The science of Hiring with Big Data

BY: Dinesh Goel, Co-Founder & CEO, Aasaanjobs.com

The economy of the country is picking up pace and this has led to an increase in the attrition rate of private sector employees. However, it is a globally known fact that retaining and employee costs less than hiring a replacement and this classic rule of thumb still stands true as ever, for any organization. The real cost of hiring and training replacements make a significant dent in any organization’s bottom line. Therefore, it would be great to incorporate a solution into the hiring system of every organization that could enable prediction as to who is likely to be a successful, long-term employee before the candidate is hired.

One such system is the incorporation of big data into the process of hiring as big data can predict successful hires far better than your HR department. In fact, data mining can help an organization open up a much larger pool of talent. The bottom line is that big data can help organizations find talent overlooked by the competitors; it enables the organization to make the right estimate of the remuneration to be given to a talented employee and retain him or her.
Before we get into the science of hiring using big data, it is important for us to first understand what big data is. Big data can be described as an evolving term that defines any voluminous amount of organized, semi-organized and unorganized data that has the potential to be dug for information. It is difficult to process them using traditional data processing applications as they are very large and complex. The challenges include analysis, capture, curation, search, sharing, storage, transfer, visualization and privacy violations.

In spite of this, big data is now slowly being used for hiring processes. Considering the challenges it holds; most people are cynical of using big data when it comes to hiring. The difficulty in adopting the system  stems from a corporate’s inability to understand how a person can be measured and analyzed by a computerized process of data. Contrary to orthodox mindsets, however, big data is anticipated to usher in the new era of recruiting as the traditional method of recruiting, interviewing and hiring gets obsolete. The only impediment in this adoption is the time taken by any organization to accept the change. It needs patience and a new way of thinking. Hiring managers need to understand that it is not meant to replace the existing method or remove human experiences, understanding and expertise. The science of big data hiring allows the process of recruitment to get more streamlined and effective as it is meant only to aid the process and is not a new method in itself.

The question hovering in the minds of most HR managers is how it can help them in managing their task better. The answer is to use big data as one of the keys to hiring great talent. It helps reduce attrition rate and can also help increase diversity by maximizing the range of questions asked during a candidate interview. Numerous  researches  state that most of the high performing businesses are five times more likely to view analytics as a core part of their business as compared to their low-performing counterparts. The analyses and interpretation of big data has proven to create more efficient, informed and successful decision making in all areas of an organization. It is advisable to incorporate big data into the hiring strategies if the use of big data is the core for success of an organization. It is a helpful tool which can help take data from millions of interviews and turn it into something that identifies the top performing candidates.  It can help reduce the ambiguous guesswork of finding the best talent with a data-driven recommendation engine that leverages the power of big data. Apart from the profile information, it can also be used to analyze actual candidate information and match them to current top performer. It can take into account almost over 100, 000 times more data than a resume or online profile. Moreover, it gets smarter over time to become a personalized data-driven hiring model.

Career Prospects:
India is a human capital rich country.  The introduction of new technologies and the constantly increasing data has created a great need for professionals skilled in managing this “big” data.
There are various job roles which could be played by big data professionals:

• Big Data Scientist
• Big Data Analyst
• Big Data Visualizer
• Big Data Manager
• Big Data Solutions Architect
• Big Data Engineer
• Big Data Researcher
• Big Data Consultant

Big data is now being recognized as a key to success and every organization needs to consider utilizing this technology when searching for top talent and creating a solid foundation for their organization. There are many organizations today showing keen interest in the analytical capabilities of big data and using them effectively in their recruitment drives. None the less, with the rising demand for ‘Big-Data’ in various industries, the recruitment industry is also catching up on this domain.