3 Benefits of a Better Thought-Out Hiring Process New hires are failing, in record numbers. How do you keep this from happening to you?
By Andre Lavoie •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Ah, the poor, forgotten hiring process. It's one of the most important aspects of a company, but once a new employee is hired, no one gives the hiring process another thought.
Related: 8 Clumsy Mistakes to Avoid During the Hiring Process
That's a mistake, because ignoring the hiring process is having some serious effects on businesses. A 2015 Leadership IQ survey looked at 20,000 new employees over a three-year period and found that fully 46 percent of those hires had failed within 18 months.
Somehow, organizations have just accepted that nearly one out of every two employees they hire won't work out. And, they've done that instead of analyzing and refining the process itself.
Maybe it's time to give the hiring process a little TLC. Here are three reasons organizations need to start paying attention to that all-important "quality of hire" and how it can positively benefit their bottom line.
1. Better recruiting
In a 2015 Indeed survey of more than 4,000 adults, 51 percent said they'd be attracted to a new job that offered flexible hours. And here, employers might assume that giving employees more flexibility in their schedule would help their recruiting.
But there's nothing that says those 51 percent of employees would be high performers. So, simply adding that flextime benefit might actually draw in more unqualified candidates.
Different perks and benefits attract different types of talent. Therefore, without measuring quality of hire, there's no way to know what's bringing in good -- or bad employees. Indeed, tracking what's bringing in different candidates can help companies better refine their recruiting process.
The takeaway here is that while analyzing your own hiring process, make sure to ask new hires what factors interested them in the company. This will make it clear which perks are helping and which are hurting your attractiveness as an employer.
2. Shorter hiring time
A 2015 Glassdoor survey of more than 344,000 interview processes found that the average length of the process in the United States was 22.9 days. That was up from 12.6 days in 2010.
Part of the reason the hiring process is getting longer is that candidates are facing more screens, like background checks, personality tests and skills tests. Companies are trying to ensure that whoever they hire will actually work out in the long run.
But there's another option. Instead of putting candidates through every test in the book, measuring your quality of hire will show how well your hiring process is assessing each applicant. It will show your organization where there might be cracks in the process that allow bad hires to get through, and how you can fix those problems at their source.
Related: 5 Pitfalls Employers Should Avoid During the Hiring Process
3. Improved employee retention
No one takes a job planning to quit in the near future. But it happens. Whether the position turns out to be different than expected or the new employee doesn't fit in with the rest of the team, the reality of a job often causes new hires to leave.
Having a more effective and efficient hiring process, however, leads to fewer surprises once the employee starts work. Both the company and the worker know exactly what they are getting into and are confident that things are a good fit for both sides.
The only way to improve a hiring process is to measure how well it's functioning and identify how to do better. So, pay more attention to the poor hiring process. It's been neglected long enough.
What other benefits come from measuring quality of hire? Share in the comments below!
