Measuring the success of your in-house executive search is important to both the current search and any future executive search efforts. When evaluation after the fact doesn’t take place, you can miss important lessons for future recruiting, which can leave you repeating mistakes when the next search takes place. And evaluating prior executive search efforts can help you maximize ROI on future searches.

Data from executive searches will be different from other recruiting data because of the small sample size—you typically don’t hire as many executives as you do other positions in the company. But whether your sample size is a few or only one, you can still cull useful data that can be applied to future searches—even if the next executive search isn’t likely to take place for months or years.

Key Metrics for Executive Search

The metrics involved in measuring the executive search process are not that much different from other recruiting metrics. It’s important to know your cost per hire and time to hire in order to gauge what is realistic to expect for future searches, or to set a goal for the future search that is more in line with industry standards. As time goes on, measuring the quality of the hire and retention can also come into play as ways to determine whether your search methods were ultimately successful.

It’s important not to lump executive search data into overall recruiting, since executive search is conducted differently and needs its own measurements in order to be accurate. Keeping data separate is the only way to be accurate in measuring executive search effectiveness.

Gathering Data From an Executive Search

Some executive search data will be situational and can be observed, like cost per hire, time to hire, and retention. But much of the data you seek may rely on direct feedback from candidates and the eventual hire. You should attempt to get feedback from all candidates about their user experience to gauge whether the application and interview process was reasonably easy to navigate, or whether improvements can be made in how candidates are sourced and funneled into the process.

You can also look at how many candidates were considered and whether your team spent too much time interviewing too many candidates, or not enough. Metrics like these can help you refine the executive search process and get a better idea what to expect next time.

It’s true that executive searches have many unique features compared to recruiting for other positions, but data collection and analysis is still an important way to evaluate the search process and discover methods for future improvement.

Thrive TRM allows in-house executive search teams to collect and analyze the data from their executive search, creating instant reports that show various metrics and allowing data to be saved indefinitely so it can be used when it is needed. Data is only useful if it can be analyzed and shared with key personnel in understandable ways. Contact us to see how we can make that happen in your executive search process.

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