New Hire Quality

It can be argued that of the metrics discussed, New Hire Quality is one of the most important. A recent survey conducted by HRMetrics.org found that more than 19,000 C-level executives rated new hire quality as having the highest level of importance when compared with 20-plus other HR metrics (9.6 on a ten point scale). As little as seven years ago, according to the latest Staffing.org Benchmark Report, more than 90 percent of organizations in the United States insisted that New Hire Quality was critical, yet less than 2 percent of them were making any attempt to measure it. In that same Staffing.org report, respondents were asked to prioritize their metrics foci for next year—over 58 percent selected quality, more than any other choice. Today, over 40 percent of organizations have some sort of New Hire Quality measurement.

Despite agreement by both CFOs and chief HR officers that people and talent are crucial, it’s somewhat surprising that organizations have been slow to measure the quality of their new employees.

One possible reason for this is that the New Hire Quality metric cannot be defined by a specific formula. Instead, it is defined by staffing and business stakeholders working together. The standards for New Hire Quality should be determined by the hiring manager before recruiting is initiated, and the quality measure should be taken within the first 90 to 180 days of employment (depending on the predetermined requirements set by the hiring manager). This is after the easiest and hardest periods of new hire assimilation and also, before the organizational influences significantly impact the rating. In short, New Hire Quality is:

• Performance criteria established by the hiring manager prior to initiating recruitment.

• New hire performance associated with recruiting standards.

• Measured at a predetermined point in time.

Since the process for assessing quality of staffing operations cannot be based on a specific formula, gathering additional information is beneficial. If hiring managers track the data above, they will be able to determine:

• Whether operations align with the business as evidenced by the success of new hires once they have started.

• Whether you are producing highly rated hires that are truly prepared to have the impact on the business that they are expected to have. (Are you hiring people who have the qualifications necessary to be successful in your system, or are you simply matching resume entries with job specifications?)