Federal Talent Acquisition — Analytics and Location, the Next Frontier

As is often the case, I read with interest Meghan Biro’s recent column in Forbes – Big, Bad Data: How Talent Analytics Will Make It Work In HR. It caught my attention with its insight into the world of talent analytics and HR. I was particularly excited to see Biro’s conclusions drawn from a recent study on the three key benefits companies expect to realize from investments in HR tech.

As Biro noted, “the final requirement the study reported is, in my mind, the most important: Analytics and reporting…for organizations to realize the promise of Big Data, they must be able to cut through the noise, and access the right analytics that will transform their companies for the better…it’s not just the numbers, it’s how they’re crunched.”

I agree, and at NGA.NET we have long believed in the power of analytics – taking data and doing something with it that benefits the HR organization – and the entire organization.

Some of the federal government’s largest agencies provide a clear example. The agency gains clear, quantifiable benefits from exploiting location data available to its talent acquisition system. Not only can it make better decisions on where recruiting dollars spent will return the best ROI, but it achieves productivity gains by ensuring maximum effort is expended where the payoff is greatest. The agency gains improved insight into its applicant pool and achieves faster time-to-hire. In all, it’s a huge improvement in recruiting and budget management.

How does data and more importantly crunching the data deliver this for the federal agencies?

They making use of a unique service called Talent Acquisition Geolocator (TAG). TAG provides summary and detailed information on the agencies’ applicant pools and hiring history, by location. This gives HR leaders valuable insight that can lead to better decision making. For example, knowing the types of applicants and hires associated with a particular county, city or state, talent acquisition professional can determine where to focus and invest on recruitment and where to scale back. This could include veteran status, particular skill sets or any of a wide range of attributes associated with candidates from a particular geographic region.

All this provides several benefits, including increased productivity, reduced costs, better budget management, faster time-to-hire and better overall recruitment efficiency. As Biro points out, “it will take talent analytics to synthesize Big Data and metrics to make the key strategic management decisions in HR.”

That’s what solutions like Talent Acquisition Geolocator are doing today, in the real world.