Andrea, why should Australian recruitment and talent acquisition leaders attend RecFest this year? 

Unlike other conferences, we have a real focus on peer-to-peer learning. We don’t just sit attendees in front of a speaker and make them listen. We integrate table conversations so people can connect with others, and those tables move around all day!

People who attend are absolutely committed to the wider recruitment that’s at work in Australia. It’s a load of fun and unlike any other conferences!

Not to mention, it’s a cost-effective form of professional development for TA leaders and their teams. Often, teams attend the event, hear messages, and apply it to what they are working on, instead of just leaders listening and repeating it back to their teams. It’s a great way for teams to learn and be inspired.

While the majority of attendees are from Melbourne, people are travelling interstate and from overseas. Travel costs are always an important consideration, but it’s a relatively cost-effective form of professional development and a really great opportunity for people to come together.

What can attendees expect? What is exclusive to RecFest that attendees won’t get at any other recruitment event? 

Expect lots of great content and short sharp half-hour presentations! Our speakers are more practical than theoretical, so attendees will gain some key takeaways that they can apply to their workplaces.

Attendees also have access to our speakers. We have “ask me anything” sessions sponsored by Indeed with the speakers where people have the opportunity to ask follow up questions to explore ideas and topics in more detail.

The other thing that’s quite exclusive is our evening Recfest Rocks segment where people can network in a casual setting. Our vendors don’t take people away to conduct exclusive events, everyone comes together.

Our events are very equal. We don’t have name tags, so you could be sitting next to anyone – a talent acquisition coordinator, the head of talent acquisition or a vendor. At our events, everyone is the same and is there to create communities. It’s about connecting.

Tell us more about this year’s theme. 

Our theme this year is “heroes”. Last year, our event theme was “Spring” (spring to action, the revolutionary Arab Spring). This year, it’s about the good things we can accomplish through recruitment. Our vendors will host tables and decorate them with the “hero” theme. I hope someone does a David Bowie table…

We really encourage people to have fun with the theme. Some people decorate their hair or work aspects into their outfits. We want to focus on all the good ways we can help people and improve the way we work through recruitment. It’s really a celebration of recruitment.

Not only this, but 5% of ticket sales contribute to Wear for Success, helping disadvantaged people return to work.

What are you most excited about for RecFest? 

I’m so excited! It’s always amazing to see recruiters coming together and the decorated tables. Imagine all those 300 recruiters in capes as superheroes in the main room! There will be so many people in the room having fun and learning.

Our second stage is currently being developed with Pass Technology sponsoring it. The first part of the morning will be people matters, and the afternoon will be about “disruption” using technology with more discussion-style sessions.

Who are you excited to hear speak? Who are your keynote speakers? 

Many of our Australian speakers are all members of our Resourcing Leaders 100 Group. This group meets regularly to discuss recruitment. (Find the full list of speakers here.) 

One of our major sponsors is Thomas International. Derek Redmond is a British Olympian with a truly inspiring story about his journey and crossing the finish line. He is a performance consultant, and motivational, inspirational and keynote speaker who works with Thomas International. I’m really looking forward to hearing him speak about his experiences, overcoming barriers and how to set goals to achieve a vision. It will be so great to have an Olympian onstage.

The Recruitment Marketing Mag team will be RecFest. We hope to see you there! 

Register for the event and purchase tickets through The Recruitment Events Co. Australia website. 

The post Why talent acquisition professionals are heading to RecFest in October!  appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

The Recruitment Events Co. Australia and Checkster attracted recruiters and talent acquisition leaders from around Brisbane to attend their recent event, “Quality of Hire – Defining, Measuring and Improving your most critical metric”. Among attendees were recruitment representatives from Findex, SwanCare, City Beach, Super Retail Group, Allianz and more. The group converged at Alchemy at Eagle Street Pier, Brisbane’s luxury restaurant and bar destination with the city’s best view of the Story Bridge, to enjoy an afternoon of fine food, good conversation, recruitment trends and key insights. 

The Recruitment Events Co. Australia hosts free information sessions with a variety of vendors exclusively for in-house recruiters, resourcing and HR professionals. During this event, host Andrea Kirby, Director for The Recruitment Events Co. Australia, welcomed guests and introduced guest speaker, COO and Co-Founder of Checkster, Claudine Descheemaecker. 

You may be familiar with Checkster from their automated reference-checking technology, but in fact, Checkster offers a range of web-based talent decision tools to provide human resources, recruiters and hiring managers certainty in new hire activities.

Descheemaecker captured her audience’s attention in her opening statement, “your approach to hiring is all wrong”, referring to Peter Capelli’s article of the same name published in Harvard Business Review. As she explained, quality of hire is ten times more impactful than measuring time to fill, and one hundred times more impactful than cost per hire. 

“Quality of hire is ten times more impactful than measuring time to fill, and one hundred times more impactful than cost per hire.”

