This is one of the key topics in John’s article today. Cutting-edge, supporting data is proving this to an industry altering metric. John Sullivan has been my mentor ever since I entered HR leadership at Valero Energy. We won 18 awards at Valero and many were real world implementations of his work adjusted for politics and budget. I was blessed to have John and Master coach me through many key decisions.

I am honored today to be able to put definitive data behind what Batman and Robin, my nickname for John and Master, have coached for years. At Orca Eyes, we refer to this metric as Performance Turnover™ – Loss of low performers versus top performers.

Two of our clients are the industry leaders in their individual market segment both in terms of profitability and operational performance. Both of their Performance Turnover™ ratios are 1:11. This means they lose 11 low performers for every 1 top performer – not an accident. For 85+ percent of the turnover of low-performer is involuntary. Both industry leaders have designed systems to aggressively retain top performers and force low-performers out of the organization.

And this metric is even more powerful. When Performance Turnover™ goes below 1:3 (top performers:low performers) there is now definitive data that clearly shows all measurable business drivers suffer: revenue, profit, error rates, customer satisfaction and operational productivity.

Furthermore, the technology now exists to show which recruiters are responsible, whether that be internal, third-party or RPO; for delivering top performers. And that value is now measurable for many critical positions. The results are precedent setting. Elite recruiters provide equal bottom-line revenue value as that of top sales reps. Many of us in the recruiting industry have known this for years, but until now, the data has not existed to validate this point.

John and Master, please don’t take offense at the “Batman and Robin” reference, but in my Cajun world, I would prefer to be Batman saving the world than Michael Jordan winning and NBA championship. Then again, being Michael Jordan wouldn’t be bad gig!

Thanks so much for forwarding the industry -
-Dan Hilbert

I have benefited greatly in my career from reading much of your material for years – thank you.

But, I must take exeption to this comment:

“The decision-making seems almost whimsical, with the final option selection process akin to throwing darts.”

Your article is written, I believe, with an intended audience of corporate HR professionals.

Of course, layoffs have been a huge topic in the internet, HR boards, etc.

I take offense at “whimsical” and “throwing darts.” We are professionals who take these situtions very seriously, and in fact agonize over them. We do our homework, choose among the best alternatives, and execute the plan while paying very close attention to the “human” side of things.

Otherwise, I enjoyed your article.