Finding the perfect fit for a particular position isn’t always easy. When you’re pressed for time to fill multiple roles for hiring managers wanting the “perfect candidate,” it can be hard to find the time to be analytical. But with 73 percent of employers admitting that a bad hire is far more costly than leaving a position open, there’s no need to rush.  

With the wealth of data available to us today, it can seem daunting to take a data-driven approach to recruiting. However, this can speed up the recruiting process and help you make better informed hiring decisions.

You wouldn’t make important business decisions before doing the necessary research, so why make hiring decisions that aren’t supported by data? After all, you can’t manage what you don’t measure.

You have to be just as data-driven about recruiting. Here are three data-driven approaches to recruiting to help you easily identify and place better talent:

Know Your Market

Just as an entrepreneur studies size, competition, and dynamic of a potential market, seek to understand more about the market in which you’ll be searching for talent. Identifying these four basic data points can help you start your search with a solid talent pool:

• Supply of talent: Start by identifying candidates who fit the position qualifications (perform a broad search using tools like LinkedIn Recruiter) to gain a better understanding of the talent available.

• Demand for talent: Search job boards and postings to find other companies that are hiring for similar positions within the same location. This knowledge will help you determine how much competition you’ll have recruiting for this position.

• Source of talent: Know which channels candidates use to find jobs or present themselves to potential employers (e.g. resumes on job board sites, social professional networks) to speed up the process of finding and connecting with candidates -- before competitors do.    

• Interested talent: Now that you know what the market looks like for this position, narrow down your pool of talent by looking for candidates who have expressed interest in your client. Look for social media followers, email subscribers, event attendees, etc.

Mine for Talent

Here’s where the real fun begins. Data mining, better known as “talent mining” for recruiters, is the key to identifying top talent and predicting how they’ll perform. Resume databases, social media profiles, blog posts, personal websites, and other online sources are full of valuable information that can aid in talent identification and acquisition.  

Social media captures a wide range of data, from personal character to professional attributes. How much can social media really tell you about a candidate? Enough that 48 percent of hiring professionals who screen candidates via social networks said they’ve found information that caused them not to hire a candidate, according to a recent CareerBuilder survey.  

With 36 percent of employers admitting to having a shortage of skilled candidates in ManpowerGroup’s ninth annual Talent Shortage Survey, taking a data-driven approach to recruiting is more important than ever. By leveraging big data, eliminate the guesswork and make better informed, evidence-based decisions to find and place great talent.   

Build a Talent Pipeline

Get to know what talent clients will need in the future -- and begin building those pipelines. You’ll be more efficient and effective when you understand client expectations and use those needs and expectations to build a talent pool for future use.

This internal candidate database ensures that quality talent is readily available when a job order comes your way. Using market intelligence, talent mining, and insight from clients can help tailor your talent pool to fit individual client needs -- and practically guaranteeing you’re never out of quality options.

What do you think? What data-driven approaches do you take to find and place top talent? Let us know in the comments below.

Josh Tolan is the CEO of Spark Hire, a video interview solution used by more than 2,000 companies across the globe. Learn more about how video has changed and connect with Spark Hire on Facebook and Twitter.