Improving Quality Of Hire: Key Strategies To Attract And Retain The Best Talent

Recruiting the right people is one of the most powerful drivers of organizational success. Ensuring a quality hire means not only selecting candidates with the necessary skills and qualifications, but also those who demonstrate the potential to excel, grow, and contribute meaningfully to the company’s long-term success.

While a great hire can boost team productivity, spark innovation, and support achieving business goals, a poor hire can result in just the opposite. Such candidates can lead to reduced organizational efficiency, increased employee turnover, and wasted recruitment expenses. That’s why progressive organizations are prioritizing improving quality of hire using evidence-based, smart strategies. 

In today’s competitive and fast-evolving talent market, improving hiring quality requires more than instinct. Organizations must utilize a strategic blend of data-driven methods, modern technology, pre-employment assessments, and human insight.

If you’re a recruiter or hiring manager seeking answers to questions such as:

Then this article is your go-to guide!

Keep reading to uncover the most effective techniques to improve quality of hire and why it’s a critical focus for modern hiring practices.

Contents 

  1. What is quality of hire?
  2. Why is quality of hire important?
  3. How to improve your quality of hire?
  4. How do predictive pre-employment assessments improve quality of hire?
  5. Leading employers using pre-employment assessments to improve quality of hire
  6. Get started with Assess Candidates to enhance your quality of hire

Now that we have an overview of what the article covers, let’s dive into defining what quality of hire is.

1. What is quality of hire?

Quality of hire, also abbreviated as QoH or called hiring quality, is a key recruitment metric used to measure the long-term value a new employee brings to a company. It evaluates how well they perform in their role, integrate with the team, and contribute to long-term business success after onboarding. 

There are several factors affecting quality of hire, including how accurate the job description is, the effectiveness of the interview process, the incorporation of pre-employment assessments, and post-recruitment onboarding and development initiatives. Organizations that actively enhance these processes are more likely to see strong, consistent performance from their new hires.

What is Quality of Hire?

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How to measure quality of hire?

Quality of hire is a mixed metric that combines both quantitative and qualitative indicators to evaluate how successful a new employee is in their role. This includes a range of factors, such as retention, performance, and cultural fit within the team and organization. 

By tracking the right metrics, employers can identify patterns in successful hires and enhance their recruitment strategy over time.

Here are 7 key indicators commonly used to measure quality of hire:

  1. Job Performance: This measures how effectively a new employee performs in their specific role. Hiring teams review goal achievement, productivity metrics, and, where relevant, customer feedback to paint an accurate picture of job performance. High-performing hires tend to drive results and meet expectations early on.

Tools to measure job performance: Lattice, Workday HCM, 15Five

  1. Cultural Fit: This assesses how well a new hire aligns with your company’s values, mission, and working style. Cultural fit reflects their ability to collaborate with colleagues, adapt to the work environment, and contribute to positive team dynamics.

Tools to measure cultural fit: Culture Amp, Predictive Index (PI)

  1. Retention Rate: This metric tracks how likely a new employee is to stay long-term with your organization. A high retention rate suggests successful onboarding and alignment with the role and company culture. Hiring teams can measure this through turnover rates, average tenure, and exit interview insights

Tools to measure retention rate: BambooHR, People.ai, Qualtrics

  1. Time-to-productivity: This evaluates how quickly new hires become fully effective in their roles. Faster ramp-up times indicate a higher quality hire and better alignment of skills. You can calculate this metric through performance benchmarks, goal achievement trackers, manager evaluations, and role-specific productivity metrics

Tools to measure the time-to-productivity: Gong, Seismic Learning, Tableau

  1. Employee Engagement: Engaged employees are more enthusiastic, committed, and proactive in their roles. Measuring this engagement helps identify new hires who are likely to contribute more to the organization. Common methods include surveys, interviews, and behavioral observations.

