Measuring what matters vs. what’s easy

Your AI keeps optimizing faster time-to-hire. Meanwhile, your 90-day retention just dropped 15%.

The AI hit the metric you gave it, but your actual problem got worse. Here’s the disconnect: We measure what’s easy (time-to-fill, application volume, cost-per-hire) instead of what matters (do our new hires succeed?, do they stay?, do they make us better?).

AI optimizes for whatever you tell it to. It can’t question whether those metrics matter.

The pattern I keep seeing: Organizations celebrate hitting speed targets while quietly watching quality decline. Here’s what actually works:

• AI handles processing volume, finding obvious matches, maintaining consistency.

• Humans handle judgment calls: Does this person ask good questions? Would their background challenge our blind spots? Do they show good judgment?

The metrics that matter can’t be automated. They require judgment calls about context, culture, and long-term value.

Your AI will always give you what you measure. Make sure you’re measuring what actually matters.