5 questions to ask yourself about your 2015 strategy

You are building your 2015 talent acquisition strategy and you suddenly realize that you do not have an effective way to measure success against your strategy. At first glance, you feel totally confident in your strategy because you "just get recruiting" and you may have a great team. All the while you anticipate that your key stakeholders will ask the inevitable question, "How do you know that this is adding value and moving the needle?" This is a common experience among talent acquisition leaders. You are great at recruiting, but do you know how to build a metric measurements system?

To help you answer this inevitable question, below are 5 simple questions to start asking yourself.

QUESTION ONE: Am I measuring the right metrics?

If you ask yourself only one question, let it be this one. This is because measuring too many factors, or the wrong metrics will keep you spinning for a long time. It will also give you a false sense of confidence in your 2015 initiatives and potentially keep you in a perpetual reactionary state. For me, this is a great way to ensure I am regularly communicating to my key stakeholders. A common mistake is to assume you know what is important to them and in turn you create a measurement system, which is off the mark. For example, I have learned over the years in staffing that fill-ratio is not a great metric for managing recruiting. It is more of an output metric, as opposed to an input metric, which can be regularly managed. Fill-ratio is important when you are looking back in time, but not a great indicator of how you are doing now.

QUESTION TWO: Who are my key stakeholder groups?

First, let me define what I mean by key stakeholder groups. These are the groups of people who interact with or are beneficiaries of the talent acquisition process. Typically these could be your candidates, hiring managers, recruiters, senior management and/or the finance team. Communicating your 2015 plan and key metrics should vary when addressing key stakeholder groups. I work with many organizations on their performance data, and I typically observe that talent acquisition leaders treat all key stakeholders the same. Understanding each of their business needs and goals is critical to effectively knowing how to segment them accordingly.

QUESTION THREE: Am I presenting segmented recruiting performance data?

This is a great follow up to question two. Now that you are aware of the need to segment communications, it is important to consider what type of data they want to see. Your finance team, as a stakeholder group, may be very focused on cost per hire or return on investment. It may not make sense to send them reports on submittal activity when they are very bottom-line focused.

QUESTION FOUR: Do I have a set of balanced goals?

A great way know if your goals are balanced is to list out your key drivers for 2015 and map your initiatives to them. If they are not balanced or do not move the right metrics, then they need to be reconsidered. In 6sigma this called a "House of Quality." This is a tool, which visually shows you how your goals, initiatives and metrics are aligned. It additionaly gives you a visual to identify if you have well balanced goals, metrics and resources.

QUESTION FIVE: Do I have consistent routines scheduled to review performance?

Having regularly scheduled routines to review recruiting performance will connect you even closer to your key stakeholder groups. Establishing regular routines to review performance data will also demonstrate you understand what is important to them and that you are a "data savvy" talent acquisition leader.

In closing, understanding core drivers of success is an essential way to ensure you and your 2015 goals are aligned to your stakeholders. In 6Sigma these are called Critical to Quality (CTQ) measurements. CTQ's are the key elements to understanding how your customers define quality. In most cases, it is the quality of candidates and/or process. There is an expression in business "you cannot manage what you don't measure." We should all take that to heart. Try starting with an overall understanding of what you want to achieve in terms of goals and make sure you are measuring what impact they will have on your organization. As stated above, if they don't impact the organization in a balanced way, then rethink your 2015 strategy. The good news is you have the whole year ahead of you!