5 Use Cases of Big Data in HR

5 use cases of big data for recruiting

Talent sourcing

With big data, HR is able to perform one of its key functions better – efficiently finding candidates for open positions. Big data allows for sourcing talent at scale, preparing for future hiring bursts as well as filling key positions faster.

Using big data for recruiting not only allows for expanding the candidate pool but also informs decisions when the time comes to choose the hire from selected candidates.

Labor market research

Constantly researching the labor market is crucial for HR professionals aiming to understand and identify hiring opportunities now and in the future. When the company considers opening a new branch, HR needs to know how competitive is its job market, how long employees tend to stay in particular positions, and other employment trends.

Job postings analysis allows HR representatives to track such factors and use predictive analytics to forecast their impact. With such intelligence, HR can better advise top management to ensure efficient hiring cycles.

AI recruiting

Tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are implemented across various business departments aiming to boost efficiency and solve persistent problems. HR has many such long-standing challenges that AI can help address.

A good example is ensuring that diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) goals are met in the hiring process. Although it has been known for quite some time that diverse work environments have a competitive advantage that leads to economic benefits, ensuring DEI remains challenging for many institutions because human decision-makers can be biased against people of a certain race, gender, ethnicity, or simply looks.

Hiring bias can be unconscious, but all the same, it takes away the opportunity from the employer to hire the most qualified candidate and from the candidate to get at a position that they could excel at. 

AI recruiting can help meet this challenge by removing human bias and efficiently analyzing broad talent pools. Ensuring that AI tools do this task accurately requires a large volume of data for algorithm training and proper automation.

Trend analysis

With big data, HR analysts can perform effective trend analysis. Such an analysis allows for drawing valid conclusions about labor market trends and their effects. 

Firstly, historical employment data allows a deeper understanding of how employment evolved over time in particular industries. Secondly, data on current hiring tendencies enables analysts to contrast the past with the present.

Trend analysis enhances the understanding of current recruiting conditions, their root causes, and probable persistence. This, in turn, informs strategic planning for hiring needs and company growth.

Data-powered HR tech

With big data, HR tech companies build AI-based tools. Additionally, enriching HR data also allows for improving the AI tools that you have already built. Additional data points from reliable sources help train algorithms and make online hiring platforms and other high-tech talent-sourcing solutions more effective.

Data-driven tech solutions are now available for all kinds of HR tasks. With data-powered AI and big data, HR can automate human resource management and keep track of workforce availability.

Where to source big data for HR?

The main source of big data for recruiting is the Internet. Public web data from job search sites and professional social media platforms can be collected directly or acquired from reliable data providers.

Besides big data-driven tools, internal sources of HR intelligence should be utilized as well. If conducted often enough, employee surveys, candidate and exit interviews, and labor market research can all be sources of large and valuable HR data.

Additionally, there is performance history, salary rate changes, and other employee data to be tracked. Combined, external and internal data allows for creation of unique, relevant, and actionable datasets for improved people analytics.

Summing up

Using big data for recruiting, people management, training, performance evaluation, and any other HR task can significantly advance business goals. The aforementioned use cases are only the beginning of what big data can do for HR. With the development of AI and technological solutions, the future is bright for data-driven human resource management.