Data-driven HR: Tools for Effective Recruitment
The Russian market of web and mobile development has experienced personnel shortages for more than five years. There are simply no institutes for training specialized specialists, and the starting threshold for entering some IT specializations is very low. Large Russian and world companies are forced to promise salaries above the market in order to effectively “close” their desired positions.
Our office on Petrovka is constantly growing, back in 2018 we opened the second floor, because our staff increased by 1.5 times. This is due to the fact that we open up new directions and often duplicate the roles of middle managers in case of a quick replacement of an employee without losing quality for the project. Despite this, sometimes for months we cannot close an urgent vacancy, although we get a large number of responses.
For several years, we have been analyzing channels for attracting employees in different specializations. We collect statistics on the conversion and its cost (for how much we managed to attract a specialist), and also take into account and validate the hypotheses on personnel turnover. This allows you to look from all sides at the portrait of the relevant employee for a particular specialization. In the article, we will talk about our channels and tools that we use to search for employees for various positions, from a mobile developer to a project manager. We will share our experience, which tools work and which are better to refuse.
We are constantly experimenting with approaches and tools when hiring specialists. Testing hypotheses requires a huge amount of time and a large number of respondents. The article describes not only approaches, but also a set of tools that helped to effectively solve a specific problem at a specific time. Methods do not pretend to be a panacea and the quick "closure" of some other urgent position.
To search for employees, we use the following channels:
We, as a rule, refuse to search for specialists on outstaff and hunting from competing companies. All our forces are concentrated on four channels.
For each direction and channel, we determine the main parameters:
We form intermediate indicators and build a funnel:
Let’s take a closer look at the channels we talked about above.
Urgent vacancies involve financial bonuses for a successful recommendation. Often, the loss of potential profit for a company is much higher than the premium to the one who recommended it. Therefore, it is more profitable for us to pay a bonus and lose a little in planned profitability due to the payment of a premium, but at the same time do not miss the opportunity to scale our competencies and not lose potential profit. Moreover, the bonus is paid only after the specialist has passed the trial period.
Salary consists of the cost of the work that he provides.
How to calculate this: employee payroll tax (PIT and UST) + average distribution of indirect (conditionally constant) expenses for each employee + 20% of planned profitability (all risks and production costs at the financial level are also included here). From this superprofit of the specialist’s work, the award for recommendation is allocated.
Work on the recommendation is convenient for both the company and the employee: the person is already loyal and quickly adapts, and the employer receives a proven and “charged” employee. It remains only to maintain this state and allow a person to develop.
We study daily sites for finding employees. When you need highly specialized professionals in a short time, we connect recruitment agencies and private recruiters. We stipulate services for search in advance: it is important that the recruiter uses non-trivial methods, his internal bases and has a large coverage outside of Russia - here agencies from the CIS countries help us.
In an independent search on aggregators, we filter candidates by all possible parameters:
Agencies and recruiters select specialists for us, we conduct interviews on our own. The recruiter's remuneration depends on the timing and position. As in the case of recommendation bonuses, we pay the bonus to the agency after passing the probationary period from excess profit.
In total, for six months of selection, we received 1,419 * responses, while the number of views of cards with vacancies amounted to 8137 on My Circle and hh.ru.
Let us consider in detail some vacancies **:
* 1419 responses for all vacancies (the table above shows only 5 areas in addition to marketing, accounting, lawyers and other specializations)
** Data is indicated for half a year (July-December 2018)
The most popular resources that we use in the selection are HeadHunter (75% of the time the recruiter works with this channel), a recruitment agency (15%), My Circle (7%).
When searching, we often use social networks, but not every position is closed with their help. For different vacancies, together with PR and analytic departments, we select channels and methods of sowing. According to our statistics, the publication of the project-manager position in the vacancy section on Facebook brings a good response: for 1000 views, we get 4-6 resumes in our group. But we are not limited only to Facebook. It is interesting that on VK the publication of vacancies yields almost the same result, but with much less coverage. There are ~ 6263 members in the Facebook group, ~ 1016 in VKontakte.
