When someone new enters an organisation, a ripple effect flows through the company, carrying the potential to recalibrate how a team works, connects, and thinks. One good hire can jumpstart innovation, strengthen team collaboration, and revive energy in a flat culture. One poor hire, however, can erode team credibility, stall workflow, and amplify inefficiencies.
Taking stock of new hires by measuring quality of hire helps organisations gauge whether recent newcomers are heading in the right direction and if hiring processes are maximised for optimal results. Quality of hire metrics can also serve as a blueprint to help change course and build something better when gaps are found.
Here at Talogy, we conducted a research study to understand how to address common hiring challenges and improve quality of hire in the industrial sector. We found that to improve quality of hire, organisations must first define quality of hire metrics in a way that is tailored to a relevant job function. This enables hiring managers to track and improve the quality of newcomers. To get there, let’s clarify what quality of hire is and help you to measure it for any position with a quick, foundational checklist.
What is quality of hire?
Is quality of hire just an HR buzzword or a meaningful metric? Quality of hire measures the impact of a new hire, encompassing factors like performance, engagement, dependability, retention, trainability, and organisational fit. Quality of hire metrics, when implemented thoughtfully, have the potential to drive real impact in terms of refining hiring processes to improve talent quality.
Ignoring quality of hire means disregarding vulnerabilities in the hiring process that contribute to poor hires slipping through the cracks. It’s important to pay attention to quality of hire, as our research revealed four major consequences of bad hires:
- Decreased productivity
- Poor work quality impacting customers
- High turnover rates
- Increased safety incidents
In addition to these ramifications, a bad hire can cost organisations a lot. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates a poor hire costs the organisation about 30% of the employee’s annual salary. And this figure doesn’t even factor in the indirect costs of bad hires such as reduced morale across the team, increased cost to repair mistakes, eroded trust among customers, and even litigation fees. such as reduced morale across the team, increased cost to repair mistakes, eroded trust among customers, and even litigation fees.
Paying attention to quality of hire — and conducting consistent audits using quality of hire metrics mapped to the role — not only helps identify shortcomings but also provides a template to tailor the hiring process to meet organisational and role needs more effectively. This is key in enabling organisations to avoid the direct and indirect costs associated with poor hires and improve quality of hire overall.
How to measure and improve quality of hire
Quality of hire can look different depending on the skills and behaviours prioritised by a particular organisation or for a specific role. However, certain foundational factors can serve as a useful starting point. Our research revealed three key areas in particular that are often used to measure it, specifically in the industrial sector: performance, engagement, and dependability. The checklist below provides example behaviours and metrics to assess a new hire on each of these key areas revealed in our research.
Keep in mind, this isn’t a one-size-fits-all checklist. It’s a tool that can help generate discussion around what a successful new hire looks like, which can be adapted and customised to fit the needs of your organisation and role.
Quality of hire checklist
PERFORMANCE
Have they shown they can perform the technical tasks required for their role?
Are they meeting productivity and quality standards (e.g. low defect rates, minimal rework)?
Did they reach expected performance levels within a reasonable timeframe?
Are they consistently following safety protocols and compliance procedures?
Have they contributed to improving any processes or boosting team efficiency in any way?
ENGAGEMENT
Do they collaborate well with supervisors and team members?
Do they demonstrate initiative, adaptability, motivation, and a positive attitude?
Are they open to feedback and willing to improve?
Do their behaviours reflect company values and expectations?
Are they receiving positive feedback related to conduct or fit?
DEPENDABILITY
Is their attendance and punctuality reliable?
Are there signs they intend to stay and grow with the organisation?
Have they taken on new responsibilities or shown interest in development?
Are they considered a strong candidate for advancement?
How to create a custom quality of hire checklist
The above checklist serves as a foundation to develop quality of hire metrics specific to your role. Once metrics are defined, you’re prepared to perform a full quality of hire audit to uncover hiring gaps and outline steps for improvement. A few ways you might customise this checklist to define metrics that fit the role of interest:
Add tailored metrics. Use the checklist to help you brainstorm specific quality of hire metrics you may use for the target role. Consider additional questions to capture key success indicators that may be unique to the role. Some avenues you might explore for quality of hire metrics include:
- Identifying early signals that predict long-term success
- Using process metrics to track system performance
- Monitoring ramp-up time and job performance
- Seeking out input from supervisors and peers for additional perspectives
- Linking hiring to business outcomes (e.g., productivity, retention, cost savings, etc.)
- Using validation and research to understand what’s driving success and what is not
Evaluate core selection criteria. Some skills are essential on the job from day one, and it’s critical to select for these qualities at the time of hire to prevent quality issues during the onboarding and training phases. Quality of hire audits are a great way to check in on how well your hiring process is assessing these critical drivers of success and selecting those with high proficiency at the time of hire.
Think of which critical skills for this job may be harder to train and that you’re aiming to select for during hiring. Competencies such as attention to detail or positive attitude. What behaviours and beliefs might you assess that provide information on how attentive or positive the new employee is in their daily tasks?
Target problem areas. List the major pain points you see in the target role. Then, generate questions and metrics that help target these common obstacles or inefficiencies, and how the new employee is handling them.
Adapting your hiring strategy to secure quality employees
To ensure you are welcoming the most qualified new employees into your organisation, you need to be able to know what quality of hire is, determine which metrics can be used to properly assess quality of hire, and then use that information to conduct an audit that shows where any gaps may exist in your process. While our research focused on industrial hiring challenges, the reality is that every industry has its own share of difficulties to overcome and hiring intentionally will help to address them. Having a solid strategy to distinguish quality hires from the rest of the candidate pool will ensure your organisation avoids the poor hire pitfalls and builds a foundation of qualified employees.
The comprehensive guide to hiring in manufacturing
Solutions to common challenges faced in the industry
For decades, the world’s top manufacturers have trusted Talogy to build solutions to help make the best hiring decisions and build productive, skilled workforces.
In this eBook, our team of experts discusses some of the more common challenges organisations face in selecting high-quality manufacturing employees, gives guidance on how to overcome them, and provides results seen from client projects.
Learn about these topics and more:
- Developing an efficient hiring process with HR technology
- Improving safety performance in manufacturing operations
- Identifying high-potential employees for frontline leadership roles
- Ensuring your hiring process is legally compliant
- Reducing time-to-hire in your hiring process
- Incorporating mobile testing to improve candidate experience