Tools to measure employee engagement: Officevibe, Glint Community, TINYpulse (by WebMD Health Services)

  1. Hiring Manager Satisfaction: Feedback from hiring managers, through structured surveys and review sessions, helps assess whether the new hire meets expectations in terms of skills, performance, and cultural fit. This offers valuable insights into the effectiveness of your recruitment strategy.

Tools to measure hiring manager satisfaction: SurveyMonkey, Zoho, Greenhouse

  1. Impact on Team and Organization: This measures the ability of a new hire to contribute to team performance, morale, and overall business success. New employees who positively influence their peers and drive organizational goals reflect a high quality of hire.

Tools to measure the impact on team and organization: Microsoft Viva Insights, Workhuman

Did you know? Quality of hire was the most valuable metric identified in a recent LinkedIn report, with 88% of respondents stating it will be extremely useful for HR over the next five years.

Now let’s look into how to calculate QoH.

Quality of hire scorecard

A QoH scorecard is a simple way to calculate quality of hire by averaging scores across various key metrics. This data-driven tool helps assess the effectiveness of your recruitment process in selecting high-quality employees and highlights any areas for improvement in your strategy. 

We suggest using the quality of hire formula given below:

Quality of Hire = (Job Performance + Cultural Fit + Retention Rate + Time-to-productivity + Employee Engagement) ÷ No. of Indicators

Quality of Hire Formula

This formula allows you to quantify hiring success and make more informed, evidence-based hiring decisions based on results.

Now that we’ve delved into the basics of quality of hire, let’s discuss its importance. 

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2. Why is quality of hire important?

Quality of hire is one of the most crucial metrics in talent acquisition and HR as it directly impacts an organization’s performance, culture, and long-term success. Prioritizing high-quality hires who align with your company culture boosts productivity, strengthens team morale, and enhances workplace culture, whilst also reducing turnover and rehiring costs. Ultimately, better hires lead to better business outcomes.

The top 5 reasons why prioritizing quality of hire is important

Benefits of Prioritizing Quality of Hire
  1. Enhances Productivity and Performance: 

Recruiting high-quality hires ensures your team is made up of individuals with the right skills, experience, and mindset to contribute effectively to business goals. These employees ramp up faster, meet KPIs more consistently, and often come up with more innovative solutions – enhancing overall productivity and performance. 

  1. Reduces Turnover and Rehiring Costs:

High-quality hires tend to be more engaged and satisfied in their jobs, leading to longer tenures. This helps reduce the high costs related to frequent recruitment, onboarding, and training. On the other hand, poor hires can lead to high attrition rates, lost productivity, and added rehiring expenses.

  1. Enhances Team Morale and Company Culture: 

Top performers with strong cultural alignment positively influence team dynamics, fostering collaboration, engagement, and a healthier, more productive work environment and company culture, and ultimately, leading to improved employee retention.

  1. Strengthens Employer Brand:

Employers who consistently hire top talent enhance their company’s reputation and employer brand in the job market. Seeing that an organization values excellence, attracts top candidates and shortens the time-to-hire for critical roles.

  1. Improves Customer Satisfaction:

High-performing employees who are skilled, motivated, and well-matched to their roles and company values are more likely to deliver exceptional customer service and product development. This directly impacts customer satisfaction, loyalty, and overall brand reputation.

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The cost of a low-quality hire vs. a high-quality hire 

Hiring the wrong candidates, often referred to as mis-hires, can be expensive. Below is a detailed breakdown highlighting the key differences in cost and impact between a low-quality and high-quality hire:

AspectCost of Low-quality HiringCost of High-quality Hiring
Recruitment CostFrequent turnover increases recruitment expenses, i.e. job postings, agency fees, etc. Potentially high upfront costs for sourcing, screening, and assessing talent. 
Training CostFrequent turnover means repeated training costs for replacements. Initial investment during training. However, high return on Investment (ROI) due to employee retention and performance. 
Productivity Low productivity due to lack of skills, motivation, and cultural fit. High productivity and efficiency from skilled, quality hires. 
Turnover CostHigh turnover rates lead to severance, exit interviews, and rehiring expenses. Low turnover rates reduce costs associated with replacing employees. 
Customer Satisfaction Poor customer service or product quality leads to dissatisfied customers and lost revenue.High-quality customer service or products lead to satisfied customers and repeat business. 
Management TimeIncreased time spent on performance management, corrective actions, and rehiring.Less time spent on micromanagement; more time for strategic initiatives. 

