6 Good Metrics for Recruiting

6 Good Metrics
by Stephen Lowisz
(retrieved from http://www.ere.net/2008/07/07/6-good-metrics/)

Recruiting metrics require a number of characteristics to be considered effective and reliable:

• Metrics must be predictive and actionable. Statistics need to provide information that can be acted upon by providing data to indicate trends.

• Metrics must be tracked over time in order to generate internal benchmarks and analyze internal performance.

• Recruitment metrics should include both quantitative and qualitative aspects. Time and cost obviously comprise the quantitative aspects of recruitment metrics, while productivity, retention, efficiency, and candidate performance comprise the qualitative aspects.

Metrics of the Past
Ten years ago recruiting was often seen as a steppingstone to an HR generalist role. Recruiters were trained to “screen out” applicants, thus making their positions transactionally focused. This led to the two most commonly used metrics: cost-per-hire and time-to-fill.
Cost-per-hire, the most common measurement applied to recruiting, only looks at the initial cost — and not the long-term cost — associated with hiring the wrong candidate. Focusing purely on initial cost will drive recruiters to place a ‘butt in a seat’ without regard to the quality of hire or the long-term production the candidate will or will not deliver.
Time-to-fill measurements are often popular due to the cost associated with positions remaining unfilled. Although this cost can be significant, this metric does not take into consideration the long-term cost associated with greater turnover percentages and additional recruitment costs for hiring the wrong candidates. Recruiters will focus on candidates considered the ‘lowest hanging fruit’ in order to fill positions faster.

Metrics of Today
As I speak with staffing and talent acquisition executives from around the country, they all express frustration in creating a measurable that drives one main objective — getting the right candidate for the job. In order to achieve this objective, we must first look at how the recruiter of today differs from the traditional recruiter of the past. Once we have the right recruiter, we can then focus on defining metrics that drive the right behaviors.
The recruiter of today has to move from being transactionally driven to relationship-driven. Recruiters are now sales professionals responsible for prospecting, building relationships, and advancing the sale. This function change requires the metrics associated with success of today’s recruiter to change as well.
Although the following is not an all-inclusive list, the following six metrics are examples of metrics that drive the right results and create the necessary behaviors needed to achieve these results.

• Performance/Quality of Hire: Data is driven by performance appraisal ratings and/or production 6 to 12 months into the new employee’s job as compared to their peers. Quality should be the first and most important recruiting metric. Since there is no formula for determining quality, recruiters and the hiring managers should define the standards for quality before recruiting. Quality of hire can be assessed through a simple survey that lists each criterion separately and asks the manager how the employee meets each standard on a scale of 1 to 5. New hire quality can also be tracked through formal performance evaluations, production reports, etc. A survey reported in Staffing.org’s Recruitment Metrics and Performance Benchmark Report found that the more regularly recruiting professionals measure new hire quality in an organization, the more satisfied hiring managers are with new hire quality.

• Manager Satisfaction: Data is driven by the percentage of managers who are satisfied with the hiring process and the candidates. This metric provides important, easily tracked data to determine a hiring manager’s preferences before recruiting begins, and then to evaluate staffing performance post-hire. Effective recruiting organizations rely on customer feedback to be successful. However, customer satisfaction should never be viewed as a stand-alone metric because it can be misleading.

• Source of Hire: Data is driven by the percentage of new hires from each defined candidate source. Data is also driven by the percentage of hires per source, with highest on-the-job performance and tenure rates. Tracking source of data information allows management to better understand the quality of their sourcing Strategy. This metric also helps recruiting managers see sourcing channels in terms of outcomes, not just sheer numbers.

• Referral Rates: Data is driven by the percentage of hires from referrals generated by the recruiter. Referral programs are most commonly focused on generating referrals from the greater employee population. Referrals generated by recruiters directly soliciting them from prospective candidates and new employees will have a measurable and positive impact on the quality of hire (studies show referrals make better performing hires), cost-per-hire (little to no cost for these referrals), and time-to-fill ratios.

• Candidate Satisfaction: Data is driven by the percentage of new hires who are satisfied with the hiring process as judged by a candidate survey. Candidate satisfaction surveys drive recruiting organizations to have a greater focus on the quality of service provided to each candidate, which has a positive impact on the brand positioning/employment branding of the company. Additional candidate metrics may also be valuable from candidates who were not selected, and candidates who declined offers. These last two groups are often overlooked, but they can provide valuable information about your recruiting operations.

