3 tips for using workforce science to attract and retain talent
Published July 11, 2014 11:44 AM
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Updated July 14, 2014 11:30 AM
1 Min Read
Workforce science shows promise in helping reduce turnover and recruiting costs, with some employers reporting that those candidates who are hired using talent science stay at the job up to 20% longer than those who are not. Here are three tips for employers who may be considering using workforce science to attract and retain employees, along with one trend and one prediction.
[Image:Shutterstock]
[Image:
1. Choose a vendor that will do more than just generate reports.
Go beyond that vendor relationship and make sure that you find a partner who will take the time to really understand your business and really understand the problems youre trying to solve and the questions you want answered, says Amy L. Kaufman, vice president of global talent and HR for the Results Companies, a call center organization with about 2,000 employees in the U.S. After implementing a workforce science approach to its recruiting process in 2011, The Results Companies found that candidates who underwent the online pre-employment screening process stayed 20% longer than those employees who did not.
[Image: Shutterstock]
[Image: Shutterstock]
2. Remember the human element.
There are some amazing interfaces out there, some beautiful dashboards great stuff but you need to make sure that in your big data relationship there is a human relationship and a strategic partnership, says The Results Companies Kaufman. Otherwise youll just end up with more reports that dont solve your problem.
[Image: Shutterstock]
[Image: Shutterstock]
3. Talk to other customers.
Ami Lane, senior recruiter with retail chain The Limited, recommends that before deciding to go with a specific vendor, that employers talk to current customers, discuss wins and challenges, discuss results, make sure that they can get some post-deployment studies done. The Limited uses pre-employment online testing that categorizes candidates into four groups. Candidates hired from the top two groups turn over far less frequently than candidates in the bottom two recommendation categories, says Tara Plazaran, manager of staffing with The Limited. We are definitely seeing a correlation between recommended hires and retention.
[Image: Shutterstock]
[Image: Shutterstock]
1 trend
While widespread use of talent science might not yet be the norm, I see more HR leaders hiring new college grads with degrees in statistics and applied mathematics and getting serious about building rigorous scorecards grounded in data and metrics, says Jenny Dearborn, chief learning officer for SAP, a workforce analytics firm. But I also see HR executives spinning their wheels and not knowing where to start or how to hire an analyst or what exactly to ask the analyst to do once he or she is on board.
[Image: Shutterstock]
[Image: Shutterstock]
1 prediction
In time, says The Results Companies Kaufman, Ill get to a point that I can look at a single site and I can look at my risk factors for that site culture makes a difference, managers make a difference, leaders make a difference. If something changes, I can watch the data and see whether my risk factors have gone up. I can see whether I need to plan some additional cultural intervention, for example. Its where HR, instead of just processing benefits, gets strategic in looking at organizational behavior and solving problems before they happen, rather than analyzing them after theyve happened. Thats the next generation of this.
[Image: Shutterstock]
[Image: Shutterstock]
