Recruitment in 2021 – Focus on Hiring Quality

Recruitment in 2021 – Focus on Hiring Quality

Remember the time when a job ad was posted (newspaper, SEEK, LinkedIn etc), and the candidate would submit their resume and covering letter to the recruiter – the recruiter would sift through and shortlist the candidates, call them in for a preliminary interview and keep going until they land on the ‘ideal’ candidate.

While the process itself has not changed significantly, the dynamics of candidates has.

The implication of this is that recruiters and hiring companies are now focusing more on quality of the candidate, rather the how fast they can get someone in.

According to LinkedIn, 40% of companies worldview rank quality of the candidate as their top priority.

A recent survey found that while speed was the metric used to measure recruiting success, quality of the candidate is the metric most likely to be used in the future.

As with any major disrupting event, the pandemic has resulted in an interesting set of challenges for recruiters.

During the pandemic, there were people being deleted from their careers, such as:

• Food & beverage workers
• Hospitality workers
• Travel agents
• Airline pilots

While on the other hand, there was an upsurge in demand in:

• Warehousing
• Healthcare
• Farm hands

Regardless of where job opportunities or even demand lies, the need for quality people is now a key metric.

Many airline pilots removed from line of service, moved to farms to drive large combine harvesters – simply because these are sophisticated machines (like an airplane).

However, this does not mean an airline pilot will continue to drive a combine harvester once he/she is able to return to the skies.

What is Quality of Hire?

Quality of Hire is defined as the value a new hire adds to a company.

Specifically, it’s how much a new hire contributes to the company’s long-term success.

However, the challenge here is; how can you measure ‘quality’ has a metric during the hire process?

How to measure Quality of Hire of a candidate?

This is where is gets a little ‘rear view mirror’.

At this stage, Quality of Hire will most likely be measured once the candidate is in place for some time.

Key metrics to gauge how fit the candidate was for the role may include:

• Retention – the length of time the new employee stays/stayed in the role
• Time to fill – how long did it take to find the ‘ideal’ candidate
• Hiring satisfaction – how satisfied was the company hiring manager

Other factors may include:

• How quick the candidate came up to speed
• Job performance rating/review
• How engaged was the candidate with the company and its values
• Fit with culture

While these may be ‘lag’ indicators, overtime, recruiters will become more attuned to looking for traits and signals within candidates that are predictors of these behaviours.

And let’s not forget technology – while behavioural tests have been around for decades, there’s not doubt they can and will be modified to track and quantify quality KPIs within potential candidates.

Contact Roxayne at  Recruitment Australia for more information.

Email: info@recruitmentaustralia.net.au

T: +61 29634 5912

M: +61 438507258