Hugh-Billot1st January is one of the busiest days of the year for taking on new staff although in these austere times fewer people are changing jobs for fear of losing job security and hence numbers may be down a bit. But hiring goes on the year through especially for permanent staff. If you don’t get it right the organisation may be exposed to significant negative consequences such as lost productivity, reduced morale and motivation and increased costs – to mention some.

Hiring may be handled totally by internal recruitment experts/HR practitioners or outsourced to a specialist or generalist recruitment agency or through a mixture of both. Evidence is growing that outsourcing the process is providing more cost effective solutions.

So whichever approach is used, how do you know that it is undertaken efficiently? Well here are a number of efficiency measures you could ask your recruiter to use so an assessment can be made.

Job match efficiency: this measures how well applicants meet the person specification for the job. You calculate the measure by dividing the number of applicants interviewed by the number who were shortlisted. You should be looking for an efficiency level of 75% (i.e. interviewing three out of four shortlisted applicants).

Interview efficiency: this measures how well the hiring expert (internally this could be the HR manager or externally a recruitment consultant) is performing. You calculate this measure by dividing the number of applicants who have been offered the position by the number interviewed. Ideally you should be looking for an efficiency level of 33%. A level below 20% would indicate serious failings with the hiring process.

Offer efficiency: this measures the success in placing applicants. You calculate this measure by dividing the number of applicants who accept the job offer and start work by the total number of job offers made. An efficient outcome would be 80%. Why wouldn’t this be 100%? It could be but if it is it may be that you are offering too much salary and benefits; you are hiring below ability applicants; or you just may be rushing things.

Lost time efficiency: measures the organisation’s success in minimising the delay in filling the vacancy. Delay times vary by job (it may take a lot less time to replace a security guard than a nuclear physicist) so set your target delay in terms of days (i.e. it will take 65 days to fill the vacancy from the time an individual tenders his/her notice or the new job is announced) and then measure performance against that standard. If the position is filled in say 60 days there will be an efficiency level of 92% (60 as a percentage of 65) whereas if it takes 80 days to fill the vacancy the efficiency rate will be minus 23%. You should aim for at least 80%.

If you want efficient hiring get your calculator out. If you want efficient hiring and you can’t do the sums, hire a recruitment consultant (but ask him or her for their efficiency levels) who will do it for you and probably convince you it is the most cost effective method.

Dr Hugh Billot

Deputy Chairman

HR GO Group of Recruitment Companies

HR GO Recruitment offers solutions to all your staffing needs, temporary and permanent, please call 0845 130 7000

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