Mastering Recruitment: The Power of Post-Hire Reflection to Drive Success

Mastering Recruitment: The Power of Post-Hire Reflection to Drive Success

“Review is essential to evaluation, which is essential to progress.” - Melissa Steginus

At the end of every recruitment project, it’s vital to conduct a full diagnostic review. Critically analyze the successes, failures, and learning opportunities, evaluating the data to understand the outcomes. The most dangerous quote in any industry is, "It worked before, why change?” To tackle this mindset in recruitment, it’s important to implement a surgical evaluation of the end-to-end journey. Whether you successfully filled a position or had to stop/pause recruitment activities, lessons can always be learned.

In this article, I’ll discuss the importance of post-evaluation meetings, methods to measure success, and strategies to implement this reflective mindset.

Why Should You Implement a Post-Recruitment Strategy Meeting?

Implementing a post-recruitment strategy meeting is essential for continuous improvement in your hiring processes. By conducting a thorough review of the end-to-end recruitment journey, you gain valuable insights into what worked well and what needs improvement. This reflective practice allows you to identify trends, measure the effectiveness of your strategies, and understand the reasons behind successful or unsuccessful hires. It fosters a culture of learning and accountability, ensuring that your recruitment efforts are always evolving and aligning with your organization’s goals. Ultimately, these meetings are key to optimizing your approach, improving candidate experience, and securing top talent more efficiently.

How Can You Measure Successes?

In the technology sector, developers follow a “Data-Driven Development (DDD)” strategy, using data to drive decisions and ensure any design or development decision is supported by data. As a recruiter, you can harness the power of data similarly. Throughout the recruitment process, it’s essential to collect small, meaningful snippets of information to provide feedback to the organization. This data will illuminate your strengths, areas for improvement, and help measure the efficiency of your market approach. In recruitment, where people are at the heart of your company's success, operating without data is akin to navigating blindly.

Read more in my previous article about Data-Driven-Recruitment

Quality of Hire (QoH) measures the value new hires bring to an organization, assessed by their contribution to the organization’s long-term success. It’s a complex metric that takes months to evaluate, using key performance indicators, metrics, employee turnover, and retention rates.

Read more in my previous article about Improving quality hire (QoH)

Implementing Post-Closure Learning: The AAR Method

AAR - After Action Review (AAR)

An After-Action Review (AAR) is a structured review or debrief process for analyzing what happened, why it happened, and how it can be done better by the participants and those responsible for the project or event. Initially developed by the US Army, AARs are a constructive way for personal or group development, offering opportunities to learn, work together, and identify areas for improvement.

I’ve adopted this approach from Daniel Coyle's 'The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups'. Applying this method to everyday life can be beneficial. I use it for self-development and personal growth, reviewing everything from finishing a project or filling a position to having a conversation with a candidate or hiring manager. The ability to self-reflect and be honest is vital for learning and development.

Practical Application Example:

After you have filled a position, sit down (or virtually come together) with everyone involved in the hiring process such as hiring managers, interview panel, recruiters, and potentially a human resources representative, and collectively review the entire recruitment process. Have data from each stage of the recruitment process ready, for example, the total number of candidates involved, the number of days taken at each stage, any candidate feedback, the go-to-market strategy, and personal reflective thoughts on how the hiring process has been. Understand from each stakeholder involved what happened, what was supposed to happen, why it happened, and what are the learnings from what happened.

Ask probing questions such as:

• Did we achieve our timeline for hiring?
• What was successful in recruiting for this position?
• What would we repeat next time we hire?
• What are the positives from the assessment of candidates?
• Was our strategy to market effective?
• What could we improve in the candidate experience?
• Were we realistic in our expectations regarding our “ideal candidate”?
• What did we learn from the process?
• What was negative about our recruitment experience?
• What feedback did we receive from candidates?
• What have we learned to improve and strengthen for next time?

From a personal recruiter's perspective, imagine you’ve just had a conversation with a candidate about an offer. After the call, review the following:

• What happened in the call? Was it positive?
• What were the comments about the offer, company, and role?
• Were there any concerns?
• If the offer was accepted, why and how did this happen?
• How can you replicate this success?
• If the offer was declined, why?
• Were there signs or identifiers earlier in the process?
• How can you either replicate the positive aspects or learn from the negative ones?

The best way to implement this practice is to be specific, honest, and critically examine the events that have occurred.

By adopting these strategies, you can continuously improve your recruitment process and enhance your ability to attract and retain top talent.

Conclusion

Post-evaluation reflection is not just a box-ticking exercise; it’s a powerful tool for growth and improvement. By implementing a structured review process, you can learn valuable lessons and continuously refine your recruitment approach.