In summary, mis-hires result in increased turnover, lost productivity, and a damaging impact on morale and employer brand. In contrast, while quality hires may require a greater initial investment in sourcing, assessments, or onboarding, they deliver significantly greater long-term value through enhanced performance, stronger retention, and improved customer satisfaction.

Did you know? According to the U.S. Department of Labor, a bad hire can cost as much as 30% of that employee’s first-year salary.

We have now established why quality of hire matters to your business, but what best practices can you follow to improve your hiring quality?

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3. How to improve your quality of hire?

Improving quality of hire starts with refining and optimizing each stage of the hiring journey – from job definition and candidate screening to onboarding and retention. Companies that implement structured processes, leverage data-driven tools, and assess cultural alignment are more likely to attract and retain high-performing employees who drive long-term success.

Below are 9 proven, research-backed strategies to help enhance hiring quality:

1. Clearly Define Job Requirements

Before the hiring process begins, create a detailed and realistic profile of the ideal candidate you want for the role. Involve hiring managers and current team members to outline must-have skills, qualifications, and behavioral traits

Moreover, use historical data, including performance reviews and high-performing employee behaviors, to create your ideal candidate profile and write an accurate job description.

2. Apply Consistent Evaluation Criteria

Create a standardized scoring system across all stages of the hiring process – from resume screening to final interviews. Ensure all candidates are assessed on the same set of predefined competencies and job requirements. This approach minimizes bias, increases fairness, and leads to higher hiring accuracy.

3. Leverage Pre-employment Assessments

Implementing pre-employment psychometric assessments to assess candidates during screening on their cognitive skills, cultural alignment, and behaviors is a powerful, unbiased way to improve quality of hire

Use a combination of skills-based assessments to evaluate hands-on competency, cognitive ability tests measuring problem-solving and learning potential, personality questionnaires to determine candidates’ cultural fit, and situational judgement tests for soft skills and real-world decision-making. Game-based assessments can also be used for engaging candidates while measuring cognitive abilities and behavioral traits in a modern, dynamic setting. 

These tools help predict candidates’ job performance, cultural fit, and long-term potential within your role and organization.

Assess Candidates Pre-employment Assessments

4. Conduct Structured Interviews

Standardized, structured interviews significantly improve quality of hire as they reduce interviewer bias and ensure consistent, accurate evaluation across candidates. Design competency-based and situational interview questions based on the role’s core requirements and use predefined scoring rubrics to ensure fair and objective candidate comparisons.

Additionally, incorporating standardized video interviews can also maintain consistency in delivery and allow for scalable, quality evaluations. 

5. Prioritize the Candidate Experience

Top candidates expect a streamlined, transparent hiring process. Simplify your application procedures, maintain clear communication timelines, and offer timely, constructive feedback. Ensuring a positive candidate experience not only strengthens your employer brand, but also increases the likelihood of securing high-quality hires who are motivated to join your team.

6. Involve the Right Team Members

A collaborative hiring approach, especially involving relevant heads of department and team leads, results in more accurate assessments and recruitment. Different team members bring diverse perspectives to help evaluate cultural fit and support inclusive decision-making.

Additionally, consider running assessment centers with group exercises, role plays, and simulations to involve multiple stakeholders in the final decision making process.

7. Follow Data-driven Hiring

Track hiring metrics like time-to-productivity, performance reviews, and retention rates to continuously refine and optimize your approach. Use applicant tracking systems and hiring analytics platforms to identify patterns, measure hiring success, and adjust strategies accordingly in line with data-driven approaches.

