Invest in HR Hiring - Finding diamonds in the rough

Are you still using old scorecards based on cost per hire and time to fill for measuring hiring performance of your company? No doubt time and money are still the major determinants in life and business. However it is time your scorecards would include metrics that are not directly connected with the said determinants but will definitely allow you to have a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your hiring performance and will bring more profit to your company in the end.

Time and money rule the modern world. And they say time is money as well. They even developed a formula to calculate the value of our time:

• V= (W((100-t)/100))/C, where V is the value of an hour, W is a person's hourly wage, t is the tax rate and C is the local cost of living.

So it is money after all that is the material expression of value of everything we have or wish to have. Though some romantics and idealists may argue it is not, no doubt presenting a price tag with a number is the easiest and perhaps one of the most efficient ways to show the value of something. Thus, we cannot blame businesses for listening to the jingle of pennies every time they have to make a decision.

No wonder that for many years the scorecards for measuring hiring effectiveness were based par excellence on such metrics as:

• cost per hire;
• time to fill;
• the number of days the positions were vacant

that is hiring was evaluated from the point of view of money and time involved. However, practice showed that quick and cheap filling in positions very often result in both money and time loss in the future. Thus, here is the question:

• Do you want to win 100 today but lose 1000 tomorrow?

Or:

• Are you ready to invest 1000 today and earn 10000 tomorrow?

This can hardly be the case when both options are the right choice. Therefore, scorecards measuring hiring performance should comprise more metrics and of different nature.

Of course every business is unique and has different goals and priorities. A qualitative scorecard has to reflect the above and to measure what is important for a particular company. At the same time there are constant benchmarks following which will allow you to create a scorecard that will show if your company is properly investing in human capital and if this investment will bring success and prosperity to your company.

The questions of importance for any HR department in respect of hiring are:

• Have we hired the right people? Are we searching for the right hires?
• Are our hiring strategy and hiring staff efficient enough not to miss “gold” hires in the ore of job-seekers?
• Are there ways to cut hiring expenses that will not result in financial losses in the future?

The metrics of an expert scorecard will embrace the answers to these questions.

When determining if the newly hired employees were the right choice for the company the HR department has to measure the quality of hires. The said can be assessed through efficiency and excellence of the new hires, their longevity in and fitness for the company, the value that they are able to bring to the company and the ability to advance in the company and the last though not the least in importance the level of satisfaction of the new hires with their position which may affect the retention rate, productivity and even the moral of the company.

Evidently keeping track of accession rate and the number of positions filled vs. the number of vacant positions which can be termed as staffing yield ads to the proper assessment of hiring performance. If the above metrics are supported by such quantitative metrics as the number of internal and referral hires and the number of positions filled by currently employed, “happy” people it will give you a real insight into the results of your hiring efforts. It is a well known fact that all the three said groups of hires (internal, referred and happy hires) make better employees.

So why not cut the expenses that a company may incur (for example the costs of bad hires, training expenses etc.) and try to recruit the staff of high quality right from the beginning. After all with a little polishing only braits turn into diamonds. Moreover, check and refine your hiring strategy and program all the time. Do they deal with the most productive hiring sources and tools? Is your hiring staff qualified enough and adequately trained to separate the wheat from the chaff and at the same time not to miss the talents?

If your human resource/ hiring balanced scorecard covers all the above it will not only keep your company competitive and keep the bottom line but will also bring high potential hires to your business that will lead to success and prosperity you have been planning for your company.