Why? According to calculations about why quality matters most

• If you improve your cost per hire ($5,000) by 10%, you save $500 
• If you improve your time to fill (30 days) by 10%, you save $6,750 
• If I improve your QoH by 10%, you create $50,000 of value

(Calculations are based on average daily revenue per employee of $2,250, 10% of 30=3 days, 3*2,250=$6,750. Average revenue per employee $500,000, 10% increase in productivity= 10%*$500,000 = $50,000 compounding every year!)

Few organisations measure their quality of hire, and even fewer do it well. Understanding quality of hire will enable you to make the best talent decisions

According to Global Recruiting Trends 2016, 39% of talent leaders agree that quality of hire is the single most valuable metric to track performance. 60% of talent leaders report identifying quality hires as their top challenge of 2019, yet only 2% have a framework to measure quality.

It starts with data

Data is where the world is going. It is becoming more and more crucial in recruitment. Having a large volume of data (and a way to interpret it through smart systems) enables you to see patterns and correlations. 

“You can start to see averages,” said Descheemaecker. “If a candidate doesn’t meet an average metric, it doesn’t mean they won’t be successful in a role, but it does give you a comparison point so that you can start to see patterns. For example, one client we worked with discovered a direct correlation between the time it took for candidates to respond with reference details, and their tenure.” 

A smart, integrated data system enables all your data to “talk” together. Data can include everything from employee experience, feedback from interviewers, reference insights, new hire experience, hiring manager experience, and exit interviews. 

“Quality should be the central metric in all your strategy because it is the most influential ROI metric.” 

It is a foundational metric for AI feedback loops. The future of recruitment involves AI, and AI only happens with data

A scary metric to own and prove? 

Are we good at hiring? According to Checkster’s research, 26% of hiring managers have buyers remorse, as do 18% of new hires. 

Some talent acquisition leaders may be reluctant to own the quality of hire metric, fearing its implications. But as Descheemaecker explains, its hiring managers who make the decision. 

“Talent acquisition is responsible for candidates, but hiring managers make the decision. So don’t be afraid to own it. You can use it to create better frameworks for hiring managers to make the right decision and provide them with more support, knowledge and guidance. Results are not purely dependent on talent acquisition.” 

Another interesting thing to consider is that sourcing responsibilities may be taken over by machine learning in years to come, so being responsible for data is a way to stay ahead.  

What is quality anyways? 

Interestingly, one in three companies stated that they would like to track quality of hire, but they don’t know how to start.

Descheemaecker separated attendees into small groups and asked them to consider the definition of “quality”, for how can you measure something that is not yet defined? 

Only 26% of organisations have defined what “quality” means in terms of hiring. 

According to the simple definition from Checkster, “quality of hire is a great team member”. But what is a great team member? A great team member has five core attributes: 

• Inspiration – they can get the best out of their team  
• Experience – they feel fulfilled in their role and want to stay with your organisation (retention) 
• Fit – they add to your organisation’s culture and values and are pleasant to work with 
• Results – they produce the results expected in the role 
• Integrity – they are someone you can trust who do things they say they will. 

According to Checkster, 85 years of research shows that the best assessments to determine quality hires are: 

• work sample test
• structured interviews
• general mental ability tests
• peer ratings.

So take this into consideration when designing your shortlisting and interview strategy. 

How can you measure quality? 

“Too often, the discussion of quality of hire is confused with selection practices and not an employee’s experience once onboard. Organisations need to start by looking at what are the characteristics of a great employee first (post-hire data). Then, look at how we can try to predict those among candidates.” 

Performance data has limitations because typically after a year, it is too late. It’s important to understand new hires’ experience from when they first begin at your organisation. 

Descheemaecker then recommended to conduct 1, 30, 60 and 90-day check-ins with new hires, each time, speaking with the hiring manager, and asking questions that relate to quality of hire, for example: 

• Can you trust them? 
• Do they fit into the team? 
• Are they accomplishing tasks? 

Then she recommends speaking to the new hire and asking opinions from their subordinates and peers, which reduces the impact of bias. 

Next steps 

Descheemaecker concluded the presentation with powerful insights and recommendations on the next steps for recruiters to take. 

“Organisations are overspending on sourcing talent by 80%. With the huge impact better quality can make, dedicating 20% of your budget is out of proportion to the results it yields.” 

Descheemaecker recommended measuring and improving the quality of your hires, using data to inform your decision making, conducting regular check-ins with new hires, hiring managers, peers and other colleagues. 

“If you are not resourced enough to use systems and technology, it is possible to track these metrics yourself using Excel. Just use something!”

Own the metric. Start measuring, use data, and identify trends. Design your shortlisting process strategically to assess quality. Conduct regular check-ins with hiring managers, new hires, their subordinates, and peers. Provide hiring managers with useful frameworks and recommendations to improve quality of hire. 

What are your thoughts on measuring quality of hire? Share a comment below. 

Find out more about The Recruitment Events Co. Australia 

Find out more about Checkster. 

The post How to measure quality of hire: the single most important recruitment metric to track appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.