Quality of Hire:
A 90-Day Survey Design
Hey, Friends,
I hope you had a great start to the week. Welcome to the Wednesday edition of the Strategic People Analytics newsletter! And, of course, Happy Valentine's Day!
Today, I want to cover the most elusive concept: the Quality of Hire.
This concept is on everyone's mind from when we set a requisition with a recruitment team, throughout the interview, and ultimately once we start hiring our lucky new joiner.
But there is rarely a sure way to measure the Quality of Hire.
Even in roles where performance is easy to see (sales), it is difficult to identify whether the initial hire is successful in the first 90-180 days. They are still ramping up and learning the product.
So, we must rely on other available tools: surveys.
So, let's construct the quality of hire survey!
In today's issue, we will:
Start with an overall model for the Quality of Hire and then
Design a survey to send to new hire managers in 90 days to
assess the quality of the hire.
Let's goooo!
1. The Quality of Hire Model
To measure the quality of hire properly, we first must define what quality of hire really is. And this week, on LinkedIn, my fellow very talented People Analytics expert, Frank Mu, and I discussed this exact concept.
Frank has proposed a model for what Quality of Hire is, and I tend to agree with him:
According to this model, a quality hire will show:
Strong Performance: the new hire will deliver high-quality results on time and budget with minimal supervision.
Quick Ramp Time: the quality hire will be able to hit the ground running and ramp up to full productivity rapidly.
Job-Fit: the new hire will be the person for the job, having the knowledge and skills to resolve the issues requiring the organization to make the hire in the first place.
Career Growth: The new hire will show potential for career growth, showing both aspiration and ambition.
Engagement: the new hire will be engaged with the work they are doing, with the company, and with their team.
I like this model because it touches on pretty much all aspects of a quality hire, regardless of where they are in the journey.
If they are with the organization for a few months, we should see them ramp up quickly, become a team player, and deliver value and performance from the get-go.
If they have been at the company for a while, they should receive strong performance ratings, participate in company culture and events, innovate, and be considered for promotions where appropriate.
So, now that we understand the model, why not create a simple assessment we can send to managers?
90-Day Quality of Hire Assessment
This question emerged in the Resources for Humans Community by Lattice the other day, and I think it's a common question a lot of recruiters, hiring managers, and HR professionals are asking themselves every day: How do I know I hired the right person?!
As always, I love simple and straight-to-the-point models. And for that, we need to create constraints.
So, here are the constraints we will use to create an assessment:
One idea per question
Max 10 questions
Clear scale
Clear benchmark comparison
Let's get this going:
Strong Performance:
The employee is productive at work
The employee meets my performance expectations
Quick Ramp Time:
The employee is ramping up quickly
Job-Fit:
The employee is the right person for the job
The employee has the skills to be successful
Career Growth:
The employee clearly shows strong potential for growth
The employee is coachable
Engagement:
The employee is engaged
The employee is connected to the team
For the scale, I am leaning toward a classic Likert-type scale here with a 1-10, where 10 is "Strongly Agree" and 1 is "Strongly Disagree." I want to see more variance on the scale, hence suggesting going all the way to 10.
Also, don't forget to include an open-ended question at the end or two:
What does this employee do well?
How can they improve?
to trigger reflection and coaching in the assessing managers.
Finally, assure the manager these surveys are confidential and so you need their honest opinion to ensure you can hire the best people in the organization.
And just like that, we have created a 9-question assessment you can send to your managers 90 days after a new hire starts.
What is more, you can automate the survey within your HRIS and then analyze the results continuously across the company via interactive or static dashboards, building the right benchmarks for what a high-quality hire is like.
With that, I am off to Washington, DC, to facilitate a session and meet some great People Analytics folks.
Ciao, and see you next week!
Konstantin
Whenever you're ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:
#1
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#2
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