Ask any company boss or personnel department head, and they’ll tell you that recruiting is one of the toughest aspects of running a business. It’s hard to find good people who can do a great job, and even the most scientific approaches to recruitment tend to be hit and miss. Just because it’s possible to weed out those with criminal records and questionable qualifications doesn’t automatically mean that we’ll be able to find an outstanding candidate every time.

But there’s a need for better recruitment methods in this day and age, with businesses reportedly spending $124 million annually on finding new staff, according to Evolv CEO Dan Enthoven. Those that spend less money and time on staff recruitment are able to direct these resources into more pressing needs, giving them a distinct competitive advantage over companies that struggle to recruit the right staff.

So where to turn when you’re struggling to find the right man or woman for the job? Why, you should turn to Big Data of course.

Big Data has the potential to revolutionize staff recruitment, giving businesses new insights into individuals that go far beyond what a routine background check and interview can tell them.

The key to using Big Data in recruitment is to first of all build up a picture of what kind of employee you’re looking for, according to the Wall Street Journal. Let’s say you’re looking for a new IT department manager; the first thing to do would be to come up with a list of the desirable qualities and attributes for someone to succeed in this position. Using that ‘template’, it’s then possible to hunt for suitable candidates based on those traits, as well as their qualifications and previous work experience. The ideal call center worker, for example, would be someone that lives close to work, enjoys social media sites, and has a creative mind, rather than an empathetic one.

Big Data can help to build these employee ‘templates’ too. For example, some companies regularly compile reports on such things as employee headcount, attrition and promotions. They can use Big Data to analyze their most successful employees characteristics, factoring in such things as prior experience and educational achievements to hone in on the most suitable qualities for that position – data which can then be used for future staff recruitment. Other things include using data to find out what motivates employees, for example by studying the effect of pay and bonuses in relation to sales performance.

Aside from finding the best candidates for a job, companies can also use Big Data to boost their advertising success when recruiting for new staff. CareerBuilder recently brought out a useful tool that allows companies to compare their job ads with those from rival companies. The Recruitment Performance Portal is a free Big Data app that allows companies to study ad performance relative to others, illustrating what kind of candidate they’re attracting in comparison to other ads offering similar positions.

Thanks to Big Data, companies finally have the tools at their disposal to find the most suitable candidates for the job, without having to resort to hunches and guesswork.