8. Prioritize Onboarding and Integration

Even the best hires can underperform in the role without a structured onboarding process. Design a program based around role expectations, company goals, access to tools and training, assigned mentors, and regular check-ins during the first 90 days. This will accelerate time-to-productivity and reduce early attrition.

9. Create a Talent Pipeline

Proactively build and nurture a talent pipeline to reduce your time-to-fill and increase your chance of hiring high-quality candidates without a time pressure. Actively source passive candidates, maintain relationships with past applicants, leverage employee referrals, and create an internal mobility program for promotions. 

In the following section, we will look into the challenges you may face with this hiring approach. 

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Common challenges in improving quality of hire

While improving the quality of hire is a top priority for most employers, certain challenges can hinder progress. Understanding and addressing these barriers is essential for building a more effective recruitment strategy. These challenges include: 

  • Bias in the Hiring Process: Unconscious bias significantly hinders and undermines hiring quality, whether during resume screening, interviews, or promotion decisions. Many organizations still rely on subjective “gut feelings” rather than structured evaluations, leading to inconsistent and biased hiring outcomes.

Solution: Implement blind recruitment practices by removing identifying information of the candidate such as name, schools, or photos from their applications. Additionally, use structured interviews, science-backed hiring platforms like Assess Candidates, and AI-driven tools to ensure more objective candidate assessment.

  • Overemphasis on Speed Over Quality: In today’s competitive market, companies often focus on filling roles as quickly as possible. However, this urgency often leads to rushed hiring decisions and compromises hiring quality. When speed takes precedence over careful evaluation, employers miss the red flags and mis-hire.

Solution: Balance speed with quality by integrating skill-based evaluations early in the hiring process. Also leverage automation to streamline initial screenings, but reserve time for deeper, quality-focused evaluations at later stages.

  • Defining Quality of Hire: Different stakeholders define and measure quality differently – some focus on performance metrics, others on retention, while others prioritize cultural fit. Without alignment, it becomes difficult to evaluate whether recruitment strategies are truly effective.

Solution: Establish a shared definition of quality of hire across departments. Use consistent KPIs, such as first-year performance ratings, retention rates, and time-to-productivity, and actively track correlations between pre-hire assessments and post-hire success using data analytics.

  • Lack of Data-Driven Hiring Decisions: Many organizations still heavily rely on intuition over data, making it difficult to improve hiring strategies over time. Without tracking post-hire performance, companies cannot validate whether their assessments accurately predict success.

Solution: Invest in HR analytics tools like Tableau and Visier, to consistently track trends, quality of hire metrics, and turnover rates. Use this data to continuously refine recruitment strategies.

  • Poor Candidate Experience: An overly complicated or unclear hiring process, with excessive interview rounds, delayed communication, or lack of feedback, can frustrate high-potential candidates, leading to application withdrawals which harm employer branding and future talent pipelines.

Solution: Streamlining your hiring process, setting clear expectations, maintaining transparent communication, and providing feedback at every stage will enhance candidate experience, prevent losing high-potential hires, and boost long-term talent attraction.

Let’s now explore how pre-employment assessments in particular predict job performance and therefore. improve the quality of hire. 

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4. How do predictive pre-employment assessments improve quality of hire?

Predictive pre-employment assessments, when administered early in the hiring process, offer data-driven insights into a candidate’s cognitive abilities, personality traits, and work-related behaviors. By evaluating skills, mindset, and behavioral tendencies, these assessments help predict job performance, cultural fit, and long-term potential. This evidence-based approach reduces hiring bias, enhances decision-making, and ultimately, boosts the quality of hire by identifying top talent more accurately and consistently.  

But what are the right tools to assess candidates holistically?

Which pre-employment assessment tools help predict job performance?

