Companies as good as their retention rates

A job survey by Wisdomjobs shows that 32% said that they use retention rates as a key metric to measure Quality of Hire

HYDERABAD: Wisdomjobs.com, an online recruitment and career solutions portal based in Hyderabad, released a report on “How companies are striving to improve the quality of hirings.” Wisdomjobs.com surveyed 120 companies across Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Pune to understand their focus on improving quality of hire, and the metrics they employ to improve the quality of their hires. This survey includes companies from IT, E-Com, retail, FMCG, real estate, pharma and manufacturing sector.

Companies have different hiring methodologies. Some focus on cost-effectiveness and quick turnarounds while others prioritize long-term success of their hires within the organization. Whatever the methodology, the single-most effective parameter to measure the success of a company’s hiring process is ‘quality of hire’. While some companies also place emphasis on ‘time to hire’, it is the quality of their hires that impact organizational performance over time.  Jibe.com, a career website defines ‘Quality of hire’ as  the value new employees bring to the company, and therefore demonstrates how effective the recruitment team is at finding and connecting hiring managers with the right people for each available job. Some of the key findings are:

•     45% of respondents agree that Quality of Hire is the single most valuable metric to evaluate team performance.
•    However, only 29% of them feel that their Quality of Hire measurement is effective, while only 10% feel that their metrics are best-in-class.
•     52% said that they use Performance Reviews as the key metric to measure Quality of Hire.
•    32% said that they use Retention Rates as a key metric to measure Quality of Hire.
•   16% use Hiring Manager Satisfaction to measure Quality of Hire.
•    Nearly 40% of companies said that measuring QoH had a significant impact on their hiring processes.
•   25% of companies said QoH measurement had only a moderate impact on the way they hire.
•    10% of companies said that QoH measurement had no impact on their hiring processes.

What channels are companies banking on to improve QoH?
Most companies are making conscious efforts to improve the quality of the candidates they hire by opening several channels of engagement with potential hires. From social media engagement to employer branding, companies plan on investing more in the following channels to improve QoH:

•     Social Media -50%
•   Employer Branding-46%
•    Employee Referrals-41%
•   Campus Recruiting-27%
•    Job Boards-26%
•   External Agencies -13%

 
Other tools used by companies to improve QoH

•  Companies are increasingly using assessments conducted before interview rounds to identify quality candidates, map their competencies etc. To this end, they use offline/pen-and-paper, and online assessments, both. Almost 50% of companies surveyed use assessments to improve their QoH. Among those who use assessments:
•   86% said they use pre-hire assessments for candidate screening.
•  73% rely on assessments to determine job fit or competency gaps.
•    60% use assessments to evaluate leadership potential.
•  52% use assessments to build employee development plans.