Combating Early Attrition: The Effective Use of New Hire and Quality of Hire Surveys

March 31, 2105 | By Beth N. Carvin and Kerrie Main

Webinar Recap -- Part Two

In the Part One recap of the Nobscot webinar, "Combating Early Attrition: The Effective Use of New Hire and Quality of Hire Surveys," the focus was on early turnover, the new hire experience and new hire surveys. Part two focuses on two other important areas - quality of hire metrics, quality of hire surveys and exit interviews - that can help organizations reduce early turnover.

Quality of Hire Surveys

When sending out the new hire surveys to new employees, organizations can also send quality of hire surveys to managers or supervisors. Quality of hire surveys are metrics that are quickly replacing the old "time to fill," as well as the standard "cost of hire" metrics that were traditionally used to determine Return on Investment (ROI) of a new hire. Quality of hire surveys can help HR professionals do a wide variety of things:

• Quantify the ROI of good hires vs. mediocre or bad hires
• Get feedback on the recruiting and hiring processes
• Measure success of hiring practices

The host of the webinar, Laura DiFlorio, provided research from the unofficial king of quality of hire surveys - Lou Adler. Mr. Adler created the "Quality Grade" scale for new hires. In short, he uses the simple A-F grading system to rate new hires. Then he looks at how the "grade" influenced the new hire's potential for financial contribution to the organization. For example, an average performer would be rated a grade of "C". This employee earns a financial contribution factor of 1x, which means that the money an organization puts into hiring and training a "C" employee is exactly what they will receive back. There is essentially no financial gain when an company hires a "C" employee. "B" performing employees earn the financial contribution factor of 2x, which means companies will earn twice the amount of the person's compensation back. "A" employees, the high performers, are the best investments, as they have a 4x financial contribution factor, according to Adler. When companies hire "D" or worse, "F" employees, they actually lose money. Therefore, quality of hire surveys can be used to determine how much money a new hire will earn (or cost) the company in the long run. If a company determines that they are hiring lower-scoring employees, they can then assess their recruiting and hiring procedures. Quality of hire surveys are usually conducted between the first 60-75 days of the new hire's start date. They are typically much shorter than new hire surveys, as they usually have around 10 questions total. For sample quality of hire questions, please send an email from your work email address to: info@nobscot.com.

Exit Interviews to Reduce Turnover

The webinar concluded with the topic of exit interviews. Why would exit interviews be included in a discussion about new hires? Because exit interviews, when paired with new hire surveys, allow organizations to see the full lifecycle of an employee. And if that employee leaves within the first couple of years, exit interviews can identify the common irritants for new hires, which is often very different than the irritants for longer-serving employees. Exit interviews will also identify some of the really tough information that companies may not receive in a new hire survey. For example, most new hires will not state, "My manager is a jerk" in their new hire surveys, but they will say so in an online exit interview. The key to tackling retention problems is being able to look at the data from several different angles. New hire surveys, quality of hire surveys and exit interviews can give HR professionals a wide variety of perspectives from which to tackle irritations and other issues that are driving good employees away. And when these issues are identified and remedied, two huge problems can be solved:

1. Organizations have happy, productive employees who are there for the long term.
2. Organizations can save big money on recruiting and training.

For more information on this webinar and Nobscot products, please contact our friendly new hire, quality of hire and exit interview experts at 888-662-7444 and visit us on the web at http://www.nobscot.com

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