Which Pre-employment Assessments Predict Job Performance?
  1. Skill-Based Assessments

Skill-based assessments are scientifically validated to predict job performance. They measure a candidate’s ability to perform job-specific tasks, such as error checking for clerical roles, coding knowledge for engineers, or customer interaction simulations for sales executives. They offer the most direct insight into actual on-the-job capability, thereby validating candidates’ proficiency before hiring and improving the quality of hires. 

Top platforms that offer skill-based tests: Assess Candidates, SHL, Vervoe

  1. Cognitive Ability Tests

Cognitive ability tests are proven to be one of the strongest predictors of job performance. Depending on their type, they measure a variety of cognitive skills, such as problem-solving, logical reasoning, numerical aptitude, and learning speed – all key predictors of performance across roles. Hiring employees with high cognitive aptitude improves quality of hire as these individuals grasp tasks quickly, adapt to changes efficiently, and contribute with innovative solutions. 

Common cognitive ability tests include:

Did you know? By using cognitive ability tests in their recruitment process, Deloitte reported a 60% increase in hiring efficiency and a significant improvement in employee performance and retention. 

  1. Personality Tests

Personality tests measure a candidate’s personality traits, interpersonal skills, and thinking style. These assessments allow employers to predict candidates’ cultural fit and select those who align long-term with the team dynamics and organizational culture.

Leading personality tests: Assess Candidates WPQ, Hogan HPI, Predictive Index, Criteria Corp

  1. Emotional Intelligence Tests (EQ)

This tool measures a candidate’s ability to recognize, understand, and manage their emotions and those of peers while effectively navigating interpersonal relationships in the workplace. High emotional intelligence improves teamwork, leadership, and adaptability – especially in client-facing or leadership roles.

Well-known EQ tests: Assess Candidates’ i-EQ™, Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i 2.0), Genos Emotional Intelligence Inventory

  1. Situational Judgment Tests (SJTS)

Situational judgment tests present candidates with real-world workplace scenarios to evaluate problem-solving, communication, teamwork, and decision-making among others – all critical competencies for quality hires. Using realistic challenges they accurately predict how candidates would react and perform in the role.

Leading SJT providers: Assess Candidates, SHL, TestGorilla

SJTs become even more effective predictors of job performance when combined with other psychometric assessments, like numerical, verbal, logical reasoning, and personality tests. This well-rounded approach gives recruiters a deeper understanding of each candidate’s skills, behavior, and personality, leading to smarter, more informed hiring decisions and ensuring only the most qualified candidates move forward.

  1. Cultural Fit and Culture Add Assessments

These tools predict job performance by evaluating how well a candidate aligns with or enhances your company’s values and culture. A strong cultural fit supports satisfaction, teamwork, engagement, and productivity, while culture add assessments identify candidates who bring a new skill set to the table, driving innovation and diversity

  1. Game-based Assessments

Game-based assessments are a type of psychometric assessment that measure the same job-related cognitive abilities, behaviors, and personality traits as traditional assessments but through interactive, immersive game-based tasks.

Game assessments create a more relaxed, stress-free environment to improve candidate experience and completion rates while providing employers with richer data to better predict on-the-job performance.

Leading platforms for game-based assessments: Assess Candidates, Pymetrics, Arctic Shores

  1. Video Interview Platforms

Pre-recorded video interviews assess a candidate’s skills, motivations, communication, and role fit remotely, removing geographical barriers. With standardized questions and structured scoring, video interviews reduce interviewer bias, provide greater flexibility and convenience for both recruiters and applicants, and speed up hiring without sacrificing quality.

Top video interview platforms: Assess Candidates, HireVue, Spark Hire

  1. Assessment Centers

Ideal for leadership and high-stakes roles, assessment centers improve quality of hire by offering a thorough evaluation of candidates through real-world simulations, group tasks, role-playing activities, and structured interviews. 

With multiple assessors and standardized processes, assessment centers reduce bias and help organizations select candidates who are best aligned with the role and long-term business objectives.

