Quality of Hire: Meaning, Formula & Free Calculator [2026]
Updated June 20269 min readFree Calculator Included
Quality of hire (QoH) measures how well a new employee performs, integrates, and contributes after joining — making it the most strategic recruiting metric you can track. LinkedIn finds it the #1 metric recruiters want to measure but find hardest to implement. Here's the formula and how to do it.
Quality of Hire Calculator
Score a single hire using the indicators your company tracks.
Drag each slider to reflect this hire's score (0 = worst, 100 = best):
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Quality of Hire Score
Enter QoH scores for multiple hires to compare (e.g. from a recruiting cohort or by source channel):
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Avg QoH
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Top Score
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Lowest Score
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Hires Scored
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Quality of hire (QoH) is a recruiting metric that measures the value a new employee brings to an organization relative to the investment made in hiring them. Unlike speed or cost metrics that measure recruiting efficiency, quality of hire measures recruiting effectiveness — did the person we hired actually turn out to be a good hire?
LinkedIn's Global Talent Trends report consistently ranks quality of hire as the most important recruiting metric — yet 75% of companies struggle to measure it systematically. The reason is that QoH requires input from performance management, not just recruiting, making it cross-functional by design.
Why it's the most strategic metric: A recruiter who hires slowly and expensively but produces outstanding performers is more valuable than one who fills roles quickly at low cost but creates high attrition. Quality of hire is the only metric that captures actual hiring outcome, not just process efficiency.
Quality of Hire Formula
The most widely used quality of hire formula averages the key post-hire performance indicators:
Quality of Hire Formula
QoH (%) = (Performance Score + Ramp Speed + HM Satisfaction + Retention) ÷ Number of Indicators
Each indicator is scored 0–100. Include only the indicators your company tracks consistently.
LinkedIn's own version uses: Performance review score + Ramp time to full productivity + Retention (is the person still there at 12 months?) — averaged together as percentages out of 100.
There is no single universal formula. What matters is that you define your indicators upfront, collect data consistently, and compare QoH scores across cohorts (hiring manager, recruiter, source channel, time period).
What to Include in Quality of Hire Measurement
Core indicators (include all 3)
Performance score at 90 days or first review: The most direct signal. Use your company's performance rating system (1–5 scale, percentile ranking, or meets/exceeds). Normalize to 0–100 for the formula.
Hiring manager satisfaction at 90 days: A structured 1–10 survey asking: "How satisfied are you with this hire's performance and fit?" Convert to 0–100. HM surveys capture signals that formal performance reviews miss in the first 6 months.
Retention at 12 months: Did the person stay for 12 months? Score as 100 (stayed) or 0 (left voluntarily within 12 months). Involuntary departures due to layoffs should be excluded from this calculation.
Optional indicators (add if your company tracks them)
Ramp speed: Time to full productivity divided by target ramp time. Express as a percentage (faster than expected = 100+).
Cultural fit / values alignment: Peer survey or HM assessment at 60 days.
Technical competency score: Based on first performance review or technical assessment post-hire.
Timing matters: Don't measure QoH too early (under 60 days) or too late (over 18 months). The 90-day to 12-month window captures real performance signal while it's still attributable to the hiring decision rather than subsequent management or team changes.
Quality of Hire Scores: What Do They Mean?
Score Range
Grade
Interpretation
Action
90–100
A — Exceptional
Outstanding hire — performing above role expectations across all dimensions
Understand what sourcing/process produced this hire. Replicate it.
75–89
B — Strong
Good hire — meeting or exceeding expectations in most areas
Note what specific dimensions scored lower. Target development there.
60–74
C — Average
Adequate hire — meets minimum expectations but not differentiated
Identify whether issue is candidate quality, onboarding, or role clarity.
40–59
D — Below bar
Underperforming hire — significant gaps in at least one critical dimension
Performance plan may be warranted. Review hiring process for this role type.
Under 40
F — Mis-hire
Poor fit — likely a bad hire that will create attrition or need to be managed out
Conduct post-mortem on hiring process. What signals were missed?
What is a good quality of hire score?
A QoH score of 75 or above (across all indicators) represents a good hire. Most high-performing recruiting organizations target a cohort average of 70–80 — acknowledging that some hires will underperform despite a rigorous process, while focusing on eliminating the bottom tail (scores under 50).
The more valuable use of QoH scores is comparing across dimensions: recruiter (who produces the highest quality cohorts?), source channel (do employee referrals produce higher QoH than job boards?), and interview type (do structured interviews predict QoH better than unstructured?)
How to Improve Quality of Hire
Use structured, criteria-based interviews. Unstructured interviews predict job performance at a rate barely above chance (0.38 correlation). Structured interviews using a standardized scorecard increase predictive validity to 0.51+. This is the single highest-leverage change most recruiting teams can make.
Align on the success profile before posting the role. QoH starts with a clear definition of what "good" looks like for this specific role, team, and stage. Generic job descriptions produce generic candidate pools. Work-sample-based success profiles produce better interview conversations and better hiring decisions.
Track QoH by recruiter and source channel. Aggregated QoH tells you how your team is doing overall. Segmented QoH tells you which recruiters, sourcing strategies, and assessment approaches actually predict performance. This data drives process improvement.
Close the feedback loop between hiring and performance. Most recruiting teams never learn how their hires actually performed. Set up a recurring 90-day check-in with hiring managers to collect QoH data, and share aggregated results with the recruiting team quarterly.
Weight technical assessment more heavily for technical roles. For engineering roles, domain-specific technical assessments are the strongest predictor of on-the-job performance. Behavioral interviews alone miss the competence signal that correlates with quality of hire in technical roles.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is quality of hire?
Quality of hire is a recruiting metric that measures how well a new employee performs, integrates, and contributes after joining. It's calculated by averaging post-hire indicators like performance score, hiring manager satisfaction, ramp speed, and 12-month retention.
What is the quality of hire formula?
The most common formula: QoH = (Performance Score + Ramp Speed + HM Satisfaction + Retention) ÷ Number of Indicators. Each indicator is scored 0–100. LinkedIn uses performance + ramp + retention averaged together.
How do you measure quality of hire?
Measure quality of hire at 90 days and 12 months using: (1) a structured performance review score, (2) a hiring manager satisfaction survey, (3) ramp speed vs. target, and (4) 12-month retention status. Collect data consistently and segment by recruiter, source, and role type to identify patterns.
What is a good quality of hire score?
A QoH score of 75 or above represents a good hire. High-performing recruiting teams target a cohort average of 70–80. More important than the absolute score is tracking trends over time and comparing across recruiters, source channels, and assessment methods.
Why is quality of hire hard to measure?
Quality of hire requires cross-functional data (recruiting + performance management + HR) that is often siloed, collected inconsistently, or not available until 6–12 months post-hire. Most ATS platforms don't natively track post-hire outcomes, requiring manual data collection or HRIS integration.