Quality of Hire SWOT Analysis – Determine If Your Company’s Talent Level is Rising Or Falling

Is hiring primarily active candidates driving overall company talent levels down and increasing turnover? Increasing quality of hire will soon become the new mantra of corporate recruiting departments.

If economic conditions don't improve, the tactic of choice for most companies – reducing costs and headcount – will not be as effective this time around. In this case significant process re-engineering coupled with quality of hire improvements will need to represent the new order. A quality of hire SWOT analysis will reveal which job categories are most vulnerable and need the most work. To get started on this, consider the following:

1. Determine which positions have the biggest impact on driving company performance. For example, if you're selling commodity-like stuff where price is the thing, then procurement and sales might be the jobs needing upgrading. If you're building high-tech products that sell themselves, then consider engineering and marketing as the place to begin looking.
2. Evaluate your advertising and screening process. Are you offering jobs or career opportunities, and are you screening on potential or skills? Most quality related hiring problems start here.
3. Evaluate incoming talent by sourcing channel to determine if you're even attracting the right people. Sometimes this means pushing the formal apply process to later in the process.
4. If you are attracting enough good people, determine at what point they opt out of your process, then figure out why.
5. Determine if your interview and assessment process is both accurate and effective. Frequently, companies insert steps that are intended to reduce the sheer number of people, but in the process lose some of the best as they voluntarily opt out.
6. Determine if your hiring managers are capable of attracting the best and if your recruiters know how to position your jobs as growth opportunities.

Problems in any of these process steps will reduce overall quality of hire. A quality of hire SWOT analysis will determine if your process is designed to weed out the worst or attract the best. Another downturn will force companies to rethink their hiring strategies from a totally new perspective – quality improvement rather than cost.

At the same time, candidates themselves, whether employed or unemployed, will be rethinking their own careers, especially those that have stalled out. Many will decide it's time to jump ship. This possibility alone has significant business implications whether it's attracting the best or losing some of your own top people. There's no need to be caught unaware.