Xref Data-Driven Insights Help You Make Better Hiring Decisions

Conversations around the usefulness of data in HR aren’t new, but organisations are at different maturity levels in adopting data-driven approaches to hiring. When it comes to online reference checking, some use data only for reporting while others have dug deeper into data-driven insights to make better people decisions. 

Insights gathered from online reference checking can help you hire smarter, and you’ll get to discover more of it in this post. 

The Growing Need for Data Analytics in Recruitment

HR pros world over are catching up with data-driven trends. A study by LinkedIn revealed that there had been a threefold increase since 2013 in the number of HR professionals in North America who list analytical skills in their profiles. 

Why so much fuss over data and analytics? 

Because HR data can optimise your hiring process and add value to your company. Data-driven insights can move your decision from gut feel to a dependable choice; the same insights can stop you from recruiting a lousy hire. When people are your greatest asset, you want to hire right.

How Can Insights from Reference Checking Help?

A reliable online reference checking tool can give you a lot of valuable information on your candidate. Referee feedback can help you understand a candidate’s potential and their fitment to the job so you can plan onboarding better. When you’re down to deciding whom you’ll pick for the role, it may be helpful to see how they compare with other candidates. 

“The data provided by Xref helps us to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of new employees before they join us. We are now able to plan our training and management requirements to support the growth and development of each employee. The insights generated also prevent us from ruling out candidates that may not “tick all the boxes” on paper, but have most of the key skills required for the role”. - APG & CO

Recruiters Who Use Data-driven Insights Can Vouch for These Three Benefits:

1. Optimises your hiring: When hiring for a new role, you are usually narrowing it down to one or two candidates. Data can help evaluate and compare candidates for you to make the right decision. It can flag areas that may require clarification before you hire. For instance, a referee may highlight a candidate's ability to be a team player over being a manager. As a hiring manager, you will become familiar with trends over time which will help you hire better and faster. 
   

2. Helps you benchmark candidates: A candidate may not tick all the boxes but may have core competencies crucial to the role. Answers from the reference checking questionnaire when mapped against core competencies for the position can provide clear and indicative data about a candidate. It makes it easy for recruiters to benchmark candidates at a glance.
   

3. Makes you confident when hiring remotely: While we don't know how long COVID-19 will last, we know that remote hiring could be the new normal for a long time. It would help if you were sure about your new hire, who will be working remotely and under reduced supervision. 

The Xref Analytical Tools

Being in the industry for more than ten years and listening to our clients has helped us create an ROI driven solution to address the challenges that hiring companies face. We’re familiar with the way data plays a crucial role in helping HR departments make essential decisions in recruiting. 

Our insight-driven report will help you discover how your new hire compares to other candidates; this data would make you more confident about your decision.

The Xref software gathers and interprets data to improve the quality of your hiring. If you’re concerned about the scary world of graphs and numbers, 

Xref’s  ‘core competency’ ratings and ‘sentiment analysis’ engine can do the hard work for you. These useful features add the extra layer of assurance on your new hire’s suitability for a role. 

1. Core competency graph: It’s more than just data–it’s insight. A simple graph that helps you see how your candidate measures up against other candidates. Candidate benchmarking can make a significant impact on your hiring. 
   

The core competency graph enables you to compare your candidate’s competency with others. In some cases, a candidate’s CV may not fit like a glove, but you could be looking at some ‘must-haves’ crucial to the role. 

2. Sentiment Analysis: Many recruiters hesitate in moving away from phone-based reference checking. The fear is that they may miss out on the referee's tone of voice. The drawback in traditional phone calling is that each recruiter may interpret a referee's tone of voice differently. 
   

Xref’s sentiment tool has an algorithm that measures a referee's ‘tone of voice’. It picks up on the positive, neutral, and negative language used by the referee, to give you an indication of the candidate’s performance; reducing the chance for a reference to be misinterpreted. 

“Our team now benefits from the clear and simple sentiment ratings provided with every reference report. Xref’s nimble and accommodating approach to meeting needs such as this is as technically impressive as it is beneficial to our decision making.” - Sodexo

Recruiters can use insights to optimise hiring, benchmark candidate’s and be confident of their decision even when hiring remotely. All of this can have a massive impact on a company's ability to achieve its business objective, and that’s what makes it so valuable. 

Data and insights in HR could be intimidating, but with Xref, we go beyond online reference checking. You get a reliable online reference checking solution that integrates with some of the world’s leading ATS tools. Easy to read graphs for benchmarking candidates and the sentiment engine can help you hire faster and better. The insights toolkit is a great value add and is par excellence; that's why users love us. Adopting a data-driven approach may create a total shift in your organisation - for the better. 

If you’re interested in gaining insights from our tools, reach out to us for a free trial of Xref.