RECRUITMENT EXPERIENCE INDEX (REI): A COMPREHENSIVE METRIC FOR EVALUATING IT TALENT ACQUISITION EFFECTIVENESS IN NAGPUR

Authors:

Mahewish Tanzeel Mujeebuddin Khan¹, Prof. Tanvi V. Thakur²

Student, Department of Business Management, SBJITMR, Nagpur¹

Assistant professor, Department of Business Management, SBJITMR, Nagpur²

ABSTRACT

Existing research on IT recruitment effectiveness in India has overwhelmingly privileged operational efficiency metrics, most notably time-to-hire and cost-per-hire, at the expense of candidate-centric quality indicators. This study introduces the Recruitment Experience Index (REI), a novel composite metric that integrates five validated dimensions of the hiring experience: Process Transparency (PT), Communication Quality (CQ), Evaluation Fairness (EF), Technology Integration (TI), and Entry Equity (EE). Using primary survey data collected from 58 respondents across Indian IT organisations and supplemented by an extensive review of ten key empirical studies published between 2010 and 2024, the paper empirically derives REI scores for IT recruitment in India and benchmarks these scores across candidate experience levels (fresh graduates vs. experienced professionals) and organisational size categories. The study finds that India's IT recruitment ecosystem scores a mean REI of 3.08 out of 5.0, with Process Transparency (2.89) and Entry Equity (2.61) as the weakest sub-dimensions. Chi-square analysis confirms a statistically significant association between job description clarity and overall candidate satisfaction (χ² = 12.34, df = 4, p = 0.015). The paper argues that the adoption of the REI framework by Indian IT organisations would enable a paradigm shift from transaction-focused to experience-focused talent acquisition, producing measurable gains in offer acceptance rates, early retention, and employer brand equity. The study contributes an original measurement framework to the Human Resource Management literature and offers actionable recommendations grounded in empirical evidence.

Keywords: Recruitment Experience Index (REI); IT recruitment India; candidate experience; talent acquisition metrics; skill-based hiring; employer branding; fresh graduate equity; NASSCOM; AI in recruitment; human resource management