I think you have to define "success". in order to effectively answer the question. There are all sorts of benchmarks a firm can use but the only one that really matters is how does the employee preform.

I have used a similar strategy in the past. It involved a couple of things:

1. Query the hiring manager after 30 days on how the recruiting process went, how well the new hire is performing and solicit feedback on what all of us could have done differently to make the process better.

2. Query the new hire regarding their experience in the recruiting process, initial onboarding perceptions and how the recruiting story fit their initial impressions of the company.

After 6 months we queried the new hire again. This was top focus on how they liked the company, were we as a company still walking the talk, what positive or negatives do they have about their experience in the first six-months.

All of this information was reported across management. We used the data both as a critique and as a means to early identify potential issues.

I have used a thirty day survey and it was very effective. My recruiters were mainly evaluated on cycle time to fill, cost per hire and customer satisfaction. Once a new ee started, I would send a brief questionaire asking about their overall satisfaction with the search, communication, time to fill, quality of candidates presented and the performance of the new ee.

The new hires also received a questionaire regarding the recruiting and on-boarding process and how they felt about the company. We followed up with new hires and their mgrs again after 90 days to ensure things were going smoothly. If things were shaky, we had the ability to step in take the necessary actions to resolve existing issues.

My recruiters started to become more innovative and strategic with their recruitment strategies. Each week when we met, we discuss successes and I would provide them with scratch off lottery cards, gift cards, etc for motivation. It also allowed me to more objectively evaluate their performance and identify areas of improvement for my team.

We tracked peformance for the first year, looking at both objective performance measures as well as less-tangible leadership and cultural attributes, the ability to learn quickly, etc. We also implemented a 90-day new hire feedback process to gain the employee's perspective on what might not be going well, what didn't turn out as expected, etc. The not-so-surprising findings indicated that the immediate manager and support centers can do a better job of acclimating/onboarding the new employee. Another key finding was that new employees didn't feel that their manager spent enough time with them discussing goals, performance, and so on. For the feedback process to be useful, you need top-down commitment to continuous improvement surrounding leader communication/coaching & feedback and onboarding processes that engage, not distract.

Hi Nancy,

I've learned over the years that this is key in not only making sure you're providing an effective recruitment solution for the hiring manager, but this is also key in developing strong relationships. The better relationship you have with the hiring manager the better the communication is going forward. Taking the initiative to gather this information shows the hiring manager you actually care about the service you are providing. I tend to ask more open ended questions so they can tell me the story rather than just answering specific questions. I've found that you can extract more information in general conversation. Ask if they were happy with the process. Is there anything they would change? Did I meet all of your expectations in finding the right candidate? If there were any problems throughout the recruitment process, you can address them here and assure the hiring manager the process will be smoother next time around.

I have used 30 day surveys in the past to assess recruitment effectiveness and internal customer service. HR metrics such as time to fill, cost per hire, performance at 30 days and voluntary terminations within 30 days of hire should be standard practice.

If you know up front what is important during the recruitment process, then you can focus on that and measure it. For example, years ago as a recruiter in a specific healthcare organization, one of the most important recruitment elements was communication, feedback and reports to the managers from the recruiters on a regular, timed basis. Yes, time to fill, quality of candidate thorugh MQs, preferences and service attitude of the applicants was important but the business relationship was just as important if not more so.

The questions depend on if the position is a "hard to fill" position or high volume, high applicant pool position. Come to an agreement up front on expectations for communication, preferences for the position, advertising/sourcing efforts and reports, interview process, etc. and then stick to the agreement.