• Pipeline Development: Data is driven by the number of potential candidates the recruiter has developed relationships with for key strategic positions. Data is managed through an effective CRM system. Similiar to tracking pipeline development of sales professionals, measuring recruiter-developed candidate pipelines can have a dramatic improvement on time-to-fill (candidates are already in process for commonly needed positions), cost-per-hire (pipeline candidates have no additional cost associated with placing them), and quality of hire.
Companies can decrease their time to fill and decrease their cost per hire, but if they can increase their quality of hire and quality of service, the entire game changes. Better employees translate into higher performance, more revenue, and higher profits. By using the right metrics you will encourage recruiters to focus their behaviors on the causes and not the symptoms of recruitment success. The combination of having the right recruiter with the right measurements will lead each recruiter to focus on finding the right candidate.

21 Definitions_A candidate's guide to recruiter-speak

Very funny and interesting article about how recruiter speaks. Really makes me laugh badly. That's probably because it does happen in my daily life right now. Since I started my new role in Talent Acquisition (staffing/recruiting) team one month ago, I have heard lots of those kinds of conversations and usage of terms. I am surrounded by recruiters and coordinators who are talking to candidates, either screening or giving information on an unstopped basis every day. From company's view, the phone presentation of recruiters is stressed since it presents the company. But from candidate's point, be aware how you should interpret the message correctly. : )

21 Definitions

A candidate's guide to recruiter-speak

Wednesday, May 21, 2008 | by Matthew Charney

(cited from ERE http://www.ere.net/articles/db/A068149AAE174D659608A46A0694BD2B.asp)

Every industry and profession carries with it its own distinct jargon. In fact, it is the measure of recruiters' worth to be able to pick up on the unique lexicon of the positions for which they recruit.

Being able to spout off the verbal equivalent of Google Adwords also preempts most candidates' assumptions that as recruiters, we're slightly above amoeba but slightly beneath bonobo monkeys on the evolutionary ladder. (The monkeys do admittedly win by default, though like recruiters, they have been known to eat their young, although most of us do this figuratively through the invention of the concept of "entry-level" employment.)

There's been a lot of attention paid to the banalities of "corporate speak," those words such as synergy, deliverables, scalable, and, my personal favorite, paradigm shift, which sounds suspiciously like a Led Zeppelin cover band or a Tom Clancy novel.

Additionally, there is a preponderance of words that have absolutely no meaning whatsoever to anyone outside of a specialized functional area.

As an accounting and finance recruiter, I am able to speak quite convincingly about Tier One ERPs, f(x) hedging, and econometrics. In fact, I can come across sounding a bit like a wonk, which I will consider a professional asset, given my inability to do simple arithmetic.

I feel a little bit like an expatriate; I'm able to speak the language with some proficiency, but throw in an idiom or colloquialism, and I'm rooting around for my dictionary.

Meaningless Catch-Phrases Take Off

Slowly but surely, these buzzwords have trickled into the public consciousness because most of these words are reserved for candidates specifically. The overwhelming majority of our etymology, in fact, was specifically created for less-than-desirable candidates.

As recruiters, it is vocational anathema to create a negative impression on a candidate, or to in any way create a negative reflection on the organization we represent. A successful recruiter strives to make each candidate feel like his or her interaction with the company was a successful one, even if it was, in fact, the worst disaster since the Hindenburg.

To prevent further confusion, I've provided a quick guide for candidates to decipher recruiter-speak with the hope that it eases the search process by providing the subtext of the terminology recruiters use the most.

While corporate recruiters are honest, we are never brutally honest. Our errors are of omission, and we tend to accentuate the positive, whether in presenting an opportunity, rejecting a candidate, or even closing an offer.

A Growing List

This list is by no means definitive, but it is a start…any suggestions or additions are greatly encouraged.

