3 Reasons Why Quality of Hire Is Critical In Uncertain Times (And How to Get It Right) With Lattice

Quality of hire...it's a major focus area and "buzz word" for hiring teams this year, but how do you get it right, especially in uncertain times? During our March webinar, we were joined by Cara Brennan Allamano, Chief People Officer at Lattice, and Emily Zahuta, Senior Director of Talent Acquisition at Lattice, to discuss a topic that's currently top of mind for so many leaders in the space.

Check out the full 1-hour webinar below or read on for a brief synopsis of what a forward-thinking TA team like Lattice is doing to measure quality of hire, the meaningful outcomes they’re excited about, and how executive buy-in is such a critical element to the conversation surrounding quality of hire.

Before we dove in, Edisa, our Head of Growth and monthly webinar host, always likes to kick things off by asking our guest speakers about the one thing that people would be surprised to know about them. Emily mentioned that she’s obsessed with true crime. Can you guess what Cara said about herself? You’ll have to watch the recording to find out!

Now, let’s get into the three major topics Lattice discussed…

1.) How to Measure

Like many other companies, Lattice was hiring quite aggressively and then slowed down due to a crazy macroeconomic environment, but this is when quality of hire almost matters even more. To measure quality of hire at Lattice, they’ve developed a scorecard that incorporates four major metrics: 

1. Employee Performance
2. Employee Sentiment 
3. Hiring Manager Satisfaction
4. Retention 

…and these are measured over a 12-month period. This isn’t to say that these have to be the metrics that your organization uses, these just happen to be the ones that work best for Lattice’s strengths and weaknesses. Others could be candidate pool size, interview structure, time to fill, etc., but it’s all about what works best for your organization depending on what you’re trying to accomplish over the next year. 

2.) Meaningful Outcomes   

Emily introduced this topic by digging into how now, more than ever, TA teams need to solidify their place within the larger business strategy and quality of hire is, in her opinion, one of the best measurable and meaningful ways to do this. By showing the learnings from your hiring process and your end-to-end candidate/employee experience, you are showing the business how critical the work you do is, even in times of reduced headcount where every single hire matters.

Cara doubled down on this by mentioning how measuring quality of hire is giving her team the ability to show the value they’re bringing to the business and how they use data within the organization to drive decision-making. 

3.) Executive Partnership & Buy-In

When it comes to executive partnership, Cara pointed out that there are a few things that are enablers for her in her seat as a CPO: 

1. Knowing that the key question for her to ask the rest of the business is “How do you know when somebody is a great hire?”, and that’s going to look different for each department. 
2. Do not underestimate the power of education and knowledge sharing. You can’t assume that the leaders in your organization understand what quality of hire means and why it’s so important. A lot of times teams jump over this part and go straight to “here are the metrics and the outcomes”, but you have to start with educating the organization on “the why”. 

Cara and Emily ended the conversation by emphasizing how quality of hire should be part of how you run your business versus it being a grade at the end of the quarter because metrics can easily be weaponized if they’re not contextualized in the right way.

Thanks to Cara and Emily for joining us, and see you on April 19th for our next monthly webinar with Caitlin Connors, Senior Product Executive at iCIMS: 5 Ways to Convert Your Top Candidates.