Real time data capture and analysis is a key factor in managing an efficient Supply Chain and making continuous improvements.

Could more organisations benefit from applying similar principles to their People Supply Chain when it comes to recruiting?

Many organisations have systems in place to track lead times from identification of a vacancy through to onboarding, number of applicants, sources of candidates etc. This is useful if you want to speed up the internal recruitment process or identify choke points, but aside from that this information is very limited, especially considering that you will have invested a lot of time in the hiring process and are missing key information which will help with future decision making and ultimately business growth.

With the right systems and processes in place for capturing better data you could place your organization many steps ahead of the competition when it comes to winning the talent war.

Here’s The People Supply Chain list of useful data to track, capture, and analyse for your organisations future hiring benefit!

Candidate Hotspots

Where in the world are the majority of suitably qualified potential candidates based for the specific role you are trying to hire for.

Generating a birds-eye view of which locations in the world are home to the people with the skills you require will save copious amounts of time (and money) on future searches for similar roles.

Applications Vs Approaches

Where did each candidate come from and how many applied themselves directly versus those who were actively approached?

This is great data in order to see how proactive you were at finding people.

It’s also useful to see just how many people want to work for your organization in the advertised role and where they are coming from. Maybe potential applicants have a better impression of your organization in some countries than they do in others, or your organization is more visible in certain markets.

Skills Gaps & Diversity

We live and work in a world where skills gaps are everywhere and we are constantly losing vast amounts of skills and experience across many industries as the older generation retires from the workplace without enough sufficiently qualified people to take their place. By monitoring certain demographics throughout a hiring process organization’s can track potential skills gaps amongst various groups of people for specific functions with the benefit of being able to predict future skills gaps and provide training and development opportunities where necessary.

Industry Verticals

Which industries are the people with the skills you require mainly coming from?Depending on the function this could be limited to just a few verticals or it could be vast… either way this is essential knowledge for future targeted hiring!

Reasons Why Candidates Declined.

Why weren’t people interested in the job when approached? Perhaps the package is below the market rate, perhaps your expectations of skills and experience are too high, perhaps the location isn’t appealing enough or perhaps your employer brand needs improving?

The list goes on, but the point is that if you know the core factors you can work on making changes for the future.

Reasons for Rejection

It’s very important to know why your organization rejected certain applicants, (I am talking about the applicants who had close enough experience to make it through to the later stages of the hiring process, not the hundreds of people who applied but didn’t pass the initial CV screening)  it could be as simple as they lacked specific key skills and experience… but if that applies to the vast majority of candidates then it’s a good indicator that you really are asking for too much in a person.

Perhaps the person with ALL of the skills and experience that you are looking for simply doesn’t exist!

I recently learnt an excellent German expression that sums this up perfectly…

“Eierlegende Wollmilchsau”

Google it, or ask a German colleague!

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