Stop met ‘gut feeling’, start datagedreven recruitment

Stop Relying on Gut Feeling, Start Data-Driven Recruitment

Whether you’re a recruiter, agency consultant, manager, or even on the other side of the table, we’ve all experienced it: assessing or being assessed based on intuition or “gut feeling.” While this approach was once blindly trusted, today more and more employers are opting for an objective recruitment process.

Leverage the power of data

Data. In 2024, we can no longer ignore it. In fact, it’s everywhere, all the time. This gives us access to increasingly more information. We can gather insights even before a recruitment process: How tight is the labor market for my target group? How many people are (latent) job-seeking? How do I reach my target audience? And the list goes on.

Of course, it doesn’t stop at the start of the application process. In fact, it may become even more interesting afterward. By collecting and analyzing data, we can make better predictions for our future decisions.

Data versus gut feeling

Imagine this: you recently hired a manager—a candidate with a higher professional education and plenty of experience on her CV. After more than six months, you mutually decide that it wasn’t the right match for either party. What became clear? This candidate had a lot of leadership experience in production companies and was used to a task-oriented management style. Nothing wrong with that, but for your department, the people-oriented aspect turns out to be far more important.

See where this is going? Data-driven recruitment allows you to recognize patterns based on past performance. In the example above, it could have been predicted that previous (successful) managers scored high on empathy and flexible, employee-focused working. With data-driven recruitment, you remove subjectivity from the process. Human intuition is always influenced by personal preferences or biases. By analyzing data, you can recruit based on competencies. We already wrote about this in 2023: Matching on competencies in 2023: what are the benefits for you as an employer?

Data analysis can also help with inclusive recruitment and objective selection. “Unconscious bias” still frequently occurs during hiring processes. In short, it’s the programming of our brains based on past experiences—think upbringing, environment, friends, etc. With this knowledge, we sometimes unconsciously make (wrong) decisions based on biases and may unfairly reject a candidate.

Optimizing the recruitment process

With the right tools, we can collect a wealth of data to optimize and make the recruitment process more objective. Do you also want to recruit without gut feeling? But don’t know how to get started? At Recrout, we’re happy to help you recruit based on competencies. We work together on the right input, so you ultimately receive the most suitable candidates ranked (in percentages). These scores aren’t based on gut feelings, but on competencies—fully substantiated. Excited? You can even try our software for free! Not satisfied? No cure, no pay! Want to know more first? Of course, you can. Contact us, and we’ll gladly schedule a no-obligation introduction.

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