Over the course of 2020, an estimated 1.7MB of data will be created every second for every person on earth. This immense volume of data means that businesses now face critical data management challenges.

Are you prepared?

In this brave new data-driven world, recruiters and hiring managers must carefully manage valuable candidate data to find the right talent quickly and at the right price.

In this piece, we’ll take a closer look at what we mean by legacy data then explore five key reasons you should migrate and rejuvenate this data.

What Is Legacy Data?

Essentially, legacy data is data that is currently stored on obsolete systems or outdated formats. As time progresses, it often becomes more challenging to re-access, search and even migrate this data.

Recruiters and hiring managers will often have valuable candidate data hosted on different systems and formats spread across various areas in the business. This data has very little day-to-day value for businesses.

Why Should You Migrate Your Legacy Data?

Legacy data represents an unmissable opportunity for recruiters and hiring managers.

Now that we’ve got a better handle on precisely what we mean by legacy data let’s explore the top reasons that you should rejuvenate it today.

1. Harmonise your data

It’s not at all uncommon for recruiters and hiring managers to have data spread across various obsolete systems. Businesses will store candidate data in the following areas:

  • Applicant tracking systems
  • Physical filing cabinets
  • Different excel documents
  • Cloud storage systems
  • Local hard drives
  • Shared servers

That candidate data is often stored in different file formats and structures, too. This makes it practically impossible for recruiters and hiring managers actually to use that data in any meaningful way.

Many legacy database systems are also based on Boolean search. This method of searching through your data is inefficient and achieves subpar results, while AI sourcing is much more powerful.

With all of your data in a single space, AI sourcing can make it work for you. You’ll be able to do much more like access unique insights, intelligently sort through your candidates, surface the right talent, lower your cost talent acquisition and generate more suitable, candidates for roles you need to fill.

If you want more information in this area, be sure to read our piece on five reasons AI sourcing will replace Boolean sourcing.

2. Capitalise on your past investments

Data is the new oil, and it comes at a cost. Businesses will often invest significant amounts of money into sourcing candidate data using a blend of these tools and techniques:

  • Job boards
  • Networking events
  • Career fairs
  • Referral programmes
  • Digital advertising
  • Physical advertising

All too often, though, businesses fail to maintain that data once they’ve filled an open position. This means that many companies fail to capitalise on their candidate data investments.

It also means that businesses will pay again and again for the same candidate data. This is a very costly way to work, and it pushes your cost per hire much higher than it should be.

If you store your data in a single space and use the appropriate AI sourcing techniques and tools, you’ll extend the ROI of your data collection initiatives and reduce your average cost per hire.

3. Grow your talent pools

The well-documented talent shortage outside of the Coronavirus is the most significant emerging risk for businesses around the world. 54% of companies reported talent shortages last year.

In order to tackle this risk, recruiters and hiring managers must carefully maintain and feed healthy talent pools. These databases empower businesses to organise their talents into distinct groups and nurture each group more effectively.

Growing those talent pools is a significant challenge, though, and you must capitalise on every opportunity to add quality candidate data to them. Migrating legacy data is a great way to stop your talent pools from running dry.

Looking for more information? Check out these six reasons you should develop an alumni talent pool.

4. Prepare for an increasingly data-conscious industry

As the digital world continues to mature, so does our shared understanding of online privacy protection. Most people – including your candidates – now take several steps to protect their digital information.

As one academic study focused on online privacy puts it, “personally managing and protecting online privacy has become an essential part of everyday life.”

The simultaneous emergence of GDPR and other data protection regulations also means that it’s now trickier than ever for recruiters to collect and collate accurate candidate data.

This is why your legacy data is a goldmine.

If you migrate this data effectively, you’ll be able to incorporate valuable and GDPR-compliant data back into your systems. This can give you the edge over your competition and help you to connect with proven talent.

5. Activate your passive data

Data is one of the most precious resources available to your business: you can’t afford to leave it to gather dust. As the renowned data scientist Donato Diorio said: “Without a systematic way to start and keep data clean, bad data will happen.”

By migrating your legacy data today, you’ll be better able to incorporate it into your existing talent pools and using tools like Elevate’s AI sourcing to sort through it intelligently. The more data you have, the more comfortable you’ll find it to fill your open roles with great candidates.

Elevate gives you the power to work smarter and faster by providing immediate visibility to the talent you need. Request your Elevate demo today to learn how our solution can help you to unlock the full value of your legacy data.