Quality of Hire Metrics

In recruitment and business statistic circles, the term quality of hire is popular as of late. Many firms are discovering new methods to track and quantify this data.

One of the most important ways for a business to gather these statistics is by tracking the source of applicants. This white paper by Indeed should be required reading for recruiters and anybody who does recruitment advertising.  The article stresses the importance of quantifying your applicants based on source.  A quick comparison of average applications from Craigslist, Monster and Career Building paints a pretty clear picture of why the later two are in decline (provided by Craigslist though). Craigslist provides far more average page views for a fraction of the cost. Specialized job boards however are doing quite well in the recruitment advertizing market. To track your hiring metrics you need a feature in your applicant tracking system. If you still get resumes via email then you can tack them via a simple spreadsheet as well. Once a company has a good grasp of its recruitment statistics, the next step is too compare them with quality of hire metrics.

Quality of hire is a broad term but it can be any number that compares the hiring source, job expectations or qualifications with eventual results. For example Company Z hired 200 employees in 2011. Of those 100 employees only 50 stayed on through a full year. In that particular snap shot, the quality of hire would be 50% for the entire recruitment process. However that is only one simple method of evaluating quality of hire. Another method might compare quality of hire of external versus internally referred applicants.  A company could even compare the quality of hire between recruitment from different colleges, staffing vendors or job posting sites.  These statistics could be used to create mathematical models predicting success of applicants based on some specific qualifier. Smaller businesses should note that a small sample size is not enough to make assumptions and that correlation does not imply causation. At the very least though, quality of hire metrics can help evaluate better spending on recruitment advertising.

Additional reading:

http://www.shrm.org/Research/Articles/Articles/Documents/Whitepaper_Quality_of_Hire.pdf

How to Get a Job in HR

I received an inquiry on LinkedIn and was happy with my response and thought it worthy of paraphrasing and posting here.

Dear Eric:

I was recently searching Portland for HR professionals and I came across your name. I am thinking of changing careers and getting my PHR certification (sic). I was really impressed by how much you have already accomplished in your field. I was wondering what advice you might be able to offer on getting started in the field of human resources in today’s economy.

Portland can be a really tough job market for everybody, including recent new graduates, but there are a lot of opportunities. They recently raised the requirements to get the Professional in Human Resources certificate from the HR Certification Institute and I think you either need college HR course work or 2-5 years’ experience. Getting a few years work experience is really the best method of qualifying and passing. If you end up taking the test I’ve got some good pointers, but I would not rush into it.

As far as building knowledge outside of direct experience, go sign up on the email lists for all the Portland and Vancouver employment law firms and HR consultants (ie Stoel Rives, Xenium etc). Then you get great legal updates and offers to go to great events (which mean networking!).

You should also join the Portland HR Management Association and Society for Human Resource Management. Membership gets you really good networking, access to interest groups and events. They have great groups including an active search group for job seekers you can attend. The mentor program is really amazing too if you can get in.

http://www.portlandhrma.org/

I would also be introspective and think about what areas of HR you want to develop towards. ie are you interested in training and development? benefits? A little bit of everything like a generalist? Knowing where you want to be will help plan and gain the requisite experience.

A good back door to get into many HR positions is to find an entry level job within the company you want to be employed and work towards getting promoted into the HR department. Proving yourself in another job is a good opportunity to make you a strong internal candidate to an HR position.

The other advice is to start looking for some temporary HR clerical or entry jobs. The employment department job seeker services are decent too.

If you just want to beef up your Resume/CV try this book. The author writes for lawyers but his perceptions and style guides will completely revamp your resume and documents (and yes I realize I have not made these type of style/format improvements to my blog…).

http://www.typographyforlawyers.com/

Also connect with HR and professional service recruiters. They will know what companies are looking for. I don’t know as much on the topic as all my hires are technical and creative hires.

Also check out the work of Joshua Waldman, who writes about social media for job seekers. He does some fantastic and far sighted work.  I’d check out his materials and maybe connect with him.

http://careerenlightenment.com/

Good luck and remember that often when it comes to the job search, networking really is your best bet. One final piece of advice for your specific case would be too come up with some really good language/copy for cover letters that explains why you want to switch to the HR career.

Good Reading for August

Good stuff here on Bin Laden raid, economics, energy growth and awesome pictures of dunes in Angola. Updated for a recent article I wrote at the bottom.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/08/08/110808fa_fact_schmidle

http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/07/galactic-scale-energy/

http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/07/can-economic-growth-last/

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Sossusvlei

I should also add a link my my article in the Stahancyk, Kent & Hook company newsletter.

TEST POST

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This post is for Empire Avenue.

