People Analytics in the Era of Big Data

CHAPTER 6 Talent Acquisition Analytics

Your dedication should not be confined for your own gain, but should unleash your passion.

—Li Ka-shing

We all know hiring the right employee is critical to an organization’s success. Whether the organization is small or large, hiring the wrong person can lower productivity, create a bad working environment for others, and hamper your firm’s ability to succeed. Hire the wrong people consistently, and it spells certain disaster for your organization.

Historically, hiring was done by reviewing resumes or applications, in-person interviews, and a gut feeling and intuition regarding how someone would do in a job. You took a chance on an employee because he or she “felt good for the job.” To some extent, many organizations still hire this way. However, analytics has been stepping in to take some of the guesswork out of hiring. At a minimum, analytics provides an additional perspective on candidates applying to your job openings. At most, analytics can predict whether someone will be successful in a job, giving you peace of mind and taking some of the uncertainty out of such an important decision.

The hiring pillar in our Seven Pillars of People Analytics Success highlights the importance of using analytics to optimize the interview process and to select job applicants for interviews. It also helps to determine the best ways to vet candidates, how to set up interview questions, and how to create some tests that can be used to analyze the ...