Of the companies that measure quality of hire, 85 percent believe doing so has a positive impact on hiring quality and nearly half believe there is a significant impact, according to a global benchmarking report from Hudson RPO and the HRO Today Institute. However, 69 percent of respondents are not measuring quality of hire at all.

In spite of appearing to recognize the value of such a practice, 45 percent said they had discussed the issue internally but did not have plans in place to establish an appropriate process, 15 percent had a plan but has yet to implement it and 9 percent said they are not discussing or planning to introduce quality of hire measures.

“Quality of hire remains the most elusive talent metric for many organizations,” said Manuel Marquez, chairman and CEO of Hudson Global Inc. (NASD: HSON). “Yet it is also the most important metric for driving sustained business success. Today’s leaders must not leave quality hiring to chance if they want to create competitive advantage for themselves well into the future.”

The study also found hiring manager skills and recruiter skills have the greatest impact on quality of hiring. The survey asked, “Which factors have you found to have had the greatest impact of quality of hire?” Responses included:

• Hiring manager skills: 61 percent
• Recruiter skills: 59 percent
• Recruitment preparation process: 58 percent
• Selection process: 54 percent
• Orientation/onboarding: 45 percent
• Employment branding: 41 percent
• Candidate source: 29 percent

The survey included employers from 246 companies of varying sizes worldwide, sourced from the Hudson and HRO Today databases. Responses were collected from December 2012 through February 2013.