As HR steps into a data-driven future, data has become the lens through which HR can spot opportunities, anticipate challenges, and manage talent effectively.
Vanessa Gibb, the people business partner at PNET unpacks how analytics are transforming recruitment into strategy, the missteps companies make when data goes unused and why data is the main key to unlocking HR’s full potential.
Q: How is the role of HR evolving with the increasing use of data in recruitment and talent management?
HR is moving from being a primarily administrative function to becoming a driver of business delivery. With data at their fingertips, HR professionals can identify talent gaps faster, predict workforce needs and make hiring decisions that align with long-term business goals. Instead of working reactively, HR can become a proactive, insights-led partner to business talent needs.
Q: Why do you believe data-driven decision-making is the biggest unlock for HR professionals?
Data replaces opinion with facts in a function that has historically involved an element of subjective judgement. Data provides objective insight about where the best candidates come from, how long they stay, where organisations face talent risk, the supply and demand of future talent, talent behaviour and more. HR professionals can make decisions that are efficient and defensible, giving them long sought-after influence at the executive table.
Q: In your experience, what are some common pitfalls companies face when they collect HR data but fail to convert it into actionable insights?
Many organisations fall into the trap of collecting data for the sake of it. They end up with dashboards full of numbers but no clear plan for actions that can be identified from the data. Without connecting data to business outcomes, such as productivity, retention, or cost of hire, the information remains underutilised. Siloed data is another pitfall. When recruitment metrics are kept separate from performance or engagement data, opportunities for meaningful insight are lost.
Q: What types of data points or metrics do you find most valuable when assessing candidates and making hiring decisions?
Beyond qualifications and experience, the most valuable metrics are those that indicate long-term success: candidate engagement levels during the hiring process, cultural alignment, historical performance data from similar hires and predictive analytics around retention. Time-to-hire and cost-per-hire remain important, but quality-of-hire metrics are the real differentiator.
Q: How does data help HR move from filling jobs to shaping business strategy?
Data allows talent acquisition specialists to speak the language of business by showing how talent decisions impact revenue, growth and innovation, recruiters can influence leadership agendas. For example, they can use analytics to advise on where to source scarce skills or forecast how talent shortages might affect expansion plans.
Q: What trends do you foresee in the use of HR data analytics over the next three to five years, and how is Pnet preparing for them?
We see three trends developing in the area of talent acquisition which is the focus of our service.
Firstly, we see a stronger focus on predictive analytics, helping HR anticipate turnover before it happens. Reducing turnover – especially that of top talent – takes pressure off acquisition. There is an emerging trend of companies comparing their talent risk profile to that of their competition.This is a valuable form of risk analysis, considering how the future world of work is challenging skills availability.
Secondly, data will give talent acquisition specialists insight into the performance of their recruitment projects, enabling them to optimise strategies quickly when data suggests that campaigns are underperforming. Finally, talent acquisition specialists can use data to better understand supply and demand and talent behaviour to shape focused and intentional acquisition strategies. They will also use this data to guide hiring manager expectations.
With three decades of data, Pnet already has a formidable data set of information that we use in guiding our customers and providing them with actionable intelligence at speed.
Q: How does Pnet’s data platform help measure HR ROI and show value to HR leaders?
Pnet’s platform focuses on the talent acquisition side of HR. Our systems are used to manage the full recruitment journey from the point of advertising for a role until placement of the right people. Given that our data is generally used to measure both talent risk and talent attraction, our measures for ROI are different for both.
On the risk side, ROI reflects how benchmark risk changes compared to competitors for talent. It depends on HR first identifying risks in past data, taking action and then demonstrating a measurable reduction in risk when the comparison is repeated.
On the talent attraction side, it comes down to time to hire. Our supply and demand, talent behaviour and job ad listing performance reports help define the right acquisition tactics that, in turn, reduce time to hire.
By connecting these data points with Pnet data, HR leaders can clearly demonstrate the return on investment of their initiatives including reduced turnover, lower recruitment costs and faster hiring. This evidence-based approach helps HR leaders secure buy-in from executives by showing tangible business value.
Q: What advice would you give other HR leaders about starting or improving their data-driven recruitment practices?
Start small but start with intent. Focus on the metrics that matter most to your business goals rather than trying to measure everything at once. Ensure your team understands not only how to read the data but also how to interpret and act on it. And finally, invest in tools and partners, like Pnet, that make the insights clear.
