It’s rare that a company will ever look at its hiring effectiveness except when someone was a critically bad hire, or they left early, and you’re not exactly sure why.

As compared to the metrics around sales performance, profit per sale, customer turnover etc., taking stock of some of your new hire’s softer skills such as leadership, cultural fit etc. are often overlooked as they’re deemed too challenging to measure. And when someone leaves the company, it’s often seen as the departed employee’s bad attitude. That is, something that out of the organization’s control, as opposed to a problem in the hiring process.

Few hiring manager are comfortable admitting mistakes on an issue as sensitive as people judgement. Yet by using some simple metrics of the employee’s job performance, cultural fit etc. after their first year, and comparing it to your expectations when they were first hired, you’ll be able to uncover gross deviations, and thus be able to act and coach where needed.

Just remember, don’t over-complicate the process. The simpler it is, the more people will be willing to embrace it which is why I included the above sample assessment form.

By understanding the metrics, you’ll be able to coach and train your leaders to do a better job at this absolutely critical part of their role…hiring great people!

P.S. Check out Brightlights Peoplescope process if you feel there are potential weaknesses in your recruiting, interviewing and/or hiring process that need tuning. We’ll provide you with a free 30 minute diagnostic and help you benchmark against industry best practices.