Speaking at Kenexa’s recent Eurosummit in London, George Vollmer, business development director, Kenexa government solutions, questioned the value of metrics such as cost per hire, and time to hire.

“Are those metrics really the drivers for [company] performance, and does cost per hire really drive the balance sheet?” said Vollmer.

Vollmer argued that recruiters should concentrate on raising the quality of their hires by linking recruitment to business outcomes.

Troy Kanter, Kenexa’s president and chief operating officer, cited a cinema chain where sales of popcorn were vital to the company’s success. It was logical therefore to ask recruiters what they were doing to drive popcorn sales, he said.

“How can we predict that the new people we bring in are more productive?” added Vollmer. “Cheaper and faster is important,” said Vollmer.

However, efficient recruitment was not the same as effective recruitment. And it was a step up again for recruitment to contribute to an organisation’s competitive capability, he said.

Vollmer suggested measures predicting quality of hire, with the relative importance of each depending on the type of job:

• communicates effectively;
• demonstrates motivation;
• shows people leadership;
• learns, develops and applies new skills;
• matches cultural fit;
• collaborates and cooperates;
• analyses and integrates information;
• solves problems and makes decisions;
• adapts creatively.