Managing a Recruiting Team Without Headcount Data? Here’s What You’re Missing
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Recruiting teams deserve better data
Until headcount365, the main recruiting leadership tool has been a spreadsheet. It’s the only place a recruiting leader can house & manage recruiting leader data & tasks. We’ve already covered the issues with the time & accuracy of the spreadsheet tool itself, so this article is focused on the data.
What is Recruiting team management?
Recruiting team management is the strategy, actions & performance expectations associated with recruiting staff. Managing
What is Recruiting team management data?
Recruiting management data records the performance of the recruiting service against expectations, from every user and process.
Core components of Recruiting management data
Recruiter Staffing Data- Do I have enough recruiters to meet demand, with enough capacity per recruiter to meet demand
Individual Recruiter Performance Data- Are recruiters meeting expectationss?
Process Performance Data- Metrics that measure the efficiency of recruiting performance, like time to hire/time to fill, funnel conversion rate, scorecard completion
Planning Accuracy Data - The source, impact & predicitbility changes to recruiting demand
Hiring Manager Performance Data- The measure of hiring manager impact on recruiting performance like time to approve a requisition, time in stage, funnel conversion metrics & scorecard quality
Company Recruiting Performance Data- Brand, compensation, culture and all other components that are structural to a companies foundation.
Recruiting management data is missing from today’s configuration
Recruiting leaders are only as good as their data.
This is why Recruiting teams spend 30% of their time ensuring recruiting data is up to date, across the ATS, hiring manager spreadsheets and HRIS data. (See how Planet got 30% of their time back using headcount365)
The main value of headcount365, is automating this data management & improving the accuracy of every data point, but we’ve also added hundreds of new data points that help recruiting leaders manage more effectively
Missing data from the ATS
Changes to the hiring demand - How does the change in
Context for changes to requisitions in the ATS - Why do things change in the ATS? Who authorized it? What’s the impact on recruiting and the business?
Recruiting Workload Balancing - If two recruiters are working 10 requisitions each, are they doing the same work?
Hiring Manager Encumbrance - How does hiring manager behavior impact recruiting performance?
Hires on time - Offers on time vs starts on time. How does time to fill & time to start impact recruiter work,oad
Missing data from Spreadsheets
HRIS + FP&A Data - Partner systems are all or nothing, but some data helps recruiting leaders build more accurate plans. For example labor cost, future workload, attrition data and headount overflow budgets are all stored in partner systems.
Individual Cell Activity Feed - Who edited the cell & when? How does the new value differ from the original value?
Software-level Formulas - Without advanced excel skills and reliable data inputs, advanced formulas are difficult to create & maintain. Building conditional formulas like new sales impact on future headcount, or tracking how many requisitions are modified by a hiring manager while the recruiter is working on it (thus extending the time to fill) are nearly impossible. If possible the investment is significant.
Conditional Field Data- Tracking data based on conditions is possible, but rarely the standard. Historical data & grouping requires methodical management of multiple headcount workbooks.
Requisition Linking Data- Associating two requisitions is usually temporary— identified by a background color of individual field— but historical tracking & multiple linkings are impossible.
Missing data from the business
Capacity/demand actuals Data - What did the recruiting team produce vs what did we think they could produce? How did demand change? Why did demand change?
Hiring Manager Recruiting Performance Data - How did hiring manager behavior impact the recruiting team? Measurable data about hiring manager encumbrance helps better assess recruiter performance
Predictive backfill Data - The regression line through attrition helps reduce the revenue lost from outgoing employees (Read more about headcount365’s predictive backfilling solution here)
Real-time OPEX & Revenue Data- headcount data is updated periodically. If you’re great, once per month. If you’re industry leading—once a week. Headcount365 updates data once a minute.
The result of using spreadsheet-based headcount data to manage recruiting teams?
Unreliable forecasts – Recruiting leaders don’t have visibility into shifting headcount plans.
Misaligned capacity – Can’t balance recruiter workloads accurately without knowing req volume or complexity.
Broken accountability loops – Hiring managers, recruiters, and Finance operate from different datasets.
Weak executive storytelling – Recruiting can’t credibly link production and budget to headcount demand.
Reactive firefighting – Leaders spend more time reconciling spreadsheets than managing their team.
headcount365’s built in recruiting leader toolkit helps manage teams more effectively
headcount365 captures & stores the data missing from the spreadsheet-based processes. Our AI agents use machine learning & data science to give recruiting leaders intelligence to more effectively manage their teams.
All the ways headcount365 helps recruiting leaders manage their teams
We’re the only platform build for recruiting leaders, with a unified recruiting toolkit built by a team of top performing recruiting leaders to replace spreadsheets with tools and data that helps manage recruiting teams more effectively.
Managing Recruiter Performance: If two recruiters fill 10 jobs each, recruiting leaders can use our data to determine who worked a more difficult workload, overcame more difficult hiring managers, or handled more changes from the business.
Staffing The Recruiting Team: Year-over-year tracking of recruiting capacity vs. demand helps ensure you have the right staff to meet demand. Recruiting teams are happier when they aren’t drowning.
Driving Hiring Manager Accountability: Manager behavior impacts recruiting performance. Changing reqs. Not showing up to debriefs. Not approval roles. Distribute accountability for underperformance to the source of the issue
Shift Recruiter Perception: If businesses set impossible goals, it’s possible for recruiters to over perform in your eyes and underperform in the eyes of the business. Clarity on performance data helps improve recruiter perception for managers who have outsized demand
Proactive Demand Planning: Historical workforce planning data paints a more accurate picture of future demand. Using this data when creating next years plan ensure the business has context about the evolution of recruiting demand.
Explain the impact of change: When things don’t go to plan, headcount365 has the data to explain why. We’ll calculate the impact of these changes and help managers prevent them in the future.
The result: leaders spend less time reconciling data and more time building and managing a high-performing recruiting team. Recruiting management cannot advance on spreadsheets and missing data. Leadership without reliable, unified inputs defaults to firefighting, not decision-making.