All eyes are focused on talent acquisition these days because:
- The talent pipeline is dwindling
- Our education system doesn’t prepare young people for actual work
- Baby Boomers are about to take a hike and never look back
- Millennials’ tenure averages 18 months
- Facebook is the new Monster (not)
- LinkedIn is the new Career Builder (not)
- Job seekers won’t fill out application forms any more
- Passive candidates are where the action is
- Unless you have an online talent community your organization won’t be able to compete successfully for talent
- Students graduating from college only want to work for Google
These are just a few of the things we “know” about talent acquisition these days. Some might even be true – or close to true. But what most definitely is true is that the pressure for talent acquisition performance is building.
Analyst Madeline Laurano’s recent report Stratgic Talent Acquisition: Are You Prepared to Hire the Best? from the Aberdeen Group is a great place to start if you’re starting to feel the pressure. The data is current, the analysis is fascinating and the conclusions will get you started in the right direction with a clear picture of the end state.
I especially like the Aberdeen Group’s research model that identifies Best-in-Class Performance, Competitive Maturity Assessment and Required Actions. It’s a great approach for any research as it provides the high points with guideposts for action and recognizable benchmarks to measure progress.
Because so much attention and discussion is currently focused on talent acquisition, I think the three key performance criteria that Laurano shows distinguish Best-in-Class performance will make any HR professional wake up and smell the coffee:
- 91% of first year employees were retained
- 86% of key positions were filled internally
- 23% year-over-year improvement in hiring management satisfaction
Really. 86% of key positions filled internally? On what planet? That’s effective talent management right there.
As you read the report, it comes as no surprise, then, that the big new bottom line is this: Quality of Hire – not time-to-fill or cost-per-hire – is the game changer. Focus on that, and you’ll have a direct line to profitability. And retention. And performance. And the ability to develop talent internally.
So, for the 97% (!) of organizations that have no long-term approach to talent acquisition, taking an hour to read this report could give you what you need to move your talent acquisition results to a new level of effectiveness and business impact. So plug in the coffee maker. It’s time to wake up and smell the Quality of Hire!
chinagorman.com 
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Hello China. I started following your blog after being impressed with your tweets for several weeks. I’m new to this industry so I appreciate that you distinguished that quality of hire is more important than cost or time-to-fill. I’ve read articles about the importance of internal hiring, but with your statistics, I’m able to see how much it benefits a company.
One thing I would like to know more about is why you think our education system doesn’t prepare young people for work. This is a statement that needs more elaborations, in my opinion. I’m interested because so many students around the world fight to attend US colleges.
You are so talking my language. Quality of Hire is so in vogue these days. The cool thing about this metric is that it is really an index and not just a single metric..which I love. Great report, and all is so true, those that get it figured out will win!