If You Could Only Measure One Recruiting Metric — What Would It Be and Why?

In today’s hyper-connected, data-driven world, there are many metrics available to recruiters and intelligence acquisition teams. While it’s first-rate to have so many options, fine beats extent when it comes to results — and if you’re going to measure a recruiting metric, you need to center of attention your efforts. But where – and greater importantly, why?

Obvious or not, in my view, there’s only one recruiting metric that clearly matters. No, it’s now not the often-cited, albeit misguided, first-rate of rent that’s nearly impossible to determine out. What about time to fill? It’s a properly one to consider, even though actually not tops. Speed to productivity? Helpful enough. The issue with these metrics is that while they’re exceptional to know, they don’t definitely go the needle forward. Instead, if you can solely measure one recruiting metric, there’s no question about it: you choose to seem to be at the retention of pinnacle talent. If this surprises you, enable me to supply a little context…

Go past recruiting

We frequently discuss about the recruiting lifecycle as though it somehow ends at onboarding. That’s no longer absolutely true, specifically if we see this “cycle” as a non-stop loop. . Of course, it would be naïve to expect that each and every employ you make will remain with the organization forever, but the exact ones will possibly remain for a stretch. So what occurs after they leave the recruiting portion of their experience? Answer: they enter into the employee facet and become the responsibility of HR.

This is when we can run into trouble, thanks to the differences in how HR and recruiting function — and their understandings of one another. This frequent divide can forestall both side from grasping what the different is doing, which can have a long-term impact. Why? Because retaining pinnacle intelligence isn’t just about the cost at appoint — it’s the price of rent over the weeks, months and years that a candidate-turned-employee works for the organization.

Solve the split 

Before we’re able to dig into the data, we need to strive and close any plausible gaps between recruiting and HR. We’re all in the commercial enterprise of people, after all! Still, we understand that many recruiters may additionally “lock up” when candidates pose HR-centric questions, such as “How will you assist me strengthen as an employee?” Likewise, HR would in all likelihood war in the role of recruiter. We every have distinctive perspectives, exceptional strengths by the nature of the work we do Yet in spite of our differences, it seems possible to solve the break up – the employers out there winning top brain are proof.

Conquering the divide, we’re in a position to see every other as resources, working collectively on a collective mission that goes beyond placing butts in chairs to aid our broader organizational objectives. Because at some point, technological know-how will probably take over the operational parts of our jobs, leaving HR and recruiters to focus greater intently on building relationships— with candidates, personnel and, hopefully, one another.

Find the statistics 

By getting on the identical page, we can flip our interest returned to the metric at hand, which skill figuring out how and why top performers remain with the company. Our wondering combines three key factors: recruiting, engagement and retention — in that order. We’re searching to find solutions to questions like: why did they take the job? Why did they maintain it? Was it culture? Compensation? Something else? Why did they leave? Where did they go? We’re looking to analyze everything we can about what makes humans tick and positions work, in particular for indispensable roles.

Approaching metrics this way, we’re in a position to make each sides care, support the relationship between HR and recruiting, and make it viable to talk fee across the board. At the equal time, understanding that the whole thing we do boils down to retention, we can take our findings and begin to construct out packages with candidates and employees in mind. two

Making it all work 

The component about the retention metric is that it speaks to some large problems in HR and recruiting. As a result, making it work occasionally requires a little some thing greater on the phase of the employer (that skill an incentive!). That’s because conserving pinnacle talent requires non-stop monitoring and analysis, now not simply surface-level metrics. When HR and recruiting work together, retention follows. Through this collaboration, each sides can seem at the method past their personal on the spot involvement, bringing collectively other bits of statistics like source of rent and provide acceptance charges with overall performance management and compensation data to flesh out the better picture.

Connecting these dots keeps HR and recruiting involved in and engaged with individual hires all through the experience, and helps them stay related and up-to-date on how personnel are doing and what they’re interested in longer-term. Maybe that’s as easy as constantly communicating to anyone in the price chain; maybe it means some thing crafty like tying bonuses to worker overall performance evaluations two years post-hire. That part is up to the employer. Measuring this metric, on the other hand, well, that’s on HR and recruiting.