How to tell whether a senior HR hire worked

Most businesses can say what a senior HR hire cost. Far fewer can say, a year later, whether it worked.

The hire was made to change something: a people function that couldn’t keep up with growth, an acquisition that needed integrating, a founder who still approved every pay rise. Whether the hire worked depends on whether that thing changed, and you can only judge that if you wrote it down before the person started.

Decide what the hire is for

The usual recruitment measures, cost per hire and time to hire, describe the search. They say nothing about whether the person was right. Quality of hire is the measure that matters, and it has no standard formula, because it depends on what the role was for.

So start with the role. Write down the three to five outcomes the business needs from this person in their first year. “Build a pay framework the leadership team actually uses” is an outcome. “Strategic HR partnership” is not, because nobody can tell after a year whether it happened.

Then name who will judge each outcome. For a Head of HR that is usually the CEO and one or two members of the leadership team, not the HR function itself.

Agree the outcomes and the judges before the search starts, and put both in the brief.

Take a baseline before the first day

This is where most attempts to measure a hire fail. Twelve months in, nobody remembers what attrition was or how long it took to fill a sales role, so every comparison is a guess.

Pick four to six measures that the outcomes should move, and record today’s value and the date. Useful ones for a senior HR hire:

• voluntary leavers in their first year of employment, by team
• time to fill the roles the business can’t run without
• open employee relations cases, and how long each has been open
• whether a pay framework, a performance process and a handbook exist and are used
• how the leadership team rates the people function today, on a 1–5 scale, asked the same way each time

Be honest about small numbers. In a team of 20, two resignations move its attrition rate by 10 points. Treat a change like that as a reason for a conversation, not as a verdict on the hire.

Record the baseline in the week the person starts, and share it with them on their first day.

Judge the diagnosis first and the numbers last

Different things can be judged at different times. Retention and engagement take a year or more to move, so judging an HR leader on attrition at 90 days measures the business they inherited, not their work.

1. Before the search

   Outcomes

   Three to five outcomes the role exists to deliver in its first year, and who will judge each one.

2. First week

   Baseline

   Today's value for four to six measures, and the leadership team's rating of the people function.

3. 90 days

   Diagnosis

   Does their view of the main problems match yours? Have they said what they will change first, and what they will leave alone?

4. 6 months

   First changes

   The first changes are in place, and the early measures, such as time to fill and open cases, have started to move.

5. 12 months

   Outcome review

   The baseline against today, the same rating question again, and one paragraph per outcome on what caused the change.

Retention and engagement move slowly. Judge the diagnosis first and the numbers last.

At 90 days, look at the diagnosis. Does the person’s view of the main problems match yours, and where it differs, have they convinced you? Have they said what they will change first and what they will leave alone for now?

At six months, look for the first changes in place and for the early measures: whether the critical roles are being filled faster, whether old employee relations cases have closed.

At a year, compare the baseline with today, and ask the leadership team the same rating question again.

Put all three reviews in the diary when the offer is accepted, so they happen even when things are going well.

Separate the hire from everything else that changed

A year is long enough for a funding round, a reorganisation, a new product line or a hard market. Each of those moves the numbers you are watching. A Head of HR can handle a restructuring well and still see attrition rise on their watch.

So be specific about cause. For each outcome, decide whether the person caused the change, contributed to it, or had nothing to do with it. Compare the teams they worked with closely and the teams they didn’t. Ask the managers who worked with them most what changed in how they run their teams.

This is a judgment, not a calculation. It is better made openly than turned into a return-on-investment figure that nobody can check.

At the 12-month review, write one paragraph per outcome: what changed, what caused it and what is still to do.

Use the review to brief the next search

The review is also evidence about how you hire. If the hire worked, find what in the brief or the interviews predicted it. If it didn’t, decide which part failed: the brief described the wrong role, the assessment missed something, or the person started without the support they needed.

Start with the brief. A role written as operational when the business needed someone to build a function from nothing, or the reverse, can fail with a strong candidate in it.

Keep the brief, the interview scorecard and the 12-month review together, and read all three before you write the next brief.

Write the outcomes down first

A senior HR hire is judged a year later, against what the business wrote down before the search began. If you can’t find that page for your last senior hire, write it before you start the next one.

In the searches we run, we agree these outcomes with the client before we approach anyone, and they become the scorecard for the shortlist. Our Head of HR search page explains how that works.