Data in Recruiting
Google wants to get the best information for you because that helps you make good decisions, so they have a quote that I think we can learn from:
Self management is facilitated by…inhouse debate driven by data rather than opinion.
Easier said than done, so let’s think on this for a while.
Google has a very flat organization chart and has meetings of coworkers to decide many things. The pertinent thing is that opinions are not what they need but, rather, people coming with data.
Responsible decision making needs data. Garbage in means garbage out is applicable in many fields.
Here I will train our focus on recruiting. Lots of people are dissatisfied with recruiting quality and reasonably so. Companies get a pool of candidates whose quality is weak. They interview, and the information they get for the candidates is suspect. The result is that hiring is a crap shoot instead of science.
Bad Data in Recruiting is the Biggest Problem
If a candidate makes us feel good in the interview they are highly likely to get the job even though they got fired at the last three places they worked. This little fact is never shared. The work place is unhappy. If you like a candidate than all your check marks will be positive just because you liked the person. The data is skewed. Some of these guys that you like will always be clicking with you, but turnover under them will be high as they turn around and dump on subordinates. See also Great Interviewing is Not Enough.
If you put a great person in a position and everything gets better, you know how valuable that is. In truth, you got lucky. Good people do exist in every company, but the environment often makes them unhappy. See also Data in Hiring-Small Data Over Big Data.
SHI Group have looked deeply at this question for decades and has good news for you. The problem with recruiting quality is failure of the getting good data.(see the video)
Let me discuss two pieces of data.
One piece is how well do the recruiters understand the requirements? If recruiters do not dig enough to understand clearly what you need, then you will not resolve your pool quality.
The other data problem is candidates and even recruiters skew data, so the picture is not accurate. Neither of these issues are rare at all. They are a key reason politics and bad hiring is so common.
What you need is to get a recruiter who gets both of these data points right every time. We started recruiting to do that very thing, and our customers agree.