At the same time, our employees inform their friend zone on Facebook and VKontakte about the appearance of a free position. Therefore, even before the interview stage, applicants already understand where they are going and what knowledge is required of them.
When searching for designers, planners and middle-developers, we use specialized groups on Facebook, and also work with vdhl , grintern , tproger , my circle . Accommodation there is paid, but usually the positions close very quickly.
The price for a post on Facebook varies from 500 to 5000 rubles, depending on the public. For example, we do posts in such groups:
Uxclubs
UXBastards
Webanalytics
The hardest thing is to look for senior developers and team leaders. As our practice has shown when searching for such specialists, recommendations, LinkedIn, etc. work best.
To search for mobile developers, project managers and team leaders, we shoot video and distribute it on social networks: VKontakte, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. In each, we launch targeted ads by interests, positions, do Look-a-like and configure retargeting using pixels, and also ask opinion leaders to share the publication.
Timlid video invitation
Unfortunately, the power of facebook and other social networks does not close all the vacancies. So, the best result was for an advertising campaign to find a project manager. We spent only 5,000 rubles on the target and were able to find two middles.
But to close the position of the mobile developer did not work. The video was watched by more than 50,000 people, we received 98 resumes and invited 29 developers for an interview, two of them are in our personnel reserve.
Mobile Developer Search Video Invitation
One of the most effective tools has become Telegram. To search for mobile developers, we found 18 groups and channels where we launched our vacancy in a promo. At the same time, we made two messages: the standard description of the vacancy and the recommendation, for which they offered 100,000 rubles. The second message worked: in a week of the advertising campaign we received 28 responses, of which 20 are recommendations.
On VKontakte, we immediately abandoned advertisements on the site’s pages and decided to launch posts in the feed, and also used the marketplace to sow information in relevant groups. The conversion to response was 3%. On Facebook, conversion was 1.5% on desktops and 1.8% on mobile devices. Instagram brought a large number of likes, but the conversion was only 1%. The campaign was subsequently abandoned. Despite a large number of ad views, YouTube’s conversion was below 1%. Mention results were tracked through Brand Analytics.
We conduct many educational activities: conferences, meetings, business dinners (for example, on information security and mobile analytics ), organize sections at the largest conferences RIF + CIB, RIW, create our own course on mobile development Skillbox , elective on mobile development Geekbrains and own AGIMA.University with faculties of analytics, design, management and team building. In addition to educational activity, we promote sports: our high-profile project is the run of RUNIT IT specialists. All this opens up additional channels for finding employees.
Our summer RUNIT half marathon made an unexpected response last year. We positioned ourselves as a mass sports event for IT professionals, our main task was to popularize sports in the industry. The race showed that the image of the modern IT specialist is “not the same”: a thousand energetic, peppy and athletic people came to us, someone even recorded their children for the race. We discovered a new communication channel with candidates: right after the race, some participants talked with our company about the possibility of cooperation. After the race, we received 23 resumes, 2 employees went to work thanks to the race.
Sometimes we open internship programs in several areas. We cooperate with technical universities and online universities (Netology, Skillbox, Geekbrains, etc.), the guys come to us for practical training, as a result of which they often remain to work. So, we have several intern success stories - after a few years the PR department intern started working in the press service of a large social network. network. And the designer, who came to the internship, successfully worked for several years, and now he is the head of the design department in large media. At the same time, our relationship does not end, the guys continue to come to the office and to company events, and sometimes they become customers.
Before implementing a data-driven approach in an HR process, you need to follow a few rules:
Thus, the cost per month of specialists per iteration is ~ 7500 rubles. In a quarter, 7500 * 3 = 22500 rubles.
Note that with the data-driven approach, the load increases on HR, since it participates in the entire funnel and spends more time with a large number of candidates. The time of the CFO and analyst is fixed, since they work according to specially derived formulas, and the number of candidates does not affect the time.