• Sourcing (v) Usage: "I sourced your resume and thought that you might be a great fit…" Definition: The entry of keywords onto a job board.
• Exciting (adj.): Usage: "We've got an exciting opportunity currently available…" Definition: An open headcount that needs to be filled as quickly as possible.
• Prescreen (n) Usage: "I'd like to set up a brief, exploratory prescreen." Definition: The conversation by which recruiters ascertain if they can afford the talent in question.
• Visibility (adj.): Usage: "This role has high visibility to all levels of management throughout the organization." Definition: The phrase most often used to describe a position with the smallest margin for error and highest turnover rate in the company.
• Growth (n): Usage: "This position is really a great growth opportunity." Definition: The naturally occurring phenomenon by which workers find fulfillment doing exactly the same job in a different company.
• Ad-hoc (adj.) Usage: "There will also be some ad-hoc projects required." Definition: A catch-all phrase used by corporations to describe the countless hours of manpower invested in activities unrelated to one's job function, generally evoked at the whim of departmental heads.
• Expectations (n) Usage: "What are your expectations for your next position?" Definition: The test commonly used during the screening process to see whether the candidate is capable of reading a job description and changing tense from third- to first-person.
• Stable (adj.) Usage: "It's a very stable business unit." Definition: When the collective tenure of a department's employees preempt any consideration of change or improvement upon the status quo.
• Reinventing (v) Usage: "We've had challenges in the past, but we're reinventing ourselves and our processes." Definition: A commonly used tactic employed by recruiters to explain recent or forthcoming layoffs (see: derecruit, reorganization, shared services, offshoring, outsourcing, et al).
• Competition (n) Usage: "You've got some pretty stiff competition for this position." Definition: A word used by recruiters to preempt disappointment for the candidate by establishing expectations upfront. Alternative definition: A tactic employed to make an extremely undesirable position appear more enticing.
• Team (n) Usage: "We're looking for a team player." Definition: The intangible qualities associated with a candidate who will not make waves and demonstrates the willingness to accept abuse by supervisors and fellow staff.
• DOE (acr.) see also depending on experience.Usage: "I am unable to provide a salary range for the position as it is DOE." Definition: Whereby a company unable to pay market rate for a position compensates by placing the blame on candidate deficiencies.
• Best practices (n): Usage: "We're a best practices organization." Phrase has not yet been defined. See meaning of life, UFOs.
• Work-life balance (phrase): Usage: "We put a real premium on work-life balance." Definition: The ratio of one's time at home to one's time at work. The smaller the ratio, the more likely the employee is paid on an hourly basis.
• Overtime (n) Usage: "There may be some slight overtime involved." Definition: An institution imposed by corporations to increase shareholder value without increasing headcount by maximizing working hours of employee population, up to and including Saturdays, holidays, and seminal life events.
• Feedback (n) Usage: "I'll provide feedback from my hiring manager as soon as I get it." Definition: Generally construed as a one- or two-word answer by which hiring managers summarily reject top candidates.
• Next steps (phrase) Usage: "We'll be in touch regarding next steps." Definition: A phrase used to put off rejecting marginal candidates for as long as possible until an offer is accepted by a more qualified party.
• References (n) Usage: "We're going to begin checking your references." Definition: The process by which a recruiter contacts previous coworkers of a potential hire from a list provided by the candidate in an attempt to bring objectivity to the hiring process.
• Background check (n) Usage: "You're our final candidate, but I can't extend an offer until your background check clears." Definition: A control imposed by corporations in order to slow recruiters' ability to extend an offer for a period of time that perfectly coincides with a candidate's extension and acceptance of other offers. Alternate definition: An industry whose practitioners continue to thrive despite the Internet's abilities to perform the same functionality at a fraction of the cost.
• Benefits (n) Usage: "We are proud to offer a comprehensive, competitive benefits package to all employees." Definition: A tactic used by corporations to attract full-time employees and entice temporary ones into menial labor.
• Offer letter (n) Usage: "Congratulations on joining our team. I'm sending over an offer letter that contains all the information you're going to need." Definition: A document or set of documents that contains all information relevant to one's employment with a company, denoting the last communication between recruiter and candidate until the candidate becomes eligible for transfer consideration.

AMA (American Management Association) seminar

There are some free recorded webcasts and podcasts available online on the topics in:
§ Business Writing
§ Communication Skills
§ Customer Service
§ Finance and Accounting
§ Human Resource Management
§ Information Technology Management
§ Interpersonal Skills
§ Leadership
§ Management and Supervisory Skills
§ Marketing
§ Office and Administrative Support
§ Presentation Skills
§ Project Management
§ Purchasing and Supply Management
§ Sales
§ Strategic Alliance Management
§ Strategic Planning
§ Thinking and Innovation
§ Time Management
§ Training and Development

