Post-Hire Recruitment Metrics and Higher Productivity: Mediating Role of Employee Engagement

The study explores the mediating function of higher employee engagement in linking post-hire recruitment metrics to employee productivity from the perspective of human resources (HR) processes. Drawing upon the Resource-Based View (RBV) and Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theories, the study hypothesises that higher employee engagement serves as a crucial mechanism that converts the quality of HR processes into long-term performance outcomes. Data collected from HR personnel across various organizations, including consulting firms and companies of differing sizes, were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis, simple and multiple linear regression, and mediation analysis. The linear regression analysis confirmed a significant relationship between higher employee engagement and productivity. The mediation analysis revealed that higher engagement, situated between post-hire recruitment predictors and productivity, accounts for 41–64% of the total effect. These findings substantiate that higher employee engagement is a vital outcome variable linking post-hire metrics to measurable organizational performance results. From a theoretical perspective, this study advances HR analytics and employee engagement literature by integrating engagement into models of post-hire processes. This study provides a solid foundation for future longitudinal research investigating the relationship between enhanced employee engagement and increased productivity within HR analytics frameworks.