Evidence of differences in applicant pool quality

Despite general assumptions that recruitment is important to organizational success, little empiric evidence exists to confirm that different recruitment approaches lead to meaningful differences in attraction outcomes. This study begins to address this research need by examining the attraction outcomes of firms competing head‐to‐head for recruits for similar positions. Results of an analysis of 391 applicant pools representing 18 different job families suggest that applicant pool quality can vary substantially within and across job families. Utility estimates, based on the hiring of a single employee and using Grade Point Average (GPA) as a measure of applicant quality, produced differences within applicant pools for hiring a single individual valued as high as $15,000. The average difference between the highest and lowest quality applicant pools across 18 job families was $6,394.45 (SD = $3,533.20).