The True Measure of Recruiting: More Than Metrics

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Recruiting effectiveness is something that frequently comes up during conversations with clients. They want to know more about the importance of metrics and which ones will actually impact results. Hiring teams generally measure three metrics: time (basically any cycle time metric), cost per hire, and quality of hire. While these metrics start to tell a story and improving them may improve your results, there could very well be a complete misalignment with what you’re measuring and what’s important to your organization.

I’m just going to put it out there.

If you really want to impact your recruiting effectiveness, look no further than Hiring Manager Satisfaction (HM Sat) and the relationship between the recruiter and the Hiring Manager.

Don’t take this to mean that other metrics aren’t important, it’s just about priority. Bersin by Deloitte conducted extensive research, concluding that the most influential predictor of Talent Acquisition performance armenia phone number library outcomes is a strong relationship between the recruiter and the Hiring Manager. Further, this driver is four times more influential than all other performance drivers measured.

It’s important to remember that HM Sat isn’t just a measure of the end result and how they feel about their recruiter. All too often HM Sat gets distilled down to “Hiring Manager Happiness” instead of a metric that measures whether Hiring Managers are getting what they need from the experience. HM Sat should encompass all elements of Talent Acquisition that they experience including:

Technology – Knowing that many Hiring Managers will access the system infrequently, is your applicant tracking system easy to use, intuitive, and simple? Can they identify how to review a candidate and review recruiter notes, or are you still relying on e-mailed resumes?
Process – Does your recruiting process make sense and follow a consistent path? Are your managers trained on the process, and more importantly, do they know why each part of the process exists? Managers will become dissatisfied very quickly if they are asked to invest time at the beginning of the process to do an intake call and discuss the culture of their team or key candidate motivators if they don’t know why that information is needed.
Candidate quality and quantity – Let’s face it, if a recruiter and Hiring Manager aren’t on the same page about what constitutes a qualified candidate and how many they’re likely to see, the level of satisfaction will drop significantly.
Time – Expectations, if not communicated at the beginning and throughout the process, will be different than reality every single time. It’s challenging to have a satisfied Hiring Manager when they expect to be interviewing tomorrow but the recruiter knows the role won’t be approved in less than 72 hours.