Here’s the thing.
The HR industry doesn’t shut up about Quality of Hire.
The only problem?
It literally means nothing.
I took a presentation on tour this summer about it. And I’m obsessed with setting the record straight and empowering HR to establish a top line metric they deserve.
That’s how I met Cole Napper, me mouthing off in the comments on a post about Quality of Hire. The good news is that he’s got some sound theories about it among other things, like AI and the future of People Analytics! air jump
Cole Napper, Ph.D., is Vice President of Research, Innovation & Talent Insights at Lightcast, a leading labor-market intelligence and people analytics firm, and the author of People Analytics: Using Data-Driven HR and Gen AI as a Business Asset. He’s a globally recognized thought leader in people analytics, workforce planning, talent intelligence, and generative AI in HR, host of the Directionally Correct podcast and newsletter which is also part of the WRKdefined network and a frequent speaker helping organizations turn HR data into strategic business value. If you work in HR and don’t know Cole, well, you should.
This conversation was me publicly testing my questioning of quality of hire with a reputable thought leader, TA metrics, and establishing accountability in modern People Ops organizations. Instead of chasing a single perfect KPI, we talked about why context, company stage, and business ownership matter far more than dashboards ever will.
Cole brought a clear-eyed people analytics lens to where recruiting actually creates value and where we’ve been asking TA to solve problems it doesn’t fully control. And selfishly allowed me to test the waters on some talk tracks that I hope empower other recruiters and TA leaders to show up to exec conversations sharper, calmer, and better grounded in reality.
We also got into his role in the industry (he’s kind of a big deal), what keeps him motivated, and his recent book he published. We also talked about how Cole likes to use data to debunk some of those common viral misconceptions about the market. Loved this part. It’s an important calibration and reminder to think critically, and with data. After talking to Cole, I literally found myself saying in a conversation with someone, “I don’t have the data to have an informed opinion on that, only intuition.” So if that’s not having an impact on people in the industry, and being a leader when it comes to upskilling practitioners, I don’t know what is.
Huge thanks to Cole for the generosity, clarity, and intellectual honesty he brought to this one. Conversations like this are exactly why I enjoy doing the show.
Follow Cole: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colenapper/
Buy His Book: https://www.amazon.com/People-Analytics-Using-data-driven-business/dp/1398622168
Listen to His Podcast on the WRKdefined network: https://wrkdefined.com/podcast/directionally-correct
Special thanks to our sponsor, Grayscale. Grayscale is the AI assistant built for recruiting teams that want to move faster, reduce busywork, and deliver a better candidate experience directly inside the ATS.
Learn more at: https://grayscaleapp.com/
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