Quality of Hire
Also known as QoH, New Hire Quality Score
Quality of hire is a composite measure of how well new hires perform and how long they stay, typically combining early performance rating, ramp speed, retention and hiring-manager satisfaction. It is the metric that tells you whether recruiting is producing good hires rather than just fast, cheap ones.
Formula
Quality of Hire = Weighted average of (first-year performance rating, time-to-productivity against target, 12-month retention, hiring manager satisfaction), normalised to a 0–100 scaleThere is no standard weighting. Define yours explicitly and hold it constant — a composite whose weights move cannot be trended.
Worked example
- Scenario
- A cohort scoring 78 on performance, 71 on ramp against target, 85 on retention and 74 on manager satisfaction, equally weighted.
- Calculation
- (78 + 71 + 85 + 74) ÷ 4
- Result
- Quality of hire score of 77
What good looks like
No external benchmark is meaningful, because the composite is locally defined. The value is comparative: quality of hire by source, by hiring manager, and by interview process version. Those comparisons are where the metric earns its cost.
Why quality of hire matters
Every other recruiting metric can be gamed by lowering the bar. Speed improves, cost falls, and offer acceptance rises when you hire whoever is available. Quality of hire is the counterweight that makes the rest of the recruiting scorecard honest, and it is the only one that connects hiring to business outcome.
How to improve it
- 1Keep the composite simple — four components at most. Elaborate indices stop being maintained.
- 2Compare quality of hire by source channel. This is the analysis that usually changes sourcing strategy.
- 3Compare by interview panel and process version to find which assessment stages actually predict performance.
- 4Include 12-month retention, so a strong early performer who leaves does not count as a success.
- 5Review the correlation between interview scores and eventual performance annually; weak correlation means your process is measuring the wrong things.
Common mistakes
- Using hiring-manager satisfaction alone, which measures relief rather than quality.
- Measuring at 90 days only, before performance signal is reliable.
- Changing the composite's weighting between periods and then comparing the results.
- Collecting the data without ever comparing it by source or process, which makes the whole exercise decorative.
Frequently asked questions
How do you measure quality of hire?
Combine first-year performance rating, time to productivity against the role's target, 12-month retention and hiring-manager satisfaction into a weighted score. The specific weights matter less than defining them once and keeping them stable so the metric can be trended and compared by source.
When should quality of hire first be measured?
At six months for an early read and again at twelve. Ninety days is too early for reliable performance signal, and twelve months is where retention becomes meaningful.
Related metrics
New hire turnover rate is the percentage of new employees who leave within a defined early window — most often 90 days, six months or one year of joining. It is a hiring and onboarding metric rather than a retention one, because departures this early usually trace back to selection, role clarity or the first-weeks experience.
Time to ProductivityTime to productivity is how long a new hire takes to reach the expected performance level for their role, measured from start date. It connects hiring, onboarding and learning to a single business-relevant outcome, and it is the largest hidden component of turnover cost.
Source of HireSource of hire records which channel produced each hire — job board, referral, agency, direct sourcing, careers site or internal move — usually reported as a percentage mix. It is the basis for every recruiting budget decision, and it is most useful when combined with cost and retention data per channel.
Cost per HireCost per hire is the total internal and external recruiting spend divided by the number of hires in a period. It is the standard efficiency measure for talent acquisition and the basis for comparing sourcing channels against each other.
Interview to Offer RatioInterview to offer ratio is the number of candidates interviewed for each offer extended. It measures selection efficiency — how well earlier stages are filtering — and it directly determines how much interviewer time each hire consumes.
Go deeper
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