* We analyzed hh.ru and took the average salary of a financial director - 200,000 rubles, analytics - 120,000 rubles, HR - 80,000 rubles. At AGIMA, the stakes are slightly higher, so we get a higher cost for the processes.
We introduced this approach in the second quarter of 2018 and compared the cost of attracting employees before and after implementation per month.
* The process costs us 7500 per month.
Therefore, we concluded that only large companies that are looking for more than two employees per month will benefit from this approach. Accordingly, the more employees you need to find, the more benefits you get.
So, we were able to reduce overhead and optimize HR costs by investing this money in the development of an HR brand and PR company.
Many small companies are primarily looking for customers, and when these customers appear, they need personnel. And the staff is sometimes much more difficult to find than customers. Therefore, the correct approach to the search for employees is important, and the introduction of a data-driven approach always allows you to have up-to-date data on the most effective channels of attraction, which allows you not to invest extra money in non-working channels and close quickly open vacancies.
We talked about our experience, perhaps it will seem interesting to you, and you will apply some tools in your practice.
Also read our research article: how the requirements for IT specialists and their salary levels will change until 2020–21: forecast by Spence model.
Our office on Petrovka is constantly growing, back in 2018 we opened the second floor, because our staff increased by 1.5 times. This is due to the fact that we open up new directions and often duplicate the roles of middle managers in case of a quick replacement of an employee without losing quality for the project. Despite this, sometimes for months we cannot close an urgent vacancy, although we get a large number of responses.
For several years, we have been analyzing channels for attracting employees in different specializations. We collect statistics on the conversion and its cost (for how much we managed to attract a specialist), and also take into account and validate the hypotheses on personnel turnover. This allows you to look from all sides at the portrait of the relevant employee for a particular specialization. In the article, we will talk about our channels and tools that we use to search for employees for various positions, from a mobile developer to a project manager. We will share our experience, which tools work and which are better to refuse.
Disclaimer
We are constantly experimenting with approaches and tools when hiring specialists. Testing hypotheses requires a huge amount of time and a large number of respondents. The article describes not only approaches, but also a set of tools that helped to effectively solve a specific problem at a specific time. Methods do not pretend to be a panacea and the quick "closure" of some other urgent position.
Attraction channels
To search for employees, we use the following channels:
- Internal and external recommendations of specialists.
- Attracting recruiting agencies and selecting relevant applicants on aggregators (hh.ru, My Circle and others).
- Social networks and instant messengers.
- Attraction at specialized and own events.
We, as a rule, refuse to search for specialists on outstaff and hunting from competing companies. All our forces are concentrated on four channels.
For each direction and channel, we determine the main parameters:
- The number of responses in the context of the channel.
- Conversion of responses to employees who have come to work.
- Conversion of responses to employees who have passed the probationary period.
- Cost of hiring a specialist who has passed a probationary period (CPL).
We form intermediate indicators and build a funnel:
Let’s take a closer look at the channels we talked about above.
Internal and external recommendations
Urgent vacancies involve financial bonuses for a successful recommendation. Often, the loss of potential profit for a company is much higher than the premium to the one who recommended it. Therefore, it is more profitable for us to pay a bonus and lose a little in planned profitability due to the payment of a premium, but at the same time do not miss the opportunity to scale our competencies and not lose potential profit. Moreover, the bonus is paid only after the specialist has passed the trial period.
How employee salary and recommendation bonus are formed
Salary consists of the cost of the work that he provides.
How to calculate this: employee payroll tax (PIT and UST) + average distribution of indirect (conditionally constant) expenses for each employee + 20% of planned profitability (all risks and production costs at the financial level are also included here). From this superprofit of the specialist’s work, the award for recommendation is allocated.
Work on the recommendation is convenient for both the company and the employee: the person is already loyal and quickly adapts, and the employer receives a proven and “charged” employee. It remains only to maintain this state and allow a person to develop.
Attracting recruiting agencies and selecting relevant applicants on aggregators
We study daily sites for finding employees. When you need highly specialized professionals in a short time, we connect recruitment agencies and private recruiters. We stipulate services for search in advance: it is important that the recruiter uses non-trivial methods, his internal bases and has a large coverage outside of Russia - here agencies from the CIS countries help us.
