How to Measure and Maximize Quality of Hire

By Lou Adler, CEO and founder of The Adler Group

I’ve given half a dozen talks in the past few weeks to more than 1,000 recruiters. They all complained they couldn’t measure quality of hire until the person has been on the job for at least three-to-six months.

I said this was a bunch of bull. I then showed them what I call my magic card, and said if they followed all the directions on the card without taking any shortcuts, they would call me in a year and thank me for showing them how to hire a great person.

To prove it, I said, now let’s go through my magic time machine one year into the future. You call me on the phone and thank me for helping you make a great hire. I then ask you to tell me why the person is great. Here’s what you say:

Things New Hires Do that Prove They’re a Great Hire

> Exceed expectations
> Work well with the team
> Fit the culture
> Work well with hiring manager
> Get things done without making excuses
> Deal with change without complaining (too much)
> Figure out new ways to solve job-related problems
> Create good plans and deliver the results
> Coach and develop others

I say, “That’s a great list, but every one of these things was predictable before you hired the person.”

You say, “That’s a bunch of bull.”

I then show you how to predict quality of hire based on the factors you say demonstrate quality of hire. Here are the instructions for using the magic card:

Step 1 — define the work, the people, and the environment.

1. Clarify job expectations up front. Every job can be represented by six to eight performance objectives. Skills, behaviors, and competencies are poor predictors of performance.
2. Define the big or typical problems the person is likely to face on the job.
3. Define the team he/she will be working with.
4. Define the culture. This is largely dependent on the pace of the organization.
5. Define the manager’s leadership style. This will determine the success or failure of a a fully-qualified new hire more than any other factor.

Step 2 — conduct a performance-based Interview.
1. Conduct an in-depth work history review looking for the Achiever Pattern. This indicates the person is in the top 25 percent of his/her peer group.
2. Get an example of a comparable accomplishment for each performance objective.
3. Ask the person how she would solve the job-related problems. Assess the processof getting the answer, not the answer.
4. Find out how the environment, the culture, and the hiring manager impacted by the person’s success.
5. Understand what motivates the person to excel.
6. Examine the person’s trend of growth over time.

Step 3 — Figure out if your job offers a career move.

A career move needs to offer at least a 30 percent nonmonetary increase. This is the sum of job stretch (a bigger job), an increase in job satisfaction (the mix of work is more satisfying) and an increase in job growth (bigger jobs and more learning over time). You can figure this out during the performance-based interview by comparing your opportunity to what the candidate has done and is doing, how fast she is growing, and how satisfied she is in the current job.

Predicting quality of hire — before hiring.

After you’ve completed the above, rank the person on these factors using a 1-5 scale (5 being the best):

> Comparable results
> Trend of growth
> Achiever Pattern
> Managerial and cultural fit
> Job represents a career move

If the person scores at least a 20 out of 25 on all of the factors, you can be highly confident the person will be a great hire. Try it out. I’ll wait for your call next year.

It’s magic.

Permission has been granted from The Adler Group and Lou Adler, author of Hire With Your Head and The Essential Guide to Hiring & Getting Hired, to reprint this article.

About the author
Lou Adler is the CEO and founder of The Adler Group – a training and search firm helping companies implement Performance-based Hiring℠. Adler is the author of the Amazon top-10 best-seller, Hire With Your Head (John Wiley & Sons, 3rd Edition, 2007). His most recent book has just been published, The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired (Workbench, 2013). He is also the author of the award-winning Nightingale-Conant audio program, Talent Rules! Using Performance-based Hiring to Build Great Teams (2007). Adler holds an MBA from the University of California in Los Angeles and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Clarkson University in New York.