How to Convert More High Quality Candidates

Spend your time and resources on the right people.

- Robert Dougan

If you have a large pipeline of quality recruits to choose from, spend more energy trying to convert these people rather than settling for average talent. The war for talent is fierce in the marketplace but there is nothing like using a psychometric tool to reinforce people’s strengths and show them why they would succeed with you.

We recently conducted a study with a large company to help them assess their recruitment efforts.

The company hired about 200 sales people per year, with a recruiting pipeline of 7 000+ candidates from both warm and cold sources. Of these candidates, 31% were identified as high potential quality recruits using the science of our psychometric prehire selection assessments.

The company was able to convert only 7% of those high quality recruits; the other hires came from recruits identified as having only average potential.

In this study, we monitored the performance of the recruits after they began work. The results were clear – higher quality hires out-produced those with average potential by 10% in the first year and 22% in the second year.

These results surprised the company and got them thinking… why are we not able to convert more of the high potential candidates?

RECONSIDER YOUR HIRING PRIORITIES

Time and time again in high volume continuous flow recruitment models, recruiters need to meet annual hiring quotas. In some cases, people are even compensated based on filling their targets of recruits/hires. However, organisations that encourage this method of hiring are limiting their own profitability by directing focus away from securing high quality recruits.