In an independent search on aggregators, we filter candidates by all possible parameters:
- technologies used
- completed projects,
- experience with specific tools.
Agencies and recruiters select specialists for us, we conduct interviews on our own. The recruiter's remuneration depends on the timing and position. As in the case of recommendation bonuses, we pay the bonus to the agency after passing the probationary period from excess profit.
About numbers
In total, for six months of selection, we received 1,419 * responses, while the number of views of cards with vacancies amounted to 8137 on My Circle and hh.ru.
Let us consider in detail some vacancies **:
* 1419 responses for all vacancies (the table above shows only 5 areas in addition to marketing, accounting, lawyers and other specializations)
** Data is indicated for half a year (July-December 2018)
The most popular resources that we use in the selection are HeadHunter (75% of the time the recruiter works with this channel), a recruitment agency (15%), My Circle (7%).
Social networks
When searching, we often use social networks, but not every position is closed with their help. For different vacancies, together with PR and analytic departments, we select channels and methods of sowing. According to our statistics, the publication of the project-manager position in the vacancy section on Facebook brings a good response: for 1000 views, we get 4-6 resumes in our group. But we are not limited only to Facebook. It is interesting that on VK the publication of vacancies yields almost the same result, but with much less coverage. There are ~ 6263 members in the Facebook group, ~ 1016 in VKontakte.
At the same time, our employees inform their friend zone on Facebook and VKontakte about the appearance of a free position. Therefore, even before the interview stage, applicants already understand where they are going and what knowledge is required of them.
When searching for designers, planners and middle-developers, we use specialized groups on Facebook, and also work with vdhl , grintern , tproger , my circle . Accommodation there is paid, but usually the positions close very quickly.
The price for a post on Facebook varies from 500 to 5000 rubles, depending on the public. For example, we do posts in such groups:
Uxclubs
UXBastards
Webanalytics
The hardest thing is to look for senior developers and team leaders. As our practice has shown when searching for such specialists, recommendations, LinkedIn, etc. work best.
HR Video Production
To search for mobile developers, project managers and team leaders, we shoot video and distribute it on social networks: VKontakte, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. In each, we launch targeted ads by interests, positions, do Look-a-like and configure retargeting using pixels, and also ask opinion leaders to share the publication.
Timlid video invitation
Unfortunately, the power of facebook and other social networks does not close all the vacancies. So, the best result was for an advertising campaign to find a project manager. We spent only 5,000 rubles on the target and were able to find two middles.
But to close the position of the mobile developer did not work. The video was watched by more than 50,000 people, we received 98 resumes and invited 29 developers for an interview, two of them are in our personnel reserve.
Mobile Developer Search Video Invitation
Telegram
One of the most effective tools has become Telegram. To search for mobile developers, we found 18 groups and channels where we launched our vacancy in a promo. At the same time, we made two messages: the standard description of the vacancy and the recommendation, for which they offered 100,000 rubles. The second message worked: in a week of the advertising campaign we received 28 responses, of which 20 are recommendations.
Social Media Advertising
On VKontakte, we immediately abandoned advertisements on the site’s pages and decided to launch posts in the feed, and also used the marketplace to sow information in relevant groups. The conversion to response was 3%. On Facebook, conversion was 1.5% on desktops and 1.8% on mobile devices. Instagram brought a large number of likes, but the conversion was only 1%. The campaign was subsequently abandoned. Despite a large number of ad views, YouTube’s conversion was below 1%. Mention results were tracked through Brand Analytics.
Attraction at specialized and own events
We conduct many educational activities: conferences, meetings, business dinners (for example, on information security and mobile analytics ), organize sections at the largest conferences RIF + CIB, RIW, create our own course on mobile development Skillbox , elective on mobile development Geekbrains and own AGIMA.University with faculties of analytics, design, management and team building. In addition to educational activity, we promote sports: our high-profile project is the run of RUNIT IT specialists. All this opens up additional channels for finding employees.
