Hiring Manager Satisfaction

Also known as Customer Satisfaction, this is the hiring manager’s satisfaction rating for the hiring process. Hiring Manager Satisfaction has been traditionally measured after the recruiting process has been completed. However, there is an inherent problem with this approach: namely, the hiring manager has no preestablished guidelines by which to judge the recruiter. A better questionnaire is one that is completed before and after the recruitment process of a new position. This ensures that everyone is clear about expectations.

It is common in industry today for companies to measure the satisfaction of customers with the products or services they have purchased. Many of these efforts provide insightful information and help guide product and service level improvements. However, efforts to measure the satisfaction of hiring managers (as customers) with their staffing services have generally proved to be of limited value. Typically assessed after the fact, if at all, and on an ad-hoc individual manager basis, many of these approaches have provided one-sided information offering little about improving staffing effectiveness to help achieve business goals. The inherent problem with this approach is that the hiring manager has no preestablished guidelines by which to judge the recruiter. A better technique is a questionnaire that is completed before and after the recruitment process of a new position. This ensures that everyone is clear about expectations. Measuring Hiring Manager Satisfaction only after the cycle is completed invalidates the entire process.

Often achieving hiring manager satisfaction in one particular part of the organization occurs by dedicating already limited staffing resources at the expense of other parts of the organization. To that end, staffing professionals operating without agreed upon staffing criteria will never be able to satisfy all hiring managers since their expectations will vary based on their past experiences, both positive and negative. Staffing.org’s approach and accompanying tool to measure hiring manager satisfaction provides a proven method to clarify hiring manager expectations on the front end and then to evaluate performance against such expectations after the hire. Clarifying and understanding the hiring manager’s needs and expectations before the start of the search provides the staffing professional with an opportunity to begin with “the end in mind” and avoid the fundamental flaw of most customer satisfaction measures—not knowing what is important to the customer.

Staffing.org’s Staffing Metrics Toolkit provides a customer satisfaction survey template that has been field-tested and is relatively easy to customize. The template uses a five-point rating scale and lists a variety of rating criteria by which to rate the recruiter and the staffing experience, such as understanding of the position, understanding of the market, sourcing options, assessment of candidates, communications, offer/closing effectiveness, timeliness, quality and quantity of candidates, and so on. The template also helps the staffing professional to facilitate a discussion of the manager’s expectations and requirements. When the hiring manager is asked to complete the survey shortly after the hire, he/she will recognize that the evaluation factors used are the same ones that the staffing professional discussed to clarify expectations before recruiting was initiated. An average hiring manager rating is then easily calculated and can serve as a sound measure of recruiting effectiveness.

However, Staffing.org’s own research suggests that measuring hiring manager satisfaction, at least formally, is not typically done on a regular basis in most organizations. This is a lost opportunity for organizations, as preliminary research indicates that organizations that regularly measure hiring manager satisfaction report higher levels of satisfaction by hiring managers with their recruiting process as compared to organizations that only occasionally measure manager satisfaction (Recruiting Metrics & Performance Benchmark Report, 2005). Although research in this area is still relatively limited, it stands to reason that engaging in measurement on a regular basis will require increased collaboration between Human Resources and hiring managers, which in turn is likely to improve the staffing process as observed by improved hiring manager satisfaction ratings.

Such has been the case for the Coors Brewing Company in research conducted by the Corporate Executive Board’s Recruiting Roundtable. Coors was experiencing delays and manager dissatisfaction with its hiring process, despite a staffing process that was doing a good job in providing ample applicants and keeping cost-per-hire low. An analysis of the reasons for these issues revealed that an ineffective recruiter and hiring manager relationship existed due to inadequacies by both parties. These include unrealistic hiring expectations relative to the market by hiring managers, and a lack of knowledge about the business and poor consulting skills among the recruiters. To address these issues, Coors redesigned its recruiting process and introduced revised performance goals for its “talent champions.” Each performance goal included sample metrics to measure its achievement, and the metrics utilized included manager satisfaction scores and quality of talent. Coors recognized the importance of measuring what matters, and established one of the performance goals to utilize metrics to communicate how talent acquisition strategies help meet business goals.