Blog: Let's chuck cockeyed talent acquisition metrics

Talent Acquisition

Let's chuck cockeyed talent acquisition metrics

The talent acquisition team needs to narrow the job description in consonance with the hiring managers to reduce the number of non-suitable applicants for the opening.
Let's chuck cockeyed talent acquisition metrics

Some talent acquisition metrics are low hanging fruits for the talent acquisition team to showcase success on their KPIs. These metrics simply need speed and an easily available source for getting applicants and subsequently for hiring candidates to match the speed. The metrics take the focus away from matching the right candidate to a specific position. The focus is more on filling a role as fast as possible in consonance with the source of hire. The primary driving force for the talent acquisition team appears to be their own self-interest and not necessarily that of the organization.  Cockeyed talent acquisition metrics include:

• Time to fill

• Time to hire 

• Source of hire

• Applicants per opening

Time to fill is a measure of the number of days it takes from the job requisition being posted to when the offer is accepted. This is a metric that is used to measure the effectiveness of recruiters within an organization and is one driven by speed and not necessarily one driven by scrutiny of candidate match to position. 

Time to hire is the time that lapses between engaging a candidate and then accepting an offer. This metric is again about tracking the speed with which candidates move through the hiring process. The metric does not guarantee match to a position

Source of hire metric shows where the candidates come from. Geckoboard, a tool that builds and shares KPI dashboards points out that Source of Hire may introduce bias into the selection process. An HR consultant for an organization who has his/her own recruitment firm can be a case in point for bringing in this bias. The problem surmounts if the HR consultant is someone the acquisition team reports to. It is tantamount to conflict of interest and detrimental to the hiring process. 

Applicants per opening, according to Analyticsinhr - a knowledge sharing site on HR analytics, is not necessarily an indicator of the number of suitable candidates. The talent acquisition team needs to narrow the job description in consonance with the hiring managers to reduce the number of non-suitable applicants for the opening.

Compulsion to chase KPI centered talent acquisition metrics forces the hiring team to compromise on how and who they hire. Dependence of the talent acquisition team on HR consultants as a source of hire promotes mutual self-interest – meeting KPIs for the hiring team and enormous consultant fees for the consultants. 

Ditching and dawdling on lopsided talent acquisition metrics may be the answer to prevent hurrying the wrong candidate into the organization and to prevent premature attrition.

The views expressed are personal

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Topics: Talent Acquisition, #GuestArticle

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