The Mount Everest of Recruiting: Measuring New Hire Quality

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

It's a fitting analogy. New hire quality is the essence of recruiting and measuring it is as daunting as climbing Everest. And just like taking on Everest, the very people that say we should do it question whether it is really possible. Such are all great challenges.

We may still be at the base of new hire quality trying to decide what approach to take, but soon many organizations will have blazed a path to the summit clear enough for all to follow. Unfortunately, followers run the risk of being left behind.

Four years ago less than 2% of the companies in the U.S. were making any attempt to measure new hire quality. By 2002 that had edged up towards 10%, still a very small and inexcusable proportion for such a critical measure. And then by the spring of 2003 the total was approaching 30%. There is still more talk than measurement, but the talk is getting more serious and coming from more senior levels. “Can you measure the quality of our hires?” is one of the top three questions the CFOs, COOs, and CEOs ask me every week. (The other two are how to measure HR performance and how to select HR vendors.)