Recruiter’s Guide to Recruitment Metrics, Analysis & Tracking Hiring Efforts

Recruiting in a tech-savvy employment market keeps employers on their toes. Here data is essential for making effective talent acquisition decisions. Aptitude Research reports that 82% of companies agree to data-driven hiring, however, only half of them actually measure their recruitment metrics^[1]. Considering that HR costs typically make up 28% of a company’s total operating expenses on average^[2], failure to setting and adhering recruitment KPIs can compound to business-threatening concerns. And it’s not just the right allocation of hiring resources, but also the quality of hire that matters. The United States Department of Labor estimates that a bad hire can cost a business 30% of the employee’s first-year earnings^[3]!

So, it’s no debate that knowing how to identify, measure, and optimize the right recruitment metrics is critical. And you’ve landed on the right guide of recruitment metrics to learn how. In the coming sections, we’ll define recruitment or hiring metrics, KPIs, and explain the various aspects of it with recruiting metrics examples. We’ll also help you identify which metric of hiring you need to track to meet your hiring goals.

What are recruitment metrics?

Recruitment metrics are data-driven hiring measurements used to assess the effectiveness of an organization’s hiring efforts. From sourcing candidates to onboarding new hires, these metrics can help HR teams identify areas of improvement and make informed decisions.

What are recruitment KPIs?

Recruitment KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are specific metrics used to track the progress and success of recruitment efforts. These KPIs can include metrics like time-to-hire, cost-per-hire, and applicant-to-hire ratio.

It’s important to understand at this point that recruitment metrics and recruitment KPIs are two different things. Think of recruitment metrics as the speedometer, fuel gauge, and odometer of the recruitment process, while a recruitment KPI is like the GPS of the recruitment process – providing specific direction and guidance toward achieving organizational goals.

Identifying recruiting metrics to track

Out of the dozens of recruitment metrics out there (that we’ll see later), it’s crucial to identify certain ones to track for the right allocation of resources. Simply because, like most companies, you might have limited hiring resources and are under pressure to deliver quality hires quickly.

When identifying recruiting metrics to track, you should consider the following factors:

Business goals

What are the organization’s overall business goals, and how do they relate to recruitment? Identifying the desired outcomes of recruitment efforts can help guide the selection of appropriate metrics.

Recruitment process

What steps are involved in the recruitment process, and how can each step be measured? Understanding the recruitment process can help identify specific metrics to track.

Resource allocation

What resources are being allocated toward recruitment efforts, and how can they be optimized? Metrics can help assess the efficiency of recruitment efforts and identify areas for improvement.

Timeframe

What is the timeframe for achieving recruitment goals, and how can progress be tracked over time? Related metrics like time to hire should be tracked regularly to assess progress toward achieving goals.

Industry benchmarks

What are the typical recruitment metrics benchmarks, and how does the organization compare? Analyzing industry benchmarks can provide context for assessing the effectiveness of recruitment efforts.

Now, before laying out all the metrics to choose from, we want you to know that recruiters always face the dilemma of prioritizing the order of cost, speed, and quality of hire. And it’s perfectly fine. The idea is to get started and eventually master the optimization of whatever hiring metrics you choose and then build from there.

Recruitment metrics based on Cost

A business is a monetary-centric venture. ROI of all efforts is counted and accounted for. So, it makes sense that primarily hiring efforts be assessed by cost-based recruitment metrics.

Cost per hire

It measures the total cost of filling a position, including advertising, sourcing, and administrative expenses, divided by the number of hires. Cost-per-hire provides insight into the efficiency of recruitment efforts and helps identify cost-saving opportunities.

Example: If a company spends $10,000 on recruitment efforts and hires 5 employees, the cost per hire would be $2,000.

Average cost of hire: $4,700

Applications per channel

This is the measurement of the number of applications received from each recruitment channel, such as job boards, social media, or employee referrals. This metric helps organizations evaluate the effectiveness of each recruitment channel and adjust their strategies accordingly.

Example: If a company receives 100 applications from a job board and 20 applications from social media, they may consider investing more in the job board channel.

Average applications per channel: 100-200 per month

Talent pool growth

It refers to tracking the number of qualified candidates in a company’s talent pool over time. This metric provides insight into the success of recruitment efforts in building and maintaining a strong talent pipeline.

Example: If a company has 100 candidates in their talent pool at the beginning of the year and adds 50 more throughout the year, their talent pool growth rate would be 50%.

Average talent pool growth: 10-20% per year

Social metrics

Pertaining specifically to social media hiring, it is the idea of tracking the effectiveness of social media recruitment efforts, such as likes, shares, and comments on job postings. These metrics provide insight into the reach and engagement of recruitment efforts on social media platforms.

Example: If a company’s job posting receives 1,000 likes and 100 shares on LinkedIn, this indicates high levels of engagement and potential reach.

Average social metrics: 1,000-2,000 engagements per month

Advertisement performance

Job ad performance measures the effectiveness of paid job posts, such as the number of views, clicks, and conversions. This metric helps organizations evaluate the success of their advertising strategies and make data-driven decisions to optimize their job postings.

