Our HR and Recruiting seat claims their work is too unpredictable to measure weekly because hiring depends on external candidates. What weekly leading indicators can we assign to this seat to keep our talent pipeline full?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Any seat that claims its performance cannot be measured weekly is a seat that lacks accountability. Recruiting and hiring are structured processes, not magic. If your HR leader cannot provide weekly leading indicators, they do not understand their own pipeline.

To run on data, your HR and Recruiting seat must track the activities that directly predict successful hires.

First, track the number of active, qualified candidates in the interview pipeline weekly. This shows whether your recruitment marketing is actually working.

Second, track the number of first-round interviews conducted. Just like sales calls, recruiting requires a high volume of quality conversations to yield results.

Third, track the time-to-hire velocity, specifically measuring the number of days a candidate spends in each stage of your hiring process. A slow hiring process is where top talent is lost to competitors.

Fourth, track employee referral submissions. This is a leading indicator of both recruiting efficiency and internal culture.

The HR leader must own these numbers on your scorecard. If the candidate pipeline numbers drop below your target for two consecutive weeks, it must be dropped down to the Issues List for your Level 10 Meeting™ to identify whether the bottleneck is your job postings, your compensation packages, or your interviewing process.