Ability to measure worker productivity will turn recruitment process on its head

The ability to measure worker productivity will turn the whole recruitment process on its head, a conference has heard.
Mon, 18 Feb 2013The ability to measure worker productivity will turn the whole recruitment process on its head, a conference has heard.

Belinda Johnson, owner of research organisation Worklab, told delegates at the  #SRTech13 conference in London that changes in technology were making it easier for employers to measure productivity right across their workforce.

She explained that this was increasingly possible because of the increased links between enterprise-wide systems – which allow better integration of different software – particularly within large organisations, HR information systems, applicant tracking systems (ATSs), and psychometric and other recruitment tools.

Not only did this make it easier for organisations to measure the productivity and performance of their own employees, but also that of the wider and growing workforce made up of temporary workers, interims and contractors working on their behalf.  

“The technology is in place to capture information about productivity and performance,” said Johnson.

At the same time, she said employers were able to tap into online communities such as Stack Overflow used by programmers to find answers to technical questions, where workers are rated by their peers, to find the top performers.

“This will turn the whole recruitment process on its head,” said Johnson, who went to explain that once productivity and performance can be measured “you can then go back to the recruitment process… and say ‘I want to start hiring with more of a guarantee that the people I hire can perform to give these outcomes’.”

Johnson said that one example of how this was changing recruitment was in retail recruitment where employers were tweaking their psychometric tests to focus on specific outcomes, namely reduced theft and fraud and good customer service.

Johnson, author of the report ‘Recruitment – 2022: The Effect of Social Media and Technology on Future Recruitment’, commissioned by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation’s (REC’s) Technology Sector Group, published in December, said that as quality of hire linked to outcomes became more important time to hire and cost of hire would become less significant.

APPOINTMENTS: 5-9 MAY 2025

This week’s appointments include: Zellis

People 6 May 2025

CONTRACTS & DEALS: 5-9 MAY 2025

This week’s new contracts & deals include: Firmus Consulting

Contracts 6 May 2025

NEW TO THE MARKET: 5-9 MAY 2025

This week’s new launches include: Heidrick & Struggles, Matrix, ProdigyPB, Project Brains

New to Market 6 May 2025

The rise and rise of agentic AI adoption

Agentic AI adoption is expected to grow 327% by 2027 as HR leaders plan to redeploy a quarter of their workforce, according to new research by Salesforce.

6 May 2025
Top