  1. Application Tracking System (ATS)

A modern ATS platform should be in every company’s recruitment strategy stack to automate hiring by collecting, sorting, and managing job applications.

They use the latest features such as AI screening, predictive analytics, career page hosting, job listing management, job distribution, collaboration tools, interview templates, onboarding tools, and skills-based filtering. These streamline hiring and allow recruiters to eliminate unqualified candidates faster while surfacing high-potential talent, directly improving quality of hire.

  1. Job Boards and Aggregators

Employers use specialized job boards to attract higher-quality candidates by targeting niche talent pools and reducing unqualified applicants. Smart platforms like LinkedIn Jobs and Indeed use AI to match candidates with job requirements based on experience, skills, and preference, while tools like SeekOut source passive candidates.

Many boards also integrate pre-screening assessments to help reduce low-quality applicants and improve candidate fit.

  1. Onboarding and Retention Tools

Onboarding and retention tools improve hire quality by helping new employees integrate into their roles and the company culture, boosting long-term performance and retention. Platforms like Sapling and Enboarder offer structured workflows for training, goal-setting, and team integration, speeding up ramp-up times. These tools track engagement and collect feedback to address issues early, refining hiring practices to select candidates likely to succeed. 

Retention features like milestone check-ins and mentorship also foster commitment, ensuring top hires stay and contribute longer.

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At Assess Candidates, we always recommend following a multi-assessment hiring approach – combining skills tests, cognitive assessments, and structured interviews – to create a holistic view of each candidate. This layered approach reduces bias, predicts job performance with greater accuracy, and consistently leads to more informed hiring decisions and quality hires. 

Now, let’s take a look at how these predictive pre-employment tools improve job outcomes

Key benefits of using predictive tests to drive better hiring outcomes

Predictive assessments transform hiring into a data-driven process, allowing employers to assess candidates based on real quantifiable evidence. By measuring skills, cognitive ability, and cultural fit, these assessments ensure the right people are in the right roles, improving hiring quality, reducing costly mis-hires, and driving long-term success across the organization.

The top ways in which predictive assessments improve hiring quality:

  • Enhanced Job Performance Through Skills Validation: 

Predictive assessments verify whether candidates can actually do the job. Role-specific tests evaluate whether applicants possess the required skills for real-world application. Cognitive testing further strengthens these predictions by measuring reasoning skills like problem-solving, numerical reasoning, learning agility, and critical thinking, and ensuring candidates meet the requirements needed for job success.

  • Lower Turnover, Higher Retention: 

Predictive tests significantly lower employee turnover by ensuring a better employee-organization fit. When you hire candidates whose values and working styles align with your organization, they stay longer and perform better.  Tools like workplace personality tests and situational judgment tests assess behavioral tendencies, decision-making style, and emotional stability – traits that strongly predict job satisfaction and loyalty.

Did you know? With the help of pre-employment psychometric tests, ASK reduced turnover from 74% to 30%, marking a staggering 59% improvement.

  • Accelerated Time-to-productivity: 

Predictive assessments shorten the onboarding and ramp-up period of new hires by identifying individuals who are cognitively agile and role-ready. These candidates can quickly assimilate information and apply their skills effectively, reaching full productivity sooner.

  • Enhanced Diversity & Inclusion: 

By focusing on objectively measuring skills and competencies over background and personal connections, predictive tools help reduce conscious and unconscious bias. This approach creates a level playing field for candidates from underrepresented groups, enabling employers to tap into more diverse talent and simultaneously improve quality of hire.

Did you know? According to BCG, companies with diverse management teams generate 19% higher revenue compared to those with below-average leadership diversity.

  • Substantial Cost Savings: 

Mis-hires are expensive. Predictive assessments reduce costly hiring mistakes by determining whether a candidate has the required skills, competencies, and cultural fit for the specific role before extending a job offer. Subjective hiring decisions are replaced with data-driven insights. This leads to higher performance, reduced turnover, and direct cost savings for businesses.

