How to Use Big Data for Talent Acquisition and Training

Talented job candidates often feel like positions are randomly filled when they receive a rejection. Or, worse, hear nothing at all. Meanwhile, HR professionals often feel like the best candidates get buried under a flood of applications from unqualified talent. Like many other challenges, challenges to talent acquisition are solvable using technology.

There’s one answer to both problems:  intelligent automation of talent assessment using Big Data. The top companies in every industry are exploring this technology because the Age of the Talent Wars has begun.

2 Trends + 1 Statistic = Competition

Two trends have converged to drive this intense competition for top talent acquisition. The world of HR sits at the intersection of an aging work population and technology that changes faster than trainers can train.

It’s estimated 60 percent of professions will see one-third of their essential activities automated using technology that exists today. The jobs requiring the most management, decision-making, and application of expertise will be the least vulnerable to workforce automation.

That process will further lower-skilled talent into the job market, which makes it more difficult to find and secure the star performers. As more boomers hit retirement age, there will be a dwindling number of Gen X and Millennials who have the necessary skills to lead companies in new directions.

Fortunately, HR professionals have new technology to thank for an original solution. Big Data analysis and visualization tools can help you cut through the vast volumes of applicants who don’t match your current needs. Likewise, Big Data can guide you in building the company’s dream team.

3 Stages of Talent Acquisition

There are 3 stages of talent acquisition. Here’s how it works at each stage:

1. Big Data for Locating Talent:  Data provides insights on which social networks and media outlets will be the best platforms for contacting the best talent.
2. Big Data in Application Filtering:  Machine learning and AI advances are becoming more effective at reading for context. As a result of these advances, HR can sift through applications as fast as they arrive from a variety of sources.
3. Big Data for Candidate Analysis:  While application filtering was broad but shallow, this search will be narrow but deep. It requires less time to verify the skills, references, and potential of best-match candidates.

The Data-Tailored Workplace

This is not a vision of the future. This is happening right now around the world. Talent acquisition analytics using Big Data is strengthening brand culture, building a new generation of leaders in-house, and delivering ROI to the bottom line.

Companies on board with this new recruitment approach are working at a competitive advantage and locking down future talent. In the end, the big winner is the talent, who are finally breaking through and getting hired at the companies that motivate them to perform at their best.

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