Workers Compensation from Work from Home Injury

The Oregon Court of Appeals recently reversed a lower Court decision denying workers compensation coverage to an employee inured during the course of working from home. This decision is really important to consider as more employers engage in work from home and telecommuting. A link to the Court decision is pasted below. Some key language the Court of Appeals used was that “If an employer, for its own advantage, demands that a worker furnish the work premises, the risks of those premises encountered in connection with the performance of work are risks of the work environment, even if they are outside of the employer’s control, and injuries resulting from those risks arise out of the employment”. The full update from Portland area employment law firm Sussman Shank is pasted below.

Full Court decision:

http://www.publications.ojd.state.or.us/A140276.htm

The June issue of HR magazine also covers the issue of telecommuting further. The article mostly focuses on costs and benefits of telecommuting and not the possible safety issues.

http://www.shrm.org/Publications/hrmagazine/EditorialContent/2011/0611/Pages/0611meinert.aspx

Sussman Shank eAlert: Dog Trips Employer:

“In a recent Oregon Court of Appeals case, an employee challenged the denial of workers’ compensation coverage for an injury she sustained when she tripped over her dog on the way from her house to her garage. The employee worked as an interior designer and traveled by van to customers’ homes to sell decorating products (draperies, window treatments, and upholstery). The employee worked from her employer’s premises one day per week, but because the employer did not have adequate space for the employee to perform all of her work tasks on-site, the employee was required – as a condition of her employment – to work from her home, and to store fabric samples and materials provided by her employer for her job, in her garage.
In order to be compensable, an injury must arise out of, and occur in the course of, an employee’s employment. The Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) found that the employee’s injury was not covered because it did not “arise out of her employment.” On appeal, the Court of Appeals reversed the WCB and found that: “if an employer, for its own advantage, demands that a worker furnish the work premises, the risks of those premises encountered in connection with the performance of work are risks of the work environment, even if they are outside of the employer’s control, and injuries resulting from those risks arise out of the employment.” The court concluded that because the employee “was where she was, doing what she was, because of the requirements of her employment,” her injury arose out of her employment, and remanded the case for reconsideration. www.publications.ojd.state.or.us/A140276.htm

Employers need to be aware that work-related injuries do not have to occur at work to be covered, and that the location of the occurrence will not necessarily determine coverage.”

Good Stress Versus Bad Stress

Stress is not always a bad thing. Stress is actually abroad term that applies to the range of our bodies natural physiological reactions to different kinds of pressure. “Eustress” is a pleasant or curative stress that contributes to interest, excitement and preserves attention in your life. Examples of eustress would be a fast paced activity that keeps you motivated or keeps you focused. A good example might be a roller coaster ride, unless you are scared of heights! There would be much less enjoyment in our in our work days and leisure time without positive stress. “Distress” on the other hand is the bad stress that is destructive to physical and mental well being. After too much distress or negative stress, from the repeated alarm reaction, our bodies and minds experience exhaustion. Nearly every part of your body is affected by negative stress. A state of exhaustion weakens your immune system, healing, cognitive abilities and increases allergies, inflammation and a host of other unfortunate symptoms.

 Stress comes in various stages. The first stage of stress is the alarm reaction where the body readies for an immediate response. While in the alarm reaction state, the body actives the endocrine system to prepare for a sudden fight or flight response. In the second stage of stress, the body attempts to return to a state of balance. The third stage, exhaustion occurs when the body experiences repeated alarm reactions. Our bodies and minds do not preform at their best when they are recovering from a constant state of negative stress related exhaustion.

 Fortunately you have a variety of techniques to reduce negative stress or distress. Some people use controlled breathing or meditation to reduce the effects of negative stress. If you are experiencing negative stress in the workplace, you might check out your employee assistance, counseling or wellness program. Many employers and benefits programs are instituting or creating wellness programs. If your workplace does not have any of these services, you should contact a human resources representative.

The Turnover Equation

What if you could translate the amount of monthly or annual turnover in your organization into an equation with various inputs and trajectories? Sadly, quantifying the whole sum of tangible and intangible causes of turnover is practically impossible. However the good news is that a good regression analysis of employee turnover as the dependent variable could prove extremely useful. A regression equation for employee turnover could show for example that a gain-sharing program causes a X% increase in employee retention. Or on the other end, increases in employee paid insurance premium portions or decreased benefits  might cause a Y% increase in turnover.

The examples I am considering are below. Feel free to chime in on any other ideas. I hope to begin compiling data later this week.

Dependent Variable:  Employee Turnover (Annual or Monthly Time Series)

Potential Independent Variables:

• Local unemployment conditions
• Company specific or regional wages
• Insurance premium changes or increases?
• Dow Jones Industrial Average
• Industrial organization and competition
• Employee satisfaction data
• Training and development budget