Hiring metrics are busted

+C-suite melting and Salesforce AI fluency playbook

Author

Keith Weightman
January 20, 2026

In partnership with

Coming to you a day late, because I know you nerds weren’t going to read this on your day off.

Signal Summary: Companies are staring at hiring metrics that can't predict success. Meanwhile, 40% of executives are quietly plotting their exit, and Salesforce cracked the code on making 85% of their workforce fluent in AI instead of just terrified of it. Plus, the new hire who ghosted everyone and stole the company car.

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P.S. I hand-draw all cartoons with an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, and Procreate.

HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK ↓

SIGNAL 1
The hiring metrics industrial complex is broken

Breaking: 6,640 companies just admitted their hiring data might be complete BS.

The damage:

  • Applicant volume surged 24% to 258 per job

  • Time to fill improved from 67 to 63 days (congrats, you're still slower than dial-up internet)

  • Four metrics are critically broken: qualified applicant rates, time to screen, screen-to-interview rates, and offer acceptance rates

The disconnect: Most HR teams are trying to fix everything at once, which is like trying to plug every leak on the Titanic instead of just, you know, finding the biggest hole first.

Signal → Strategy: Position your staffing firm as the "hiring metrics translator" for companies drowning in useless data. Package diagnostic audits that identify which ONE metric is actually killing their hiring funnel, then offer contract staffing solutions to plug the gap while they fix it.

SIGNAL 2
C-suite executives are quietly job hunting on company time

The exodus: 40% of senior executives considered quitting in the past year. Half of them thought about it "very often."

What's driving the exit plan:

  • Work-life balance is now the #1 reason to leave (compensation finally got dethroned)

  • Burnout from managing with fewer resources and carrying emotional weight of layoffs

  • "Always-on environment" where mobile tech erased any boundary between work and actual life

Translation: Your C-suite is managing layoffs, doing more with less, fielding 5am calls and midnight emails, and they're absolutely done with it. One-third are actively applying for new roles right now.

Signal → Strategy: Target burned-out executives with "fractional leadership" contract placements. Market interim C-suite roles as the antidote to always-on corporate culture. Same impact, better boundaries, premium rates, no midnight Slack messages.

SIGNAL 3
Salesforce turned 85% of employees into AI believers

The achievement: 85% of Salesforce's 70,000 employees now report feeling confident using AI. That's a 16% year-over-year jump.

How they actually did it:

  • Treated AI fluency as organizational change management, not a tech project

  • Measured three dimensions: engagement (confidence), activation (daily usage habits), expertise (skill orchestration)

  • Managers who model AI use have teams 22 percentage points more engaged

Critical insight: "Technology alone is not a strategy." The differentiator isn't the tool, it's governance, workflow integration, and teaching critical thinking before digital delegation.

Signal → Strategy: Call HR tech vendors struggling with AI adoption and position yourself as their "AI fluency staffing partner." Provide contract consultants who specialize in organizational change management for AI rollouts, because most companies are buying the software but have zero clue how to make employees actually use it.

RECRUITING CONFESSIONAL
When breathalyzers don't lie (but contractors do)

Recruiting Confessional A weekly series featuring anonymous stories from recruiting and staffing professionals. Submit yours here.

The Setup: Company hired a new sales rep. Everything seemed normal at first.

The Disaster: Sales rep ghosts everyone. Complete radio silence. Then they discover the company car is missing too.

The Aftermath: Eventually found the car three states away. Plot twist: All the seatbelts had been cut out. Never heard from the rep again. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Have a story? Submit it here

Hiring in 8 countries shouldn't require 8 different processes

This guide from Deel breaks down how to build one global hiring system. You’ll learn about assessment frameworks that scale, how to do headcount planning across regions, and even intake processes that work everywhere. As HR pros know, hiring in one country is hard enough. So let this free global hiring guide give you the tools you need to avoid global hiring headaches.

SHARE THE SIGNALS
3 people you should share these signals with:

  1. Your HR director who keeps complaining about "bad candidates" when the real problem is broken metrics

  2. That executive recruiter friend who's probably fielding more C-suite escape plans than they're admitting

  3. Your colleague who thinks rolling out AI just means buying expensive software and hoping for the best