Precision in Talent Acquisition: Reclaiming “Quality-of-Hire” as a Strategic Imperative

Installment I

By Tremaine Friend, VP of Talent Operations, Talent Xpanse

Let’s talk about one of the most underutilized but mission-critical talent metrics in our toolbox: Quality of Hire (QoH).

It’s a metric that’s been around for years, but often buried beneath outdated benchmarks like time-to-fill or cost-per-hire. After speaking on this topic at California HR 2025 and hearing from dozens of HR and talent professionals, one thing is clear:

“We all desire for a metric that actually reflects value; not just volume.”

So why now? Because the hiring landscape is changing fast. Applicant volume is at an all-time high. Technology is everywhere. But candidate experience is often strained, recruiting ROI is hard to measure, and business leaders want results they can tie to performance.

That’s where Quality of Hire becomes a strategic lens and the foundation for more meaningful talent decisions. It is clear that QoH relevance to business outcome is a relevant language for performance, retention, and hiring precision.

Why Quality of Hire Deserves a Fresh Look

Quality of Hire isn’t new. But our renewed focus on it reflects a deeper shift in how we define successful hiring outcomes in the measure to value. Historically, in my career and in many other hiring teams, we were evaluated and measured by speed and cost: how quickly we could fill a role and at what price. But that left out the most important part of the equation – what happens after the hire. In today’s environment, achieving quality hires is a constantly changing combination of varying factors. Whether you’re recruiting in healthcare, tech, or manufacturing, organizations need better ways to connect hiring activity to long-term impact. QoH offers us that lens. It shifts the focus from transactional to transformational “VALUE” from ‘Did we make the hire?’ to ‘What is the value the hire has achieved in the for short/long-term success?’ In the image below we demonstrate the evolution of QoH and the current accessibility to QoH.

Origins and Current State: A Brief History of QoH

The concept of Quality of Hire (QoH) isn’t new—but its application has dramatically evolved.

QoH emerged in the early 2000s as organizations began questioning whether traditional recruiting metrics like time-to-fill or cost-per-hire were truly reflective of talent effectiveness. While those legacy metrics remain useful in measuring efficiency, they fail to answer a more strategic question: Are we hiring the right people who stay and perform well over time?

As systems mature and the accessibility to tools like LinkedIn Recruiter, ATS reports, and real-time dashboards are now the norm, mid-sized organizations and growing companies can now adopt QoH as a frontline talent acquisition and recruiting metric. Traditional data becomes a dimensional part of defining QoH (e.g., performance reviews, tenure tracking, 360 feedback, etc.), tracked and translated into tangible business outcomes and not just anecdotal performance observations.

A Practitioner’s Sandbox, Not Just a Theoretical Ideal

Talent Xpanse joins this movement by bringing QoH down from theory into practice. We’ve designed our proprietary QoH Calculator to empower HR leaders and recruiters with a flexible, accessible framework that connects what happens in hiring to what matters in business performance, retention, and strategic growth.

What is our goal? To demystify and to empower hiring teams to define their own QoH standards, and align them to real outcomes, relevant timelines, and measurable impact. This will result in more effective internal and external hiring partnerships.

“We’re not just talking about metrics anymore we’re building a sandbox where hiring professionals can play with data, learn by doing, and define Quality of Hire in their own language.” — Tremaine Friend, Fast Track Session, California HR 2025

Beyond the First Review: QoH as a Continuous Metric

Too often, organizations hang Quality of Hire on the first performance review if measured at all. But value doesn’t start a 12 month performance review. Mastering QoH means defining impact across the entire talent lifecycle to achieve an optimal QoH. This shift is crucial. When recruiting is measured solely on speed and volume, we lose sight of its real impact. But when we focus on value retention, performance, & productivity, we start to build stronger, more future-ready teams.

Defining Quality of Hire for Your Organization

Here’s where we start to step into practical application. Every organization can and should define it differently, based on their goals, hiring environment, and performance metrics.

Here are just a few data points teams may already have access to and can incorporate into a QoH strategy:

🔹 Measurement Type: Performance Ratings What to Track: – 30/60/90 Day Scores – 6-Month Reviews – Goal Attainment

🔹 Measurement Type: Retention Data What to Track: – 6-Month Retention % – Average Tenure – Exit Interview Reasons

🔹 Measurement Type: Time to Productivity What to Track: – Onboarding Milestone Completion – Ramp-Up Timelines – Time to Measurable Contribution – Manager Feedback on Onboarding

🔹 Measurement Type: Source Performance What to Track: Quality of Hire by Channel (e.g., Job Board, Referral, Agency, Internal Hire) – Sourcing ROI – Conversion Rates by Channel

🔹 Measurement Type: Candidate Experience What to Track: – Application Completion Rate – Candidate Feedback – Offer Acceptance Rate – Candidate Referrals – Survey Scores

With our QoH Calculator, you can start to see these metrics and create your own score aligned to your business, easy to present, and ready to drive smarter conversations. Whether you’re new to QoH or ready to scale it, I’ve built a free, interactive QoH Calculator to help you get started. 🔗 Join our next live webinar: Registration will be coming soon!

📥 Want the tool now? It’s available to those who join the webinar or reach out directly, or fill out this form to request it. Let’s talk about how this can work for your team.

Author

Tremaine Friend

Vice President, Talent Xpanse