We are trying to streamline the number of interviews that we have to do to find qualified candidates. The goal is to make the hiring process more efficient. Right now, we have to pre-screen 200 people to find 4-5 that we will hire. Our hiring process includes a pre-screen, a phone interview, and then one to two onsite interviews with the managers.

Kaliko..

So you're opinion is that a bad hire gets up to speed at the same time as a good hire?

What I am saying is that you cannot relate improvements in the hiring process to time to proficiency. There are too many other variables that determine time to proficiency, none of which relate to the hiring process itself. It's simply a bad metric for that.

And yea, a bad hire (whatever you mean by that) could get up to speed as fast as a good hire, (whatever you mean by that) - even faster. A bad hire - meaning someone who ultimately did not work out - can be a very capable employee, super knowledgeable, highly skilled, etc., but who ended up as a "bad hire" simply because he soon got a better offer from another company and left. It has no relationship to the hiring process itself unless you are thinking of adding a psychic to the hiring team who should have "seen" that he would soon leave for another job.

Also, the time in which this person gets up to speed depends on: how much and what training he gets; whether the training was at the right time and the right level of detail; amount of attention from the manager and co-workers; working environment (for example number of distractions, noise, etc.); availability of equipment and materials to work with; badkground knowledge, skills, etc.; personal issues going on with the person at the time, etc., etc.

As for the large number of applicants and per AA/EEO regulations. Specific, as you can be, qualifications. Then filter out electronically, rate the what is left, then interview by process you described.
Selection of good people , no matter how you define it, determines your organization's future success. Selection is one of the hallmarks of a
effective manager and organization.

Nero

If you don't know the difference between a good hire and a bad hire, you probably haven't done much hiring.

You have a choice of people who come ready to perform on day one or with minimal training or you can choose those who may take weeks, months or years to get up-to-speed.

Since the training is already in place and it's the same for everyone, you can elminate it as a variable to test on how well you meet job requirements for a job.

The are also other mistakes made in the hiring process that will have a direct effect on time to proficiency. For example, if you oversell or over promise during the hiring process, new employees will become discouraged when reality sinks in. All the training goes out the window and these people often quit.

Finally, aptitude which is important part of any competency models can easily be misjudged or missed during the hiring process. Think of all the people who wash out because there was math involved in a job. It's a little like the saying about playing basketball in the NBA.."we can teach you how to shoot a basketball, but we can't teach you to be tall."