Example: If a company’s job posting receives 1,000 views and 100 clicks, this indicates that the ad is reaching its target audience, but may need improvements to increase conversion rates.

Average advertisement performance: 1-2% click-through rate

Recruitment metrics based on Speed

Another critical ground of recruitment metrics is time. Recruiters often complain about not having enough time as there always seem to have an urgent vacancy from hiring managers. In contrast, if the time to hire is rather long, it reflects poorly on candidate engagement. So, to strike a balance of evaluating a candidate properly and doing so at convenient speed, you need to keep an eye on the following hiring metric.

Time to hire

As the name suggests, it is the time taken to fill a job opening from the moment the job is posted until the candidate accepts the job offer. This metric helps organizations identify bottlenecks in the recruitment process and optimize it for efficiency.

Example: If a job opening is posted on a Monday and a candidate accepts the job offer on Friday of the same week, the time to hire would be five days.

Average time to hire: 21-28 days

Time to approve

Time to approve measures the time it takes for the hiring team to approve a job opening and start the recruitment process. This metric is important for optimizing the recruitment process and ensuring that job openings are filled quickly.

Example: If a hiring manager approves a job opening on Monday and the job is posted on Wednesday, the time to approve would be two days.

Average time to approve: 1-2 days

Time to inform

Timely movement of information plays a critical role in hiring. The metric of time to inform measures the time it takes for the hiring team to inform unsuccessful candidates about their application status. This metric is important for maintaining a positive employer branding.

Example: If a candidate applies for a job and is informed about their application status within two days, the time to inform would be two days.

Average time to inform: 1-2 days

Time to accept

Interestingly not meant for recruiters but candidate: Time to accept is the time taken for a candidate to accept a job offer from the moment the offer is extended. This metric provides insight into the effectiveness of the company’s job offer and the candidate experience.

Example: If a job offer is extended to a candidate on Monday and the candidate accepts on Tuesday, the time to accept would be one day.

Average time to accept: 7-10 days

Time to start

This recruitment metric measures the time it takes for a new employee to start working after accepting a job offer. This metric helps organizations identify potential delays in the onboarding process and optimize it for efficiency.

Example: If a new employee accepts a job offer on Monday and starts working on Wednesday of the following week, the time to start would be nine days.

Average time to start: 2-3 weeks

Recruitment metrics based on Quality

This one is tricky. Quality-based recruitment metrics are measures that assess the effectiveness and success of the recruitment process by evaluating the quality of the candidates hired. As more often than not, it’s the case of remote hiring (even if work from office set up is in place), it becomes difficult to evaluate the candidate on professional and personal grounds. Failing to do so, the recruitment process can become inefficient where recruiters spend more time sourcing candidates than engaging and interviewing.

So, watch out for the following quality recruitment metrics to save your recruitment team valuable time spent in the hiring process.

Source of hire

While hiring, you plausible depend on multiple sources for sourcing. This metric measures the channels through which candidates are sourced, such as job boards, social media, or employee referrals. By analyzing the source of hire, organizations can identify the most effective recruitment channels and allocate resources accordingly.

Example: An organization may find that employee referrals are their most successful recruitment channel, leading them to invest more in employee referral programs.

Average source of hire: Internal referrals (30%), employee referrals (20%), online job boards (20%), social media (10%), networking (10%), other (10%)

Applications per job

This metric measures the number of applications received per job posting. This metric helps organizations assess the effectiveness of their job postings and make necessary adjustments to make in writing job description, post timing, hashtags, etc. to attract more candidates.

Example: If an organization received 500 applications for a job posting, they may want to adjust the job requirements to narrow down the pool of candidates to more qualified individuals.

Average applications per job: 100-200

Contact rate

A metric for candidate engagement, the contact rate measures the percentage of candidates who are successfully contacted during the recruitment process. A low contact rate may indicate that the organization is not effectively reaching out to potential candidates or that there are inefficiencies in the process.

Example: If an organization attempts to contact 100 candidates and only reaches 50, the contact rate would be 50%.

Average contact rate: 50-70%

Candidate experience

This recruitment metric accounts for the overall experience of candidates during the recruitment process. By assessing the candidate experience, organizations can identify areas for improvement and provide a positive experience for candidates, even those who may not ultimately be hired.

Example: An organization may send a survey to candidates after the recruitment process to gather feedback on their experience and make necessary improvements.

Average positive candidate experience rate: 70-80%

Candidates per hire

Candidate per hire measures the number of candidates who are considered for each hire. Contrary to what one may assume, a high candidates per hire ratio may indicate that the recruitment process is not effectively identifying the best candidates or that there are inefficiencies in the process.

Example: If an organization interviewed 20 candidates before making a hire, the candidates per hire ratio would be 20.

Average candidates per hire: 5-10

Offer to acceptance

This one, too, is more in the hands of the candidate than the recruiter. It measures the percentage of job offers that are accepted by candidates. A low offer to acceptance rate may indicate that the organization is not offering competitive compensation or benefits packages.

Example: If an organization made 10 job offers and only 5 were accepted, the offer to acceptance rate would be 50%.

