Rethink Recruiting: Hiring for Fit, Measuring for Impact

Companies aren’t having a talent crisis—they have a hiring process problem. According to new study from Mercer, in collaboration with isolved, improving the talent experience takes partnership between employers, employees and candidates.

At their core, employers, employees and candidates want the same thing—growth. Sure, growth looks different in every instance: companies strive to boost bottom lines and market share, while employees and candidates look to hone their skills within their roles. Although each group shares a common end goal, many organizations are finding fractures in today’s talent experience.

Sixty-two percent of human resources (HR) leaders believe that there’s a talent crisis in their industry, which is often self-inflicted due to outdated hiring practices. And despite 92% of employees saying they’re engaged at work, nearly 72% will look to change jobs in the next year. Many are looking for growth opportunities and not finding them with their current employer.

In our blog, we’ll take a look at where expectations are separated, how to reset the hiring process and new metrics to set organizations up for success.

The Current Disconnect

Increasingly, organizations value agility over productivity. In fact, executives cited improved workforce agility (44%) over improved workforce productivity (35%) as the most important business priority in the next 12 months. Employees also seek agility within their own careers but are not finding opportunities. For example, more than one-third cite a lack of advancement opportunities as the primary reason for wanting to leave their organization.

If priorities seem so aligned, why is there such a disconnect? It starts with the hiring process. Many discontented new employees find their experiences differ from expectations set during the hiring process. If both parties are misaligned before day one, organizations need to rethink the hiring process from the start.

Resetting the Process

During the recruitment process, a common misconception is that the hiring process is a test for potential employees to impress an organization and shine through a sea of potential candidates to rise to the top. Every company wants the best person for the role, but it’s not a one-way street. The hiring process should shift from thinking about finding the best candidate to finding the best-fit applicant.

This shift would set up both parties involved for success later. For organizations, they’re more likely to find candidates who will thrive in the role and stay with the company for a long time. For candidates, they’ll find the launchpad for improvement they’re looking for and grow exponentially in their roles.

Here are a few ways to make the shift:

• Reconsider job descriptions: Craft descriptions that appeal to the best-fit candidate. Make sure to clearly communicate titles, salary, benefits and company culture.
• Set expectations: At the earliest stage, remove ambiguity and set clear expectations for the role and opportunities for growth. One organization saw a 25% reduction in candidate drop-off rates by better meeting candidate expectations.
• Eliminate roadblocks: Nothing will lead to being ghosted by candidates more than a clunky, difficult application process. Offering a modern, intuitive application process makes it easier to find the next best-fit hire.

Rethinking Metrics

Part of shifting the talent experience mindset includes resetting how organizations and HR teams measure success in recruiting. If the game of recruiting has fundamentally changed, the scoreboard needs to evolve. Traditional metrics are still useful but to improve the talent experience and find the best-fit candidate, it takes new thinking.

Here are a few traditional metrics, and how to rethink them:

• From time-to-fill to time-to-fit: Hiring quickly is great, but it doesn’t equate to success if an organization hires the wrong candidate. Measuring time-to-fit focuses on how quickly new hires can adapt and start making a difference.
• From cost-per-hire to quality-of-hire: Many HR teams focus on being cost-efficient in the hiring process, but don’t focus on costs stemming from mis-hires. The new focus should be on the quality of hire, emphasizing a longer-term approach to hiring.
• From vacancy rate to talent adaptability: When it comes to vacancy rates, many HR teams view them as only fillable through external candidates. By shifting to talent adaptability, teams can focus on how existing talent can take on new tasks and responsibilities.
• From recruiter productivity to recruiter impact:The traditional metric focuses primarily on speed and volume, not on long-term impacts. The focus should shift to evaluating how well recruiters find top-performing candidates that exceed expectations and produce results quickly.
• From applicant-to-hire to first-year retention:With the advent of actionable artificial intelligence (AI), and candidates applying to multiple jobs at once, the applicant-to-hire metric means very little. By focusing on first-year retention rates, organizations can better understand hiring efficiency and make continual improvements.

Growth is the goal, and it’s achievable when employers, employees and candidates all buy in. To do so, talent acquisition should shift the focus from “best” to best-fit. This includes resetting the hiring process, rethinking success metrics and improving the overall talent experience.

Learn more about how employers and talent can co-create conditions for growth in Talent Experience Redefined from Mercer, in collaboration with isolved.