Talent Acquisition Hiring Tools Every HR Department Needs

The face of HR and the talent acquisition process is always evolving. In today’s competitive market, acquiring top talent has become much more of a challenge. If your company wants to stay on top, it is important to maintain a competitive edge when it comes to recruiting and hiring the most qualified candidates.

The following are just a few of the must-have talent acquisition tools that every HR department should consider:

Pre-Hire Evaluation Tools

Pre-employment screening assessments are becoming an increasingly popular HR tool. These tests allow hiring managers to screen applicants based on a range of abilities and characteristics including job skills, knowledge, personality, language proficiency, and cognitive skills. According to statistics compiled by The Wall Street Journal, the number of organizations utilizing these pre-hire screening is growing dramatically. In 2001, just 26% of companies reported using them. By 2013, that number had swelled to 57%.

While these screening are credited with adding to ever-lengthening hiring times, experts suggest that they also lead to better employee retention. Candidates who pass these screening are more likely to work out and less likely to leave the job. Clearly pre-hire assessments can be a valuable hiring tool for HR that will ultimately lead to better quality of hire.

Interview Debriefing Tools

What happens after an interview is just as important as the interview itself. As soon as the prospective employee leaves, those who took part in the interview begin their debriefing process where they offer their assessment of the candidate. The purpose of the debriefing is to learn everyone’s perspective on the candidate and reach a consensus on whether the applicant would be a good fit for the position and the company.

Unfortunately, the debrief process is all too prone to being hijacked by personal biases. The most vocal person in the group might drown out the opinions of the others, leading to significant biases that can negatively sway hiring decisions. An automated post-interview checkup is one hiring tool that can help eliminate bias and make the most of the debriefing process.

Using this software, organizations can quickly invite interviewers via email to enter their feedback online. The company then receives comprehensive reports compiling how interviewers rated each job applicant. This not only makes the debriefing process much faster, but it also leads to much higher accuracy.

Automated Reference Checking Tools

Talent acquisition involves more than just sourcing candidates. Once you have found a pool of good candidates for a position, each one must be thoroughly evaluated. Reference checking is an important part of this assessment process, but the traditional method of calling each reference manually can be both time-consuming and ineffective.

Automated reference checking is a new and more innovative approach that allows companies to check references in just minutes. Not only can this speed up the talent acquisition process, but it can also lead to much higher quality data about potential employees. Former employers are often hesitant to provide much detail about their former employees beyond the basics of dates of employment and job titles. Because the automated reference check survey makes responses anonymous, references are much more likely to provide honest and complete feedback. This then allows HR to evaluate candidates more effectively and make decisions that will lead to a better quality of hire.

Utilize Data to Guide Your Hiring Decisions

So what do pre-hire evaluations, interview debriefing tools, and automated reference checking all have in common? In a word, data. Instead of basing decisions on your gut instincts, effective hiring in today’s competitive marketplace requires letting the data lead the way. Receiving clear and comprehensive reports on each candidate’s skills, interview ratings, and reference checks offers HR a holistic look at each individual, which ultimately leads to better hiring decisions.

Data can help measure and predict things such as retention rates, quality of hire, the cost of hire, and employee retention. Such data also allows HR to establish patterns and determine why some employees leave positions quickly. For example, by tracking data HR might discover that candidates who possess certain skills are more likely to stay on the job. This makes it easier to screen for applicants who possess those skills in future hiring searchers.

Your company should look at data related which sources were the most effective, how much time was spent on each new hire, how long new hires stay with the company and how well they perform. Smaller organizations often overlook the insight that such data has to offer. No matter what the size of your organization, taking the time to look at the data can help lead to better hiring decisions.

Want to learn more about how data-driven recruitment can help your organization? Schedule a demo of Harver’s automated hiring solutions that provide objective decision support.

Harver Team

Harver Team

Updated on:
July 20, 2023

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