Industry Research
The numbers drop off fairly quickly from there, with just over a third collecting employee productivity and revenue per employee figures, a quarter profit per employee, and very few new hire promotion speed or time to productivity.
Figure 2
While most organisations collect some kind of employee performance metrics, far fewer are leveraging this data to improve ongoing performance metrics. Just over half (51 per cent) say they are using this data in that way; 35 per cent say they are not, and the remaining 14 per cent are unsure. “Often companies collect data but often there is an issue with data quality that makes analysis complex. How many companies make data quality a key performance measure?” notes Jerry Collier, director of Alexander Mann Solutions. However, data holds the key to answering the question: How do organisations measure the factors of a more diverse, engaged, and productive workforce? The key goals of the research included understanding: • If organisations are accessing data; • If they are leveraging data; • If they are aligning data with talent acquisition and business outcomes; and • If so, is it improving business outcomes. To find the answers, the research identified organisations that were currently leveraging one or more performance metrics in order to improve ongoing talent acquisition efforts. A random sample of responding companies were selected, and their three-year trailing total returns were compared to their three closest competitors. The findings were game-changing. The research indicated that organisations that collect and leverage employee performance data to improve ongoing talent acquisition efforts outperform their competitors 58 per cent of the time and by margins of as much as 200 per cent. “If you shine a light on performance and the drivers to performance, we shouldn’t be surprised that performance improves,” says Collier. “Relating performance to training/ learning interventions to recruitment will improve your recruitment, and the business outcome.” Common Metrics Among the organisations that are leveraging employee performance metrics to improve talent acquisition efforts, the most commonly engaged metric is new hire retention (62 per cent), followed closely by employee performance appraisal ratings (59 per cent). The use of customer
satisfaction data is somewhat common at 45 per cent, and just under a third (31 per cent) use employee productivity data. The use of shorter-term, high-impact measures is rare; only 17 per cent of organisations leverage time to performance, and 12 per cent leverage new hire promotion speed (see Figure 2).
Time to productivity. Organisations that can—and do— measure performance in general have success improving performance. They report the greatest improvement in time to full performance, with 15 per cent saying they have experienced greater than 100 per cent improvement, and another 37 per cent reporting they have realized 61 per cent to 80 per cent improvement. So while time to performance is among the least leveraged metrics, it is impactful. While this metric may be difficult to track and manage, the effort is quite worthwhile. Customer satisfaction. Organisations also drive real improvement in customer satisfaction, with 11 per cent saying they have experienced greater than 100 per cent improvement and another 34 per cent saying they have realized 61 per cent to 100 per cent improvement. In comparing use of specific improvement strategies with
WINTER 2014
|
www.hroglobal.com
[19]