Neglecting to evaluate job-specific skills, cognitive abilities, behaviors, and cultural alignment during hiring increases the risk of mis-hiring, leading to skills gaps, poor performance, high turnover, and compliance risks in regulated industries. 

Predictive assessments provide a powerful, science-backed way to consistently select candidates who are ready to perform and succeed, helping your organization build high-performing teams and achieve a lasting business impact.

If you are an employer who is unsure if pre-employment predictive testing is the right choice for you, get in touch with us, and we will do a free-of-charge analysis of your recruitment needs.

In the following section, we will look into real-world case studies of leading employers using pre-employment assessments to improve their quality of hire.

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5. Leading employers using pre-employment assessments to improve quality of hire

Leading companies use pre-employment assessments to improve their hiring quality, drive stronger business performance, and reduce employee turnover. 

Here are notable case studies showcasing the impact of standardized, predictive assessments:

ASK: Turnover Reduction and Quality Improvement

Challenge: ASK, an inbound call center, faced challenges with a high turnover rate and a lack of high-quality hires who were a good fit for the customer service role. 

Solution: ASK partnered with Criteria to implement their pre-employment assessments for evaluating candidates. They had to complete the Criteria Basic Skills Test (CBST) to measure job readiness and trainability, the Employee Personality Profile (EPP) to evaluate personality traits, and a typing test. 

These assessments helped employers identify and prioritize the most suitable candidates for interviews.

Results

  • Reduced turnover from 74% to 30%, indicating a 59% improvement. 
  • Reduced interview hours by approximately 23 hours on a weekly basis
  • Supervisors reported noticeable improvement in quality of hire and customer satisfaction.

Chemonics: Reduced Turnover and Streamlined Hiring

Challenge: Chemonics, a multinational solutions provider, faced challenges with a high turnover rate and inconsistent assessment processes. Since the roles within Chemonics are diverse and differ significantly in their responsibilities, the new hires suffered from a disorganized assessment process.

Solution: Chemonics partnered with the eSkill Talent Assessment Platform to implement pre-employment assessments for an accurate candidate evaluation. Entry-level candidates for strategic communications and editing roles completed writing and editing assessments, while data analytics applicants took data visualization and Excel tests. 

Moreover, the hiring team fully utilized a shared scorecard to assess candidates anonymously, reducing bias, ensuring fair objective scoring, and helping the most qualified candidates stand out. 

Results

  • Reduced turnover to 43% 
  • Reduced time-to-hire to 55 days, with a goal of 45 days.

JG Wentworth: Raised the Bar on Hiring Quality

Challenge: JG Wentworth, a financial services company, wanted to improve their overall quality of hire to positively impact key metrics across the talent pipeline, including training completion, employee performance, and retention

Solution: JG Wentworth’s HR Team partnered with Criteria to build an assessment process that could predict job performance and retention. After conducting internal validation studies, they selected the Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test (CCAT), a tool that measures critical thinking, problem-solving, and learning agility. In their assessment process, they also included:

  • Computer Literacy Tests
  • Excel Assessments (especially critical for negotiation roles)
  • Customized Bilingual Tests via Criteria’s TestMaker for Spanish-speaking roles

Results

  • Onboarding graduation rates increased by 15%
  • Achieved a 17% increase in sales performance.
  • Annualized turnover dropped by 25% between 2021 and 2023

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6. Get started with Assess Candidates to enhance your quality of hire

At Assess Candidates, we offer a wide variety of pre-employment assessments and predictive tools so you can tailor the recruitment solution to align with your organization’s specific hiring goals.

Below is a sample of the campaign reporting dashboard available on the Assess Candidates platform. Designed with ease of use in mind, the portal equips hiring managers and HR teams with meaningful insights, robust science-backed assessments, and advanced filtering tools.

