Yves Lermusi, CEO, Checkster
Final (Part 3 of 3): Continuing the Interview with Yves Lermusi, CEO, Checkster
Reprinted with the permission from APQC
This is the third and final part in the series on the effect and challenges of measuring Quality of Hire.
Part III
APQC: Let’s move from quality of hire to broader measurement of recruiting and talent acquisition. What do you think, in terms of a balanced scorecard of measures, is the best way for organizations to truly measure their talent acquisition function? This is a question that we get asked all the time at our organization.
YL: My point of view is that you need to implement a measurement system that is simple and easy to understand. At the organizations that I have worked with in the past, we would typically establish several key performance indicators, and then sub-measures beneath that. New hire quality should definitely be part of the measurement system for recruiting and talent acquisition. The other measures depend on the type of organization.
For instance, some organizations may have a challenge on sourcing (jobs are open too long and result in opportunity cost lost revenue), so what should be measured is the time it takes to place people in open jobs. If sourcing is an issue, then time to fill and fill rate is a measure that should be on the scorecard due to the direct impact of open positions on lost revenue.
The other important point to make is to ensure your recruiting/talent acquisition metrics are geared towards pivotal roles. This philosophy can help guide organizations from the standpoint of, not only what to measure, but where to measure in order to maximize impact so, quality of hire measurement is important. The time to fill or the number of open jobs that are unfilled is also important from a potential lost revenue standpoint. And finally, cost per hire, but I would definitely consider the latter measures as less important than quality of hire.
To that point, I was recently speaking with a vice president of talent acquisition and he said they stopped measuring cost per hire. When, asked why, he responded that it drives the wrong behaviors. For example, if companies focus only on cost per hire, they will try to reduce that cost, which may result in a lower quality of hire. So, there is an ongoing discussion about how to balance cost with quality.
APQC: To wrap up our discussion today, let’s talk about future trends. When we talk about recruiting, talent acquisition, and even talent management more broadly, what are you seeing in the next few years as the key issues and challenges that practitioners are facing?
YL: There is one variable that is difficult to predict, which is: the state of the economy. But assuming that the economy and the recovery are continuing, I think the important elements will be retention. Organizations need to offer internal mobility options from a recruiting standpoint in order to improve retention. For top performers, organizations should be sure to offer them career advancement, career movement, and career shifting in order to retain them. What we have seen, especially using the 360 approach, is that it facilitates the discussion around what employees’ aspirations are, and potential internal mobility possibilities.
The second issue is to make sure organizations focus on the most important issue, which is maintaining a high quality of hire. It is interesting, because lately the buzz at all the conferences is about social networking. I think social networking is important and it can be very useful for employment branding, for sourcing, for assessment, and for managing your talent community. But I would say that it is important to make sure that you get back to what’s most important—the quality. The newest trends and techniques in social networking are not as important as making sure you have the right people in the right jobs.
APQC: To that point, what final advice would you leave with people as they work to get better at putting the right people into the right jobs at their organizations?
YL: Rely on the age-old proven techniques, the most important of which is to listen to other colleagues. Truthful recommendations from people are very reliable. Unfortunately, because of legal issues, companies have been relying less and less on recommendations and reference checks, other than through the employee referral process. The reasons why employee referrals often work so well is because they include a reference within the referral.
So, the single most important predictor of new hire quality is candid personal recommendations. Organizations today often go through the interviewing process but don’t do their due diligence in really gathering recommendations and references. Currently companies leveraging what I call Reference Check 2.0, using the collaborative intelligence of social networks to check references, are changing the paradigm. Among organizations conducting reference checks this way, the average number of reference invitees is eight, and the average number of reference participants is six with a high level of candor. This compares to an average of 2.4 reference participants with Reference Check 1.0, where organizations conduct staged reference calls.
So, for any of our customers, we recommend that they make sure to cover the basics: strong interviews and digital reference checks or Reference Check 2.0 which is becoming a new basic.
Part I http://www.recruitingtrends.com/quality-of-hire-part-1-of-3
Part II http://www.recruitingtrends.com/quality-of-hire-part-2-of-3
About CHEKSTER
Checkster (www.checkster.com) offers reference-checking and 360-feedback technologies to client companies to help them automate reference checking, build a passive candidate database, and increase and measure their quality of hire.
ABOUT APQC
For over 30 years, APQC has been on the leading edge of improving performance and fostering innovation around the world. APQC works with organizations across all industries to find practical, cost-effective solutions to drive productivity and quality improvement. We are a member-based nonprofit currently serving more than 500 organizations in all sectors of business, education, and government.
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