What impact does recruitment have on the business results of our company? This question scares many HR professionals whose superiors want to see clear numbers, percentages, amounts. If you have not experienced a "grilling" by the CFO yet, then you should know you'd better prepare thoroughly.
This is another topic John Sullivan focused on in his recent article on ERE.net. He pointed out ten "questions from hell" every HR manager who is going to speak with senior management about the effectiveness of recruitment should be able to answer.
1. What monetary impact does recruitment have on increasing our company's revenues?
Quantify how recruitment can increase corporate revenue by hiring better performing employees and innovators for positions linked to the highest incomes.
2. What competitive advantage in the labor market do we have thanks to our unique and effective approach to recruitment?
Provide data to show that your company manages recruitment better than the competition. Prove that your strategy, methods and recruiting team will be competitive in the future as well.
3. Which positions have the highest impact on the success and profit of our company?
You have to show that you prioritize recruiting the best performing workers for the positions with the greatest impact on corporate profit. Identify these positions and the extent of their impact. Then, quantify how much you concentrate on these positions.
4. What is the performance differential between the top-performing and the average worker in the same job?
Your task is to present the percentage and financial indicators showing the difference. Also demonstrate data to confirm that you assign your best recruiting resources to candidates with the highest performance differential.
5. How does the performance of new employees improve compared to previous years and to the competition?
Present year-on-year comparisons of performance and employee retention in key positions. Prove how the quality of your recruitment is improving compared to the competition. Furthermore, you should show that you implement error analysis in order to identify and remove non-functioning recruitment tools.
6. How does our employer brand attract the best talent?
Here, it is necessary to demonstrate measurable evidence that the best talents in the market know the unique conditions you offer. Prove that what you do to promote your company as an employer leads to growth in the number of high-quality job applicants.
7. How specifically can we attract the best talent?
Prove you systematically monitor how the best performing employees find you and what persuaded them to start working for you. Then prove you regularly pass this information on to your superiors as well as hiring managers.
8. How do you identify recruitment mistakes with the greatest impact on our company?
Describe your formal process of error detection and how you quantify the impact of errors in order to help managers and recruiters avoid them. Calculate the costs of each major procedural error, such as slow recruitment, inefficient interviews or poor job descriptions. Show how these costs are decreasing year on year.
9. What is the level of satisfaction among job applicants and managers with recruitment?
Present figures showing how both job applicants and managers are satisfied with your processes. Your company's top management is interested in how they evaluate recruiters' responsiveness, time needed to pass through the processes and the overall quality of recruitment. They want to see that job applicants are more satisfied with their recruitment experience than last year, and also compared to the competition.
10. What is the ROI of recruitment compared to HR and other corporate functions?
This measure is a real must. You have to show to which extent it pays to invest in recruitment.
How do you measure the effectiveness of recruitment in your company? Would you know how to answer these questions?
-kk-