We check budgets before buying a house. We check ratings before choosing a school. We read reviews before eating at a restaurant. We creep social profiles before going on a date.

Ever increasing and ubiquitous data is used every day, backing up our premonitions and shaping our impressions. In business, analytics help make smarter decisions.

The areas in which we use numbers should not be limited to machines and equipment. The amount of big data in areas such as personnel is astounding, yet allegorical food is left on the table. Using data and analytics in recruiting efforts needs to become the new normal.

The 4-1-1

Using analytics to understand the vast pool of candidates can help narrow down who you need faster, making better hiring decisions for you and your team. When talent acquisition teams use data to hire, they are 2x more likely to improve their recruiting efforts. Trends are discovered, outliers eliminated or unearthed and successful habits can be repeated. Demographic and social data is scoured over when sourcing, but what about the next step in people analytics?

You’re a Psycho…metric

This isn’t new. Personality testing has been used ever since Meyers and Briggs got together. Some experts estimate that as many as 60% of workers are now asked to take workplace personality assessments. And that’s great. Better-working teams can be formed, project managers can be promoted and better manager-coworker relationships are had by all, but there’s still something missing.

Many organizations use personality testing for career development, but only about 22% use it to evaluate job candidates according to the results of a 2014 survey of 344 Society for Human Resource Management members. What a wasted opportunity! Why would you not want to know who is in your candidate pool before they are considered? 

New Approach

So if 75% of recruiters don’t use talent pool insights during intake or kickoff meetings with hiring managers, what is the reason? Is the data too hard to interpret? Not measuring the right things? Not insightful or unique?

“Big data is the future of recruiting, but you can’t just data mine your way to the right candidate,” says Ali Behnam(@Rivi_Ali), cofounder and managing partner of Riviera Partners. “You need the right tools, the right combination of external and internal variables and — most importantly — the right people who know how to analyze all of it.”

So, the data has to be insightful, actually say something and easy to manage.  A tool made in this new age of hiring recruiting, for modern recruiters and hiring managers. 

Go Vitru

“ For big data to be useful , interesting and approachable for HR and recruiters, we have to get out of our comfort zones and try something new. We have to evolve, push ourselves and commit to learning new things. Do I know if the data will support my gut feelings and the old way of doing things. I have no idea and that is what’s exciting.”Jessica Miller-Merrell ( @jmillermerrell )

Bio: Ryan Mead

Ryan Mead is the CEO and Founder of Vitru, an employee assessment tool that provides recruiters, hiring professionals, coaches and managers with the insights they need to manage their teams and make better hiring decisions. Powered by science, yet practical and easy to use for a variety of teams, Vitru work for organizations of all size. Want to learn more? Visit our blog or sign up for a free team building personality test account to assess your team today! Tweet me at@GoVitru