Below is the note from one of webcasts that I just had in Business Writing
How to Write d Darn Good E-mail? By Philip Vassallo, Ed.D.
1. Get Started Quickly : 3As
a. Aim (reason to write)
b. Audience (reason to read)
c. Area (issue to address)
2. Write Attention Subject Line, Opening and Closing. Getting to the point.
a. Purpose in subject
b. Purpose in first paragraph
c. Use a do and a to for purpose statement
3. Create Clear, Concise E-mails that Get Results
a. Include ONLY what your READER need to know
b. Focus on reader benefit
c. Separate the beginning from the middle, and middle from the ending
4. Maintain a Professional Tone
a. Remember the durability of the written word
b. Do not demean, harass, or threaten readers or subjects
c. Consider whether e-mail is the best way to reply
5. Polish to Perfection: clear, concise, correct (use pullet points)

It seems very easy to understand but hard to keep in mind in every mail you send out. I totally agree with “durability of the written word” and “professional tone”. Every word you send out stand for yourself. There is nothing should be compromised if doing so would hurt your professionism. Also, not only for the written words, the way you talk, behavior, and look always matter. Many times, perception becomes the reality even though it is not the fact at all. Keeping on top of it, you gotten learn how to shape the perception, and how to project your image in a consistent way while packaging yourself to impress different audiences.

Public Speaking_Toastmasters International

Recently started again to have some training on my public speaking/communication skills through the Toastmasters International. Since last time having the formal public speaking, it has been about one year that I didn't have really stand up and do the public presentation. In Toastmasters International, theere is the educational program consisted of series of projects on public speaking to learn different experiences.

-------

Here are two major professional organizations for speakers:

The National Speakers Association (NSA)
is the leading organization for experts who speak professionally. NSA's 4,000 members include experts in a variety of industries and disciplines, who reach audiences as trainers, educators, humorists, motivators, consultants, authors and more. Since 1973, NSA has provided resources and education designed to advance the skills, integrity and value of its members and speaking profession. Visit NSA's Web site at www.nsaspeaker.org.

Toastmasters International
is known as the number one source for Public Speaking information. Their main goal is to help you become a better speaker, thinker, listener and leader by exposing you to a wide range of communication experiences. Includes lots of tips and information about local chapters.

Other resources: check http://www.speakermatch.com/showcase/resources/skills.htm

Use Your Strengths to Strengthen Others

Use Your Strengths to Strengthen Others

Found this very interesting article while browsing through Workforce.
Source from http://www.workforce.com/section/09/feature/25/45/14/index.html


The real impact of human resources comes when HR professionals turn their knowledge and skills into productivity for others, author and consultant Dave Ulrich contends.
By Dave Ulrich

---

You can’t walk into a conference these days without bumping into a speaker who is trumpeting the value of building on your strengths. It’s easy to understand why this message resonates. From the time we start school, we are evaluated on our weaknesses. Most of us dread this. "Build on your strengths" sounds like one of those alternative schools where people played sports, painted or sang and danced all day instead of memorizing dates in history or taking pre-algebra. Who wouldn’t rather sing and dance or play sports?

The logic of "build on your strengths" comes from outstanding work by Martin Seligman, who with his colleagues defined and shaped the field of positive psychology. Instead of focusing on what is wrong with individuals, they emphasize what is right. Instead of overcoming depression, they offer clients ways to find authentic happiness. Instead of diagnosing pathologies and overcoming them, they want to identify strengths and build on them. In Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification, a 2004 book written with Christopher Peterson, Seligman and colleagues identified 24 generic strengths that individuals might possess in six domains:

Wisdom and knowledge: the ability to acquire and use knowledge (creativity, curiosity, love of learning)

Courage: the ability to accomplish goals in the face of opposition (persistence, vitality, integrity, bravery)

Humanity: the ability to tend to and befriend others (kindness, social intelligence)

Justice: the ability to experience a healthy community life (fairness, teamwork, social responsibility)

Temperance: the ability to protect against excess (forgiveness, humility, self-control)

Transcendence: the ability to connect to a larger universe and provide meaning (gratitude, hope, playfulness)

A simple definition of a strength is that it’s something that we find easy, energizing and enjoyable. The authors’ premise is that when you do well in what you identify as a strength and capitalize on it—rather than trying to shore up your weaknesses—you will have more success and more positive experiences. You’ll find happiness. (You can take some of Seligman’s strengths tests here.)

It is very hard to disagree with this logic. Marcus Buckingham and others have argued that discovering what we do well is a first step to lasting success. Leaders whose strengths are around creativity will be more successful in innovative organizations and work environments, for example.

But building only on your strengths is not enough if those strengths do not create value for those you lead. In college, I majored in English. I developed a knack for reading novels. I could read two or three novels a week and found this easy, energizing and enjoyable. But what I have since found is that few people care about my strength of reading novels. What they really care about is my ability to analyze a situation in ways that help them reach their goals. Reading and interpreting good writing is a sustainable strength when it informs my ability to diagnose and help others work through their problems.