High-quality Hiring Campaign Dashboard for Recruiters

The top 4 reasons why you should use Assess Candidates for improving quality of hire

  1. Built by Experts, Backed by Science: Chartered Scientists, Psychologists, and Psychometricians with experience at leading firms like SHL and IBM Kenexa have designed Assess Candidates’ pre-employment tests to help you make smarter hiring decisions. They scientifically validate each test rigorously to ensure it measures real-world skills and job-related competencies, so you can consistently identify and hire high-quality candidates.
  2. Actionable Insights Through Expert Reporting: Assess Candidates’ intuitive and easy-to-navigate platform empowers employers to make confident hiring decisions with detailed candidate reports that are easy to access and interpret. Moreover, our talent assessment platform allows recruiters to compare individual and group performance, apply custom filters, rank candidates, and create shortlists effortlessly. It integrates seamlessly with your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) for a smooth, efficient workflow.
  3. Enhanced Candidate Experience: Assess Candidates’ pre-employment tests are easily accessible on any device, offering a visually engaging and user-friendly interface that keeps candidates focused and confident. Employers can customize instructions to align with their brand, while the intuitive design reduces friction by minimizing clicks and automatically guiding candidates through each question. This smooth and engaging process fosters a positive candidate experience and enhanced employer brand, helping businesses attract better candidates and improve the overall quality of their hires.
  4. Inclusive and Accessible for All Candidates: Assess Candidates actively offers support for individuals with disabilities and visual impairments by building accessibility into every assessment. All our hiring assessments provide options to add extra time, enable zoom functions, apply accessible color schemes, and use WCAG-compliant designs that work seamlessly with screen readers and assistive technologies.

Assess Candidates is a trusted pre-employment hiring test provider offering end-to-end assessment tools for small, medium, and large businesses. Our intuitive platform helps you confidently identify and recruit top talent. Explore our range of hiring tests and start making smarter, more informed hiring decisions today!

Interested in learning more about effective candidate assessment? Continue reading for frequently asked questions, and sign up with your email to get started.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the key metrics used to measure quality of hire?

The key metrics used to measure quality of hire include job performance, retention rate, cultural fit, employee engagement, time-to-productivity, hiring manager feedback, and impact on team and organization. These are evaluated through performance reviews, retention analysis, surveys, productivity benchmarks, and manager assessments to gauge the overall fit and effectiveness of new hires.

What is the formula used to calculate the quality of hires?

A straightforward method to calculate quality of hire is by averaging several key hiring metrics and performance indicators that reflect a new employee’s success. A commonly used formula is: Quality of Hire = (Job Performance + Cultural Fit + Retention Rate + Time-to-productivity + Employee Engagement) ÷ No. of Indicators This approach provides a balanced score by combining both qualitative and quantitative metrics, helping organizations track hiring effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.

How does assessing quality of hire impact overall business success?

Assessing quality of hire enables organizations to make smarter, data-informed hiring decisions – ensuring only candidates who are best suited for the demands of the role and the organizational culture are hired. High-quality hires perform better and stay longer, which boosts productivity, reduces turnover, enhances team morale, and improves customer satisfaction, thus directly driving long-term business success and growth.

How do predictive assessments improve quality of hire?

Predictive pre-employment assessments improve hiring quality by validating that candidates are role-ready with the required skills, competencies, and cultural alignment for the role and organization. This promotes retention, accelerates time-to-productivity, promotes diversity, and minimizes costly mis-hires through objective, data-driven evaluations, leading to stronger performance, lower turnover, and smarter hiring decisions.

What are some best practices and strategies to improve quality of hire?

To Improve your quality of hire, we recommend the following proven best practices: clearly defining your job requirements, conducting structured interviews, applying consistent criteria, prioritizing candidate experience, implementing pre-employment assessments, and aligning the hiring team. These steps ensure consistent evaluations, better cultural fit hiring, and data-driven decisions that lead to stronger, long-term hires.

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