We’re just coming off “Black Friday”—one of the busiest shopping days of the year. It marks the start of the season where most retailers must be firing on all cylinders if they hope to finish up the year with a profit.
Let’s imagine for a minute that you are a retailer and you received the following feedback from exit polling done with your customers over the Thanksgiving weekend…
- 70% of your customers were dissatisfied with their shopping experience.
- 50% of your customers regretted at least one of their buying decisions.
- 46% of first time customers said they would probably not return to your store.
- 46% of your customers were not satisfied with your store’s ability to “deliver on your promises.”
- Only 19% of your customers classified their shopping experience as an “unequivocal success.”
But this is exactly what most organizations do with regard to their recruiting efforts.
This analogy is based upon a recent article written by Dr. John Sullivan. The stats above actually relate to the real-life experiences of those interacting with the recruiting functions of various companies.
“Unfortunately, the above metrics represent failure in the recruiting and retention elements of the talent management function. I have encountered no other business function that more completely avoids defining and measuring process failure than talent management.
Here are more details on the five statistics provided above:
Here are some additional metrics that Dr. Sullivan sites from the management (i.e. organization) perspective:
- 70% dissatisfied — 70% of the external customers (applicants) and 28% of the internal customers (hiring managers) indicate they are dissatisfied with the hiring process (Source: Staffing.org).
- 50% customer regret — 50% of the process users (both managers and new hires) later regret their “buying” decision (Source: The Recruiting Roundtable). In addition, 25% of new hires later regret taking their new job within one year (Source: Challenger, Gray)
- 46% turnover — 46% of new hires leave their jobs within the first year (Source: eBullpen, LLC) and 50% of current employees are actively seeking or are planning to seek a new job (Source: Deloitte).
- 46% failure rate — 46% of U.S. new hires must be classified as failures within their first 18 months (fired, pressured to quit, required disciplinary action, etc.) (Source: Leadership IQ). In addition, 58% of the highest-priority hires, new executives hired from the outside, fail in their new position within 18 months (Source: Michael Watkins).
- Only a 19% success rate — Only one out of five of the process output can be classified as unequivocal successes (Source: Leadership IQ).”
- 66% regret hiring decisions — Nearly two-thirds of hiring managers come to regret their interview-based hiring decisions (Source: DDI).
- Bottom performers produce less — Hiring and retaining below average, or even average performers, have real opportunity costs because top performers can increase productivity, revenue, and profit by between 40% and 67% over average performers (Source: McKinsey & Co.).
- Only 30% of organizations measure quality of hire, and only a handful specifically define and measure recruiting process failure.
To say the least, this is a dismal report card for those who depend upon recruiting for their livelihood (this would include nearly every real estate company in business today). But, it is also an opportunity to exceed the performance of your competitors.
Anything this poorly managed can produce significant returns when improvements are made—especially if your competitors continue to lag behind. In our next article we’ll discuss some of the things you can be doing to improve some of these metrics and create a positive impact in your company. Until then, enjoy Cyber Monday!
Editor’s Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you’re an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the “comments” link below.