Average offer to acceptance: 7-10 days

Submission to acceptance rate

This metric measures the ratio of candidates who are submitted to the hiring manager and are ultimately accepted for the position. A high submission to acceptance rate is an indicator that the recruitment process is effectively identifying and attracting qualified candidates who fit the job requirements.

Example: If an organization received 100 resumes and 10 of those candidates were hired, the submission to acceptance rate would be 10%.

Average submission to acceptance rate: 10-20%

Application completion

The application completion metric measures the percentage of candidates who complete the entire application process. A low application completion rate may indicate that the application process is too lengthy or cumbersome, leading candidates to drop out before submitting their application.

Example: If 100 candidates begin the application process and only 50 complete it, the application completion rate would be 50%.

Average application completion rate: 70-80%

Hires per channel

Related to the source of hire, the hire per channel metric measures the number of hires made through each recruitment channel. By tracking hires per channel, organizations can determine which channels are most effective at attracting qualified candidates.

Example: If an organization made 10 hires through job boards and 5 through social media, the hires per channel ratio would be 2:1 in favor of job boards.

Average hires per channel: 1-2 per month

Retention

Retention has more to do with post-hiring than pre-hiring. This metric measures the percentage of new hires who remain with the organization for a certain period of time. A high retention rate indicates that the organization is hiring the right candidates who are likely to succeed in their roles and fit into the company culture.

Example: If an organization has a retention rate of 90%, it means that 9 out of 10 new hires stayed with the company for a specified period of time.

Average retention rate: 80-90%

Key recruiting metrics benchmarks

So, far you have the list of all key recruitment metrics, a guideline to pick the right ones for you, and understanding of what to metric movement to expect in general. But these numbers can only be insightful when compared against something, right? Because only then one can say if a number is low or high and something needs to be fixed. That’s the essence of recruiting metrics benchmarking.

Below, we have collated recruiting benchmarks for key hiring metrics covering the journey from job post to hire for various industries^[4]. While these may not be accurate and apply to all, but it should reflect a reliable trend. By comparing your company’s hiring data with these hiring benchmarks, you can identify areas that require improvement and those that are performing well.

View-to-applicant ratio

In 2022, many new job opportunities were available for applicants to choose from. However, the conversion rate from viewing a job posting to submitting an application was only 3% across all industries. This suggests that although job seekers had more options, they were not necessarily applying to more jobs.

That said, with the unprecedented tech layoff of early 2023, the needle on view-to-applicant ratio is likely to increase.

Applicant-to-interview ratio

In the previous year, the ratio of applicants to interviews was 3%. This indicates that out of every 100 applicants for a job posting, only 3 were selected to interview for the position. This is not an ideal ratio for employers and may suggest that there are unqualified candidates or issues with interview ghosting affecting the hiring process.

Interview-to-hire ratio

The ratio of candidates interviewed to those hired was 48%, in 2022. It indicates that almost half of the interviewed candidates were successful in getting the job. It’s worth noting that only 3% of all applicants were called for an interview, which means that employers are more efficient in the latter stages of the hiring process.

Conclusion

With so many data-points out there, tracking recruitment metrics can be overwhelming. If you’re just starting out, focus on metrics that you can consistently measure and potentially influence. For those experienced in data collection for hiring, maintaining consistency is crucial.

Incorporating more qualitative assessments into your metric analysis can enhance your reporting and yield better results.

A convenient way to track recruitment metrics of your need is to have it exported from your recruiting tool itself. AI recruiting tools like Arya by Leoforce are even smart enough to suggest actions for optimization at various recruitment stages. To see it help raise the hiring ROI, request a demo today!

FAQs

What is recruiting metric definition?

Recruiting metric is defined as the various measurements used to evaluate the success of recruitment efforts.

What metrics are important for recruitment?

Metrics such as time to fill, cost per hire, and quality of hire are critical for recruitment.

What is an example of a strategic recruiting metric?

An example of a strategic recruiting metric can be diversity of the candidate pool.

What is the recruitment Matrix?

The recruitment matrix is a tool used to analyze recruitment data and identify areas for improvement.

What is KPI in terms of recruitment?

KPI, or key performance indicator, in recruitment refers to the recruitment metrics used to measure the effectiveness of overall hiring efforts.

What is KPI for HR performance?

KPIs for HR performance may include employee turnover rate, employee engagement, and training and development.

What is the most underutilized metric in recruiting?

One of the most underutilized metrics in recruiting is the candidate experience.

What is the formula for recruitment rate?

The formula for recruitment rate is: (Total Hires / Total Applicants) x 100.

What is recruitment benchmark?

Recruitment benchmarks are industry-specific standards for measuring recruitment performance.

What is a good recruiting ratio?

A good recruiting ratio depends on the organization’s goals and industry standards. Generally, a ratio of 1:3 or better is considered desirable.

Resources

[1] https://www.aptituderesearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Apt_FoundationOfTA_Report-1120_FINAL.pdf

[2] www.sumc.lt/index.php/se/article/view/1675

[3] https://www.business.com/articles/cost-of-a-bad-hire/

[4] https://www.careerplug.com/blog/recruiting-metrics-and-kpis/#applicant-to-interview-ratio