What Does a Recruitment Analyst Do?

A recruitment analyst helps businesses identify and select quality employment candidates. This type of specialist can be engaged as an independent consultant to focus on the hiring component of human resources (HR) management or can be a staff member of an employment firm who works on one aspect of a client's account. In either case, a recruitment analyst would typically be responsible for crafting the job description and recruiting, screening and interviewing candidates.

Human capital is a resource that can significantly affect the profitability of a business if it is not managed properly. Finding the right people to employ, keeping them happy while maintaining profitability, and preventing turnover are part of a cycle of human resources management that some business are not equipped to handle in-house. Outside consultants can take over all or part of the HR process, depending on a company's needs.

Employment consulting firms can also offer strategic advice regarding the way a company's HR process is handled. For example, a consultant can design a plan to improve the quality of the company's workforce by re-visiting work titles, job descriptions and qualifications. Consultants can also be retained to redesign the company's compensation scheme or craft an employee feedback system.

Recruitment analysts are a type of outside specialist that can be employed for practical or strategic purposes. On the practical side, a recruitment analyst can be hired individually or as part of a firm to improve the quality of a company's recruitment efforts. Companies often have special employment needs but do not have the internal expertise to identify quality candidates easily. For example, a company that wants to set up a satellite office in another country might hire a recruitment analyst to help staff it, relying on the analyst's local expertise regarding the best places to recruit candidates and the best types of selection criteria for the market.

Typically, a recruitment analyst is responsible for crafting the job description and distributing it to appropriate job search publications and websites. He would also design and implement a recruiting plan that would likely involve personal visits to job fairs, holding recruiting events and identifying currently employed candidates to see if they want to make a job change. The analysts then screens candidates to establish a qualified hiring pool. Screening involves checking credentials against the needs of the job, interviewing candidates and verifying employability.

Companies that hire a recruitment analyst for strategic purposes tend to want expert advice to change the quality of their in-house recruitment program. For example, a large accounting firm that has an ongoing recruitment program for new hires directly out of school might retain a recruitment analyst to help identify reasons for a low offer acceptance rate from students who had interned with the firm. An analyst would typically assesses the current situation, presents a strategic plan to address identified needs and helps the company implement the plan.