According to the recent movie The Bucket List, the Egyptians believed that the gatekeepers of heaven ask new arrivals two questions about their lives on Earth: Did you find joy? Did you bring joy to others? The first question is about building on your strengths to find joy. It is necessary, but not sufficient. It is about the self, not others. The second question shifts the focus of joy to helping others find it. Put in terms of our strengths discussion, this means that we should build on our strengths that strengthen others.

"Building on strengths that in turn strengthen others does not mean pandering. It does not mean you will say and do anything someone wants. it means having a clear sense of self."

Leaders may strive to acquire strengths of authenticity, judgment, emotional intelligence, credibility and other noble attributes, but unless and until they apply these strengths in ways that create value for others, they have not been totally successful. Some in the strengths movement have missed the conclusion Seligman reached in his 2004 book, Authentic Happiness: "The meaningful life: using your signature strengths and virtues in the service of something much larger than you are."

For leaders, this means that it is not enough to do our work well. We must also use our strengths to deliver value to others. HR professionals who want to build on their strengths in order to strengthen others should consider the following:

Focus on outcomes, not activities. It is tempting to focus on what HR does without fully considering what HR delivers, but it’s an incomplete goal. The outcomes of an HR activity might include employee morale, but could also be expanded to customers, investors and communities outside the organization. We have asked HR professionals to answer the query "so that …" to turn an activity into an outcome. For example: "We are investing in a performance appraisal (training, 360, communication or other HR process) so that … ." The answer to the "so that" query focuses on an outcome, not an activity. Outcomes are what we should be measuring.

Help leaders define their results. Many leadership programs are filled with exercises and seminars meant to help leaders learn and grow as individuals. They can identify their strengths and build them. But unless and until those strengths help others, they are incomplete. My colleagues at the RBL Group and I have adapted a fantastic exercise from Marshall Goldsmith. In a workshop, we ask leaders to think about their personal strengths and what they want to improve to be better as leaders and as people. Then, we ask them to stand and talk to five to seven other people who can coach them about using those strengths to strengthen others. Suddenly the focus is not just on what they want to do better, but on how their personal improvements will help others do their own work better. HR professionals who coach leaders about behavioral change can direct those improved behaviors to improved results.

Build a positive culture from the outside in. Most people acknowledge that companies have a culture, or way of doing things. This culture filters who joins the firm and how people act once they are in the firm. But often this culture is an inside-out view. It is defined as how we do things, our norms, our values, our expectations and our behaviors. By focusing on strengthening others, HR professionals can diagnose a culture against the standard of how it reflects desired outcomes by those outside the organization—customers and investors, for instance. HR professionals can ask leadership teams questions like: "What do we want to be known for by our best customers (or investors)?" By focusing on the strengths that others want to see in us, then translating those expectations into internal leadership and organization actions, we can make a culture an enduring source of value. Strengthening others affects not only the individual but the organization.

Be a contributor by working with business leaders on their issues. HR competency models that focus exclusively on what the HR professional should know and do are insufficient. The real impact of HR professionalism comes when HR professionals turn their knowledge and skills into productivity for others. HR professionals should know the business so that they help their business leaders achieve financial and customer results. HR professionals should build innovative and integrated HR practices so that strategies turn from aspirations to actions. HR professionals should be credible activists so that they can help those they coach reach the results they desire.

Develop HR professionals who are curious. In doing HR work, HR professionals should start by identifying their audience and what they want and need. This requires HR professionals who desire to learn first, then act. HR professionals should ask questions about what the business requires, about what leaders are accountable for, about what employees need, and about why customers select one provider over another. By asking these questions, HR professionals spend less time on what they are good at, and more time on what they can do to help others succeed. Curiosity means HR professionals begin their work by learning what others want rather than what they know. Strengthening others means good HR is less about what HR knows and more about how that knowledge affects others.

Building on strengths that in turn strengthen others does not mean pandering. It does not mean you will say and do anything someone wants. It means having a clear sense of self. It means identifying, developing and investing in personal strengths without arrogance or compromise. But, it also means applying those strengths to the service of others.

As the strength logic evolves and applies to HR, successful HR professionals might quietly say to themselves, "I am able to help someone accomplish what they need to do." And that happened because they used their strengths to strengthen others.

Workforce Management, March 17, 2008, p. 28-29