How do you know success unless you measure it?

Jo Faragher

It’s long been a bugbear of HR managers that they fail to get the credibility they deserve from their senior colleagues or directors in other functions.

In response to that, many have been proving their mettle by broadening their commercial awareness, improving how they gather evidence about what they do, and then communicating this across the business.

It seems surprising, then, that less than half of businesses measure the performance of their recruitment agencies when placing permanent staff, according to research by BrightPool. Furthermore, only a quarter monitor candidate retention at the end of their probation period.

Monitoring retention is a very telling metric because it can indicate the quality of the hire, experts believe. A candidate who only stays for three months or fails to meet the standards required during their probation period reflects badly on the recruitment process.

This could be down to the agency or the client, but is certainly down to a breakdown in communication. Were the requirements set out properly at the start of the hiring process? Was there a face-to-face discussion about the culture or expectations of the employer or did the agency simply match some keywords on a CV?

Effective measurement can help employers and agencies alike know when they’re doing things right. As Angela Hickmore, BrightPool’s MD, points out, companies are “missing an opportunity” if they simply let recruitment ‘happen’ and don’t measure its effectiveness.

Interestingly, in volume recruitment situations, a higher proportion of employers measured their recruiters’ effectiveness. Hiring large numbers of people involves a significant investment, and turnover can be expensive.

Just because you’re only filling one role at a time, doesn’t mean you can’t measure simple things such as time to hire, whether the candidate stays, the cost of the interview process and such like.

This year is set to be a busy year for recruitment, so it might also be a good time for agencies and their clients to formalize how they measure success (and avoid failure). Then once goals are hit, there’s a clear reason to celebrate and share in the rewards.