Ways for Staffing Firms to Use Big Data to Their Advantage
In order to measure the effectiveness of your staffing firm marketing campaigns and recruiting efforts, it is imperative that you track as much information as possible and use that data to your advantage. 
Business owners are sometimes confused by the term big data. The most common misconception among small business owners is that big data is something that is only used by major corporations. In reality, you don’t need to have a huge database or thousands of employees to really take advantage of big data. Staffing firms of all sizes must embrace the idea of big data and use the information to improve upon their recruitment advertising strategies.
Break It Down
In order to effectively harness the power of your own data pool, it is important to sit down and analyze the information you are currently collecting. Website analytics are needed in order to get an idea of how many visitors are accessing your site, how they are coming to your website and what they are doing once they get there. Analytical data platforms help to identify which factors are driving results in your staffing firm marketing campaigns and determine whether your recruitment advertising strategies are producing a return on your investment (ROI). Across the industry, staffing firms use big data every day to make changes to their business practices and capture value within their niche. Use big data to drive your team to success and challenge your competitors.
Track Everything
If you are new to the world of big data, begin by tracking everything. It is better to collect too much information, than to look back and regret that you didn’t track a particular statistic. Within your existing data, you are able to see the titles of applicants and customize campaigns to those titles. You are able to segment by geography. You are able to segment by specific skill sets. Analytics programs have the ability to track who is visiting your site, which jobs they viewed or applied for, and which site they came from before landing on yours. Use the information you have initially collected to assign value to the data. Determine which statistics are most important to your individual staffing firm, and use those insights to set goals for your team. Are you looking to establish yourself as an industry influencer in a particular niche of the staffing industry? Set a goal to drive more candidates to an identified category of jobs. Is your talent pool already overflowing with qualified candidates for a particular type of position? Establish a goal to reduce the amount of time your team is spending on screening applicants for that category. Big data allows staffing firms to track their progress toward identified goals and achieve an increased ROI.
Pay Attention to Patterns
One way that staffing firms use big data is to analyze patterns and predict future trends. Google Analytics is a great tool for determining which staffing firm marketing strategies are proving to be the most effective for your firm. Data collected through email marketing platforms such as Constant Contact provide staffing forms with valuable insight into what content is likely to motivate candidates to open emails or click through to your website. Big data provides a real-time look into the staffing industry and allows firms to target specific audiences, monitor the response to social media giving campaigns, identify the most promising leads, and coordinate their staffing firm marketing efforts.
Eliminate the Guesswork
In order to increase your market share and outperform your competitors, it is essential that you incorporate big data into your recruitment advertising strategies. Why sit around a table wondering whether the campaign you are designing is going to hit home with prospective candidates? Staffing firms use big data to eliminate the guesswork and gain a competitive advantage in the industry. Data allows management to make better decisions, increase productivity, minimize risk, and build your staffing firm’s brand.
Take Action
The only way for staffing firms to truly take advantage of big data is to take action. After you have identified key patterns in your business practices, determine what steps are needed to change behaviors and attitudes within your team. Set goals to affect positive change and reward your recruiters and sales managers when those goals are achieved. Recognize those team members who go out of their way to encourage others and support the efforts of the entire staffing firm.
Key Takeaways for Ways for Staffing Firms to Use Big Data:
- Understand the data you are collecting and identify the information that is most relevant to your business
- Use the data you are collecting to create goals for your staffing firm
- Identify patterns in the data to determine potential areas for improvement
- Eliminate the guesswork by monitoring big data trends
- Act on the data and make required changes to your business practices
About S.J.Hemley Marketing
S.J.Hemley Marketing is a marketing and sales consulting firm focused on driving tangible results for professional services firms. Brand matters, but not without ROI. With over 20 years of sales and marketing experience within staffing and recruiting, we have helped to drive successful branding, sales training, lead generation activities as well as defining marketing strategy for top organizations.