Explanation:

“HR is being told, ‘OK, we’ve given you hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on an HR information technology system, to outsource, to set up shared services centers. So what does the business get out of it? Are we getting better employees, who perform at a higher level, who deliver more for the business?’ ” says Neil McEwen, who leads the U.S. people and organizational change practice at the Arlington, Va., office of London-based PA Consulting.

Mostly, HR can point only to old efficiency measures pulled from silo applicant tracking systems (ATSs), typically around cost-of-hire, time-to-hire and employee retention rates. But while the emphasis on end-result metrics around human capital are relatively new and underutilized by many organizations, the widespread use and capabilities of ATSs means that companies have at least some of the data necessary to produce smarter quality-of-hire metrics.