Then you might want to look at these 4 ways to update your candidate sourcing.
As data experts with extensive hiring experience, we’ve spent years analysing and strategising to make candidate sourcing work better for organisations – in a way that’s faster, more tailored, and more precise.
In this blog post, we’ll walk you through 4 key areas of our approach that will help you increase your chances of success when it comes to finding and placing the right candidate for your data team.
1) Look beyond the job spec
Recruiters typically gauge a candidate’s suitability for a role by assessing their skills and experience against the requirements in the job spec.
The problem with this approach is, it can lead to important qualities being overlooked in the candidate search.
Let’s say you’re on the hunt for a Data Analyst, and the job spec states the role requires experience coding in SQL.
While experience in SQL development matters here, what matters far more is the core capabilities that actually make a proficient Data Analyst…
– Do they have a talent for extracting meaning from data?
– Do they demonstrate experience across data modelling, reporting and visualisation?
– Do they come across as someone that thinks like a data analyst in conversation?
As far as assessment criteria go, the answers to these questions are far more important than arbitrary experience with a particular tool or programming language, which are capabilities that a strong data professional can hone on the job.
2) Search for core competencies first
At Fenway, we’ve analysed, worked in, and hired for countless data roles over the years.
From this hands-on experience, we’ve learned the vast majority of data roles share the same core competencies (some of which we covered in the “Overlaps” section of this blog).
But it takes real first-hand data expertise to know which data skills are adaptable, and which ones are limited to very specific use cases.
(This is why we recommend getting support from a partner with technical expertise and hiring expertise, gained from previous experience in actual data roles.)
When you’re able to recognise the similarities between data roles, and you know which core attributes to look for when sourcing candidates, it significantly enhances the speed and precision with which you can identify a good hire.
It also allows you to get a head start on the candidate engagement process, which leads us onto our next point…
3) Engage candidates sooner
Some will disagree, but we know from experience: the sooner you start the engagement process, the more thoroughly you can screen your candidates.
And if you want to hire data professionals that fit better, stay longer, and have a greater impact on team performance, thorough candidate screening should be a top priority.
Here at Fenway, we often begin the candidate engagement process before a role has even been defined (which we do by searching for core competencies first).
This affords us more time to assess our candidates in greater depth, across far more areas and data points – from their skills, strengths and experiences to their individual personality traits and aspirations.
Overall, this means we enter the last leg of the recruitment process with a much clearer picture of each candidate’s suitability for specific opportunities in the market.
4) Support and mentor candidates
Taking the time to offer tailored support and guidance to candidates themselves carries a number of benefits.
(And it’s something you can do more of when you engage with them sooner.)
After you’ve thoroughly screened and vetted a candidate, you’re very well placed to offer them insights into how they can expand their skill set, and generally become a better fit for the types of roles they want.
This empowers candidates to develop and round out their own job-readiness, which will eventually bear fruit in the form of a larger and stronger talent pool for you to choose from.
Plus, it also lays the foundation for healthy and authentic working relationships, which last for the long run, and are of mutual benefit to both parties.
Conclusion: How this creates greater placement outcomes
The usual recruitment model leads to identification, engagement and proposal of candidates all being done at the same time – often in highly pressurised conditions.
Overall, this means the end result is less precise, less effective, and more costly.
But when you front load the sourcing process and make a head start with both the identification and engagement of candidates, the whole journey becomes simpler.
For those in need of data talent, this presents the best of both worlds: a pool of thoroughly vetted, better-fit candidates, presented with a much faster turnaround.
At Fenway, we call this a “precision placement”.
Want help putting this approach into action?
Contact our team today for an initial consultation.