We Got One! How to Measure a Recently Hired Person

We Got One! How to Measure
How Well You’re Hiring
Tom Morley, President, Snowflake Llc

www.highroadsolution.com
Today’s Content Leader
Tom Morley
President, Snowflake LLC
• Strategy, organization, and people
subject matter expert
• 17 years consulting to leaders in all
sectors, US and abroad
• Twitter: @snowflakellc

The “right” people
A Simple Workforce Challenge
InspireHireIdentify
• A changing world calls for different resources
• People are a limiting factor for strategy
• It’s hard to hire the people you need
• Today’s challenges require inspired solutions

Did We Get This One Right?
Measuring what’s important about individuals
• Typical measurable elements of “right”
– Readiness – Prepared for what’s expected
– Performance – Delivering results, good “fit”
• These elements cover other indicators
• The organization may have other factors

Is the individual “right”?

Readiness
Is the employee prepared to contribute when asked?
• Knowledge and skills at prescribed times
– Measure milestone capabilities
– Align with development plans
• Three primary methods:
– Requirements tracking
– Gateway knowledge assessment
– Short-term evaluation

Readiness
Requirements tracking – “Did he/she get the basics?”
• Benefits
– Simplest form to track
– Can measure and respond within activity
– Data can be collected and analyzed
• Problems
– Assumes training effectiveness
– Tests are often too easy
– No clear consequences

Readiness
Gateway knowledge assessment – “Is he/she ready?”
• Benefits
– Rigorous
– Tests knowledge, not memory
– Can identify and address gaps
• Problems
– How much is “too much”?
– Wrong person, or wrong program?*
– Possible legal risks

Readiness
Short-term evaluation – “Is this working out?”
• Benefits
– Early recognition
– Opportunity to correct
– May be able to identify commonalities
• Problems
– Can be highly subjective
– Whose “fault” is it?*
– Limited, often costly options

Readiness
Overall evaluative contribution
• Value
– Individual-level “course correction”
– Aggregate trends
• Concerns
– Problem misidentification
– When to “pull the plug”?

Performance
Is the person continuously contributing as expected?
• Accomplishing, inspiring, and advancing
– Evaluate results of work and participation
– Assess and project impact on organization
• Three primary methods:
– Performance reviews
– Achievements
– Return on investment (ROI)

Performance
Reviews – “Is he/she having the expected impact?”
• Common types of reviews
– Routine interim and annual
– On-going dialogue
– 360o
feedback
– PIP evaluations
• Competency assessments – performance?

Performance
• Benefits
– Assess contributions and “fit”
– Positive and negative incentivization
– Realignment and continuous growth
• Problems
– Subjectivity, real or perceived
– Tendency to over-rate
– Too infrequent, no dialogue

Performance
• Key indicator of “right”, if you:
– Measure what matters
– Align and adjust
– Ensure “realism” and feasibility
– Include effects on work environment
– Provide adequate support
– Train managers
– Review and reconcile
• Can tie back to hiring

Performance
Achievements – “Does the individual ‘stand out’”?
• Common types of verifiable achievements
– Promotions (individual’s or others’)
– Initiative leadership or participation
– Internal and external awards
– Industry thought leadership

Performance
Achievements – “Does the individual ‘stand out’?”
• Benefits
– Indicates intangible leadership qualities
– Recognizes “going the extra mile”
– Can be sufficient reward by itself
• Problems
– Validity of promotions
– Need to distinguish quality, quantity
– Impediments to opportunity

Performance
ROI – “What is his/her impact on the ‘bottom line’?”
• Benefits
– Outcome-oriented
– Very specific indicator of impacts
– Quantitative, difficult to dispute
• Problems
– Requires complete, accurate data
– Primarily supports transactional
– Hard to establish cause-and-effect

Performance
Overall evaluative contribution
• Value
– Individual impact
– Aggregate trends
• Concerns
– Subjectivity
– Opportunity and support

Are We Getting Them Right?
Measuring aggregate hiring effectiveness
• Typical measurable elements of overall workforce
– Recruiting
– Hiring
– Selection
– Retention
• Statistics don’t lie, but they do misdirect

Recruiting
Are we identifying the right candidates?
• Delivering a qualified pool to choose from
– Analyze applicant statistics
– Assess efficacy of identification
• Key statistics:
– Gross number and proportion qualified
– Alignment of managers and recruiters
– “Dropout” rate

Recruiting
Contributions of recruiting statistics
• Benefits
– Determine if recruiting strategy is working
– Monitor performance of recruiters
– Improve communications
• Problems
– Rely on appropriateness of definitions
– Require explanatory analysis
– Some aspects beyond control

Recruiting
Exploring recruiting issues
• Key explanatory statistics
– Qualified candidates by source
– Number and percentage qualified by role
– Time from contact to interview
• Qualitative indicators
– Individual candidate feedback
– Labor market surveys

Hiring
Are the people we want accepting our offers?
• Securing the selections
– Evaluate hiring statistics
– Assess ability to capture
• Key statistics:
– Total acceptance rate
– Average rank choice accepting

Hiring
Contributions of hiring statistics
• Benefits
– Evaluate success securing desired candidates
• Problems
– Market dependencies

Hiring
Exploring hiring issues
– Cycle time (from contact, interview to offer)
– Acceptance rate by job, source, demographic
– Compensation demand gaps
– Individual candidate feedback

Selection
Are the people we’re hiring turning out “right”?
• Investigating outcomes
– Review performance statistics
– Assess workforce potential
• Key statistics:
– Distribution of performance ratings
– Average time in position, # of promotions
– Proportion of positions filled internally

Selection
Contributions of selection statistics
• Benefits
– Potentially best indicator across life cycle
– Possibility of discovering systemic issues
• Problems
– Many other factors may explain

Selection
Exploring potential selection issues
– Aggregate department, enterprise performance
– Distribution of ratings vs. outcomes
– Proportion of internal openings to staff
– Employee, culture surveys
– Organization assessments

Retention
Are the “right” people sticking around?
• Evaluating retention
– Assess turnover statistics
– Determine elements within control
• Key statistics:
– Turnover rate by performance ratings

Retention
Contributions of retention statistics
• Benefits
– Identify potential environmental concerns
– Possible indicator of incentive misalignment
– Discover need for policy changes
• Problems
– Market dependencies

Selection
Exploring potential retention issues
– Average annual increase and incentive payments
– Proportion of promotion opportunities to staff
– Turnover after training, certification, etc.
– Turnover by job, manager, department
– Exit interviews, surveys
– External economy, market review

Summary
Measuring “right” – the individual and the process
• Have to define “right” to hire “right”
• Getting it “wrong” is costly, affects brand
• “Effectiveness” vs. “explanatory” measures
• Individual monitoring allows real-time correction
• Process evaluation:
– Can identify systemic challenges
– May not fix individual situations
• Environment may play a major role

More Information
Learn more about best practices and how they might
apply to your organization
Snowflake LLC
+1.540.931.9943
info@snowflakellc.com
www.snowflakellc.com/contact
Facebook: www.facebook.com/snowflakellc
Twitter: @snowflakellc

We Got One! How to Measure a Recently Hired Person

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