Our summer RUNIT half marathon made an unexpected response last year. We positioned ourselves as a mass sports event for IT professionals, our main task was to popularize sports in the industry. The race showed that the image of the modern IT specialist is “not the same”: a thousand energetic, peppy and athletic people came to us, someone even recorded their children for the race. We discovered a new communication channel with candidates: right after the race, some participants talked with our company about the possibility of cooperation. After the race, we received 23 resumes, 2 employees went to work thanks to the race.
Internships
Sometimes we open internship programs in several areas. We cooperate with technical universities and online universities (Netology, Skillbox, Geekbrains, etc.), the guys come to us for practical training, as a result of which they often remain to work. So, we have several intern success stories - after a few years the PR department intern started working in the press service of a large social network. network. And the designer, who came to the internship, successfully worked for several years, and now he is the head of the design department in large media. At the same time, our relationship does not end, the guys continue to come to the office and to company events, and sometimes they become customers.
How to implement data-driven?
Before implementing a data-driven approach in an HR process, you need to follow a few rules:
- Start collecting data: by the number of responses, by the number of employees who went through your stages of interviews, channels of attraction and their cost. So, when you have collected enough data, you can safely and quickly drain the data-driven approach into your HR process.
- Form a personnel reserve. The database of potential employees will help you quickly return to them and close open positions. So, we are always in search, even if we do not have open vacancies, so as not to miss the very specialist who would suit us. At the same time, it is always important to keep the candidate’s history in the context of the data-driven approach: channel, specialization, response / exit date, etc.
What we measure:
- Cost of attraction (advertising, production of video and text content, opening databases of applicants in various aggregators, expenses for internships, events and other activities that are associated with pumping the brand).
- Cost of exit (purchase of equipment for a specialist, equipment of a workplace, scaling of an office if necessary, increase in the administrative apparatus, etc.).
- Cost of personnel involved in the process: analyst, financial director, HR manager. In the quarter, we conduct 3-4 iterations, which allow us to test hypotheses and adjust the budgets and channels of attraction in which we invest. We calculated how much each iteration costs and got the following data *:
- 1 hour CFO
- 3 hours analyst
- 8 hours HR manager
Thus, the cost per month of specialists per iteration is ~ 7500 rubles. In a quarter, 7500 * 3 = 22500 rubles.
Note that with the data-driven approach, the load increases on HR, since it participates in the entire funnel and spends more time with a large number of candidates. The time of the CFO and analyst is fixed, since they work according to specially derived formulas, and the number of candidates does not affect the time.
* We analyzed hh.ru and took the average salary of a financial director - 200,000 rubles, analytics - 120,000 rubles, HR - 80,000 rubles. At AGIMA, the stakes are slightly higher, so we get a higher cost for the processes.
results
We introduced this approach in the second quarter of 2018 and compared the cost of attracting employees before and after implementation per month.
* The process costs us 7500 per month.
Therefore, we concluded that only large companies that are looking for more than two employees per month will benefit from this approach. Accordingly, the more employees you need to find, the more benefits you get.
So, we were able to reduce overhead and optimize HR costs by investing this money in the development of an HR brand and PR company.
Conclusion
Many small companies are primarily looking for customers, and when these customers appear, they need personnel. And the staff is sometimes much more difficult to find than customers. Therefore, the correct approach to the search for employees is important, and the introduction of a data-driven approach always allows you to have up-to-date data on the most effective channels of attraction, which allows you not to invest extra money in non-working channels and close quickly open vacancies.
Implementation Algorithm:
- Channel measurement.
- Data collection.
- Overlay data on channel costs.
- Taking risks into account when planning (you should always keep current payroll forecasts in management accounting for at least 3 months in advance).
- Measure savings on a regular basis.
We talked about our experience, perhaps it will seem interesting to you, and you will apply some tools in your practice.
Also read our research article: how the requirements for IT specialists and their salary levels will change until 2020–21: forecast by Spence model.
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