Why You Shouldn't Base Your Long-Term Recruitment Decisions on Short-Term Data

1. Seasonal fluctuations

Every business has its peaks and troughs throughout the year, dependent on its sector. For example, the retail industry’s busiest time is Christmas, whereas recruitment is very quiet in December.

Therefore, if your vacancy isn’t getting a good response in December and your report is showing low application numbers fr

It’s important to build a picture of recruitment and candidate trends throughout the year so you can plan your campaigns accordingly. For example, if you know that application levels in January shoot up, it might be worth waiting until after the New Year to share your vacancy on the job boards.om the job boards, don’t immediately ditch your lowest performing advertising source as it could be performing brilliantly throughout the rest of the year.

Before making any long-term decisions about your recruitment advertising sources, we recommend looking back over at least 12 months’ worth of performance data to monitor any seasonal fluctuations and trends.

2. Candidate behaviour is constantly changing

We’ve seen candidates transition from job board loyalty to using upwards of 16 resources to look for 

roles. The use of social media has increased and the rise of mobile job hunting has become prominent. Additionally, the market has changed and unemployment has reached a 10 year low, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Jobseekers are constantly changing their methods of searching for their next role and that’s why it can be dangerous to base what they’re going to do next on a couple of pieces of data.

While it might seem tempting to quickly jump on something that you think will be a trend, you might find yourself out of pocket if candidates then decide to move on to the next big thing.

That said, it’s definitely worth investing in the technologies that fuel trends that are here to stay. For example, if you notice over a period of time that mobile job applications are steadily increasing, considering investing in a mobile-optimised careers site is probably a wise move.

The key point is to monitor your data closely and make a note of any trends over a longer period of time to really understand the present (and future) behaviour of candidates.

3. External influences

Whilst it’s important to put all the effort you can into your recruitment, there will always be external factors influencing the success of your campaigns, such as location, competition and availability of skills. It’s important to be mindful of these factors when analysing your campaign performance data.

For example, if you’re a multi-site business and hiring for roles across multiple locations, you’ll probably find that you’ll attract more applicants in the more populous area. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the other campaign has failed or performed poorly.

Additionally, if your business recruits for a wide range of different vacancies, you may find that it takes you longer to fill your specialist engineering role than a customer service role, as there’s a recognised national skills shortage.

Make sure that you’re informed and fully up-to-date with any conditions affecting the geographic area or sector in which you’re recruiting. This will give your campaign the best chance of success, as well as ensuring that you don’t take unnecessary action, for instance culling any ‘underperforming’ job boards from your future advertising mix.

Reporting regularly will provide you with a real insight into your recruitment and monitoring this information over a period of time will enable you to make those all-important HR decisions.

Want to know how you can report on the success of your recruitment campaigns with ease? Find out more about Webrecruit’s Fusion software.