular department due to scheduled retirements over the next 12 months, you can begin to build your talent pool in advance. 5 Ways to Improve Talent Acquisition with HR Data Integration 3
3. Scheduling Data Hiring managers who are forced to log into multiple systems to schedule interviews and input interviewing information often end up shunting the responsibility for these administrative chores back onto HR. If you have a single system that helps hiring mangers easily coordinate interviewing times and efficiently prepare for interviews, they re much more likely to maintain responsibility themselves. In addition, your system should integrate features that help hiring managers save time and effort features such as offering structured interviewing templates and consistent interviewing practices, automated calendar updates that streamline the interviewing process, the ability to manage large volumes of interview invitations, and easy delivery of branded emails to candidates for self-service interviewing date/time selection. 4. Social Data With the power and popularity of social media continuing to rise, several companies have sprung up that aggregate candidates social data from across the Web. This data can be integrated into your HR system to provide recruiters with a more complete picture of individuals who interest them. Entelo is one example. It uses a variety of techniques to collect data on an individual s entire public web presence to help recruiters find the best matches for their open positions. If you re looking to hire a programmer, for instance, having aggregated data on a candidate s activity across sites like GitHub and Stack Overflow will likely help you see the kinds of code they ve worked on, the projects they ve contributed to, the questions they ve answered, etc. This can make a real difference in the efficiency of your sourcing and recruiting. 5. Career site activity data By integrating data from your company s career website, you ll get a dual benefit: useful insights about your candidates along with information on how well your site is performing. You can measure the number of visitors and repeat visitors, abandonment rates, the specific pages that visitors are flocking to or dropping out of, the total time spent on your site, the keywords they re using to find you, etc. If you can t establish direct integration that ties specific activity on your career site to individual candidates (a level of detail that is most meaningful), you might want to measure overall web activity relative to your top-level recruiting objectives. For example, did specific improvements to your career site correlate to an increase in any of your recruiting KPI s (such as quality of hire) over the same time period? 5 Ways to Improve Talent Acquisition with HR Data Integration 4
While there are a staggering number of data types and sources that can be integrated into your HR systems, these five are especially helpful and they re a great place to start if your organization is looking for better ways to leverage its people data. Managing a Blended Workforce Data integration also is a tremendous advantage for enterprises managing blended workforces (i.e., those containing significant numbers of both full-time and contingent workers). In fact, data integration is especially important to these organizations because many still have siloes in their structures and processes, particularly when it comes to sourcing and developing talent. Full-time workers are often the responsibility of the HR department, while contingent workers are the responsibility of the Procurement or Purchasing departments. Without sound data integration, it s all too easy for talent pipelining, talent acquisition, and workforce planning to be fragmented and disorganized. With integrated data, systems, and tools, enterprises reap the benefits of holistic talent management. These benefits include: 1) The ability to better incorporate contingent workers into the recruiting process. This is especially valuable to enterprises in which the recruiting team is not directly responsible for bringing on contingent workers. When recruiters have access to comprehensive data on contingent workers (how long they ve been at your firm, what their skill sets are, what roles they ve been in, and how they performed), they can advise procurement leaders on how to provide hiring managers with guidelines and tools, including assessments, so they can more easily find effective contingent staff and retain them. Even though contingent workers may not qualify for full benefits or other workplace perks, it s important that your company project a consistent brand image and corporate culture to both the contingent and traditional employee population and the corporate recruiting organization is uniquely positioned to bridge that gap if it has access to integrated data. 2) A broader base for sourcing and greater flexibility for filling the position with the right candidate. Why go on an external search for a candidate when you already might have the perfect one in-house? System integration also can provide candidates with a simplified application process, a more transparent process for accessing a greater breadth of positions, and consistent messaging across the recruitment and hiring processes. 5 Ways to Improve Talent Acquisition with HR Data Integration 5
3) An improved ability to help workers change status and roles. With integrated data and systems, employers can help people move freely between permanent and contingent positions as the organization s or the individual s needs change. Just because someone may have been in a contingent role for a while doesn t mean they re not the best candidate for other contingent or even other permanent work. Integrated data helps employers see their entire talent pools clearly so that they can act on these changes and opportunities as they arise. Dozens of experts across the HR industry have observed that it s not a shortage of workers that companies should fear in the years ahead. What we should fear and prepare for is a shortage of the right workers: the individuals with the specific talents, personal qualities, interests, and career goals that best align with an organization s needs. More and more, finding these people among the masses of job seekers out there comes down to our ability to integrate, and leverage data. As mentioned earlier, the organizations that integrate multiple data sources and put all of that information to efficient use have tremendous competitive advantages in the war for talent and for revenues. These advantages include improved talent pipelining, targeted talent acquisition, reduced turnover, data-driven workforce planning, greater operating profits, and better client retention, to name a few. But to secure these advantages, the data we gather must be easy to find, easy to manipulate, and easy to use in facilitating our decision-making process. In the future, we ll have access to data sets that we can t even envision at this time data sets that will become integral to our talent acquisition initiatives. Even though it s a challenge, savvy companies are already working to improve the flexibility of their systems and processes, making them ready to incorporate the ever-growing pool of data at their disposal. 5 Ways to Improve Talent Acquisition with HR Data Integration 6
About PeopleFluent TM PeopleFluent, the leading total workforce HCM technology company, redefines Talent Management with an innovative Talent Engagement Cloud that is built around people and not HR processes. By deeply integrating pervasive video, strategic analytics and collaborative social technologies into its complete suite of Talent Management applications, PeopleFluent redefines employee engagement to address productivity loss and diminished financial results due to an increasingly disengaged workforce. With PeopleFluent, companies can change at the speed of business without costly IT interventions through intuitive, highly configurable software that is built upon the right data. Spanning across an organization s entire global workforce with one talent cloud, PeopleFluent equips leaders with the meaningful talent data and strategic analytics necessary to make better business decisions. PeopleFluent has worked with over 5,100 organizations in 214 countries and territories to engage employees to drive better business results. Today, 80% of the Fortune 100 relies on PeopleFluent as part of their talent management delivery strategy, helping them successfully achieve their talent aspirations. Waltham, Massachusetts 300 Fifth Avenue Waltham, MA 02451 USA Tel: +1-781-530-2000 Raleigh, North Carolina 434 Fayetteville Street, 9th Floor Raleigh, NC 27601 USA Toll-Free: (877) 820-4400 Tel: +1-919-645-2800 London, United Kingdom 15 Fetter Lane London EC4A 1BW United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 20 7832 3440 www.peoplefluent.com Copyright 2014, PeopleFluent. All rights reserved. PeopleFluent is a registered trademark, and Recruiting Mirror, Colossus and the PeopleFluent logo are trademarks, of PeopleFluent. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.