Successful businesses realize one of their most important assets is their workforce. Developing a strong, capable employee roster requires a recruitment and selection process that identifies strong candidates both inside and outside the company. Routine evaluation of the methods, procedures and strategies used in retaining new employees and selecting employees for advancement can improve employee retention and the quality of interview candidates. The best evaluation methods identify successful processes that can be enhanced and ineffective processes that need modifications.

Create a measurement standard. Judging the effectiveness of any business process is difficult without a solid measurement system. Consider using new employee turnover, employee satisfaction metrics or average position vacancy time as measurement standards. You can also use qualitative assessments through management, employee and candidate surveys.

Track measurement data. Measurement standards should be tracked over time as an indicator of the success or failure of recruitment and selection processes. Consider tracking these measures on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis. Industries with high natural turnover may want a more frequent measurement, while a company with low employee turnover may suffice with routine, but infrequent evaluations. Positive trending data indicates effective processes. Negative trending measurements allude to underlying problems that need to be addressed quickly to avoid impacting the business.

Review costs. Look at the overall costs your company expends for all recruitment and selection endeavors. Costs should include advertising expenditures, human resources personnel time, signing bonuses and reimbursements for moving costs. Review the cost of each type of investment and ensure the expenditures are resulting in quality employee candidates. Effective spending can help target the right type of employee candidates.

Ensure recruitment and selection processes enhance your business image. Improper recruitment and selection process can have a negative impact on how your business is perceived by potential employees, business partners and customers. Showing you value employees even before they are your employees sets the stage for a mutually rewarding working relationship.

Guarantee that processes conform to business and legal requirements. Your business can face financial and legal hurdles if anti-discrimination, employee eligibility and labor law standards are not upheld. Spot-check documents and conduct informal interviews with recent hires to ensure legal compliance.