What Candidates Actually Want to Know When They're Rejected (And How to Tell Them)

I recently had a conversation with a Talent Acquisition Leader that left me shocked. While discussing strategies to improve hiring accuracy and the balance between hiring efficiency and hiring accuracy in high-volume recruitment, I sensed an alarming degree of indifference around hiring accuracy altogether.

Now more than ever, human resources teams are expected to create tangible value for the business—from hiring and retaining talent to performance management to leadership development and more. People analytics are key to helping HR teams meet the demands of today’s business landscape.

There seems to be a current trend among employers to offer more unique and diverse office perks in the hopes of attracting and retaining talent. While perks can be fun and bring momentary happiness, they do not meaningfully move the needle on employee satisfaction or retention. One such example was highlighted by Payscale’s list of employee tenure at Fortune 500 companies, which denotes that Google, a company that offers top-notch perks, has a median employee tenure of 1.1 years.

Being in the business world, it's likely we're all familiar with Pearson's Law, which states: "When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates."  The idea that tracking performance ultimately yields better results is a common-sense proposition at this point.

This list will identify some of the less-obvious signs an employee is looking for another job, rather than more obvious signs such as excessive absences, coming in late and leaving early, decreased quality of work, and changes in attitude.

If you are looking to decrease turnover, who you hire and promote to management is crucial. The reality is that people quit bosses more often than they leave for other reasons, making management quality a key retention factor.

What's Causing Your Turnover?

I started my career at Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm charged with helping some of the world's largest organizations solve their most critical business challenges. 

According to the Harvard Business Review, 80% of turnover can be attributed to bad hiring decisions. This means the cost of regrettable turnover—losing employees you wanted to keep—is largely preventable through better screening and assessment processes.