Data in Hiring – Small Data over Big Data
Data in hiring is certainly useful. It also needs wisdom to use. Finance has always used data even if some of it was misleading or wrongful. Production and Quality got in the act with Six Sigma and such. Sales figured out how to track customers and sales by organizing data.
Hiring has stayed out of it. But the big recruiters are now nuts about it. They find a phrase that many great hires use and then get the guys who use that phrase and hire one. Of course the best scammers know these phrases too, so the game begins.
Forbes mentions that Korn Ferry is way out front on using big data. Why is the biggest multi million dollar placement mistake I know by them in China? The guy they convinced this big company to take was bad news from day one, but he was super crafty and did not get caught for 18 months though he rarely came to work and played for 18 months while manipulating everything as necessary.
I guess that the Chinese were way out front on gaming these systems. Korn Ferry and the other big recruiters were never interested in going to data for quality. They wanted to save labor costs and increase contract to hire speed. They succeeded and got the biggest scammer in position faster. I think he knew his big data. So big data is possibly useful, but we found something better
Data in Hiring – Small Data?
So what are we to do? Go back to interview and hope? Well, many leaders and recruiters never left interview and hope actually. Wishing is still King! But data must have some place we say.
Others will say that people are too complicated. Some leaders will say they can know the right person or not in 15 minutes. Which is true? Are people completely inscrutable? Or are they an open book to the savvy?
I got into recruiting because I had a really good feel for the right talent. My hit rate was high and my home run rate were higher than all around me. However, I knew that my insight was limited and failures could occur.
So I looked more at the issue and realized that we had to get past interview and hope. Our unexpected feeling in the interview should lead us to seek data. But how can we get data?
If his old boss says he is great is that a certain good hire as that data point is unassailable?
We Need Objective Data
Data….We must find objective data. In fact the more we look and the more we think, the more objective data we find. We combine that with interview and resume data, and the picture gets clearer quite fast.
The big recruiters make bad placements despite big data. Now, they even make bad placements because of big data. They are rolling in customers and finding ways to lower costs every day. Why should they seek six sigma? It is hard work to dig up objective data. It is hard work to interview in such a way to set up the background check.
I knew conceptually what was needed for good hires, but with data we could rise even hire. We use small data. Small data is super useful.
SHI Group sees some places where data is king in our recruiting. We see other places where data is for reference use only. SHI Group chooses to doubt our gut feel and find a lot more via small data.
Furthermore, we choose to doubt big data as see the most dangerous hires game it too well. We also believe that no data solution can be full proof. Hiring will never be poka-yoke. Find a recruiter who can do more than use data to save labor. Find someone who knows that interview and hope is not good enough. Moreover, hope is often misplaced and makes a huge mess. Small data is king for us.