Creating and implementing hiring strategies may help in attracting employees, but you need recruiting metrics to determine whether those initiatives are effective. We handpicked 19 recruiting metrics for data-driven hiring and effective reporting.
What Are Recruiting Metrics
Recruiting metrics are measurements used to evaluate and track the efficiency of a business or HR team’s hiring process. They can help you understand which parts of the process are working or require improvements and if you’re recruiting the right people for your organization. The insights you get from recruitment metrics also allow you to enhance the candidate experience and uncover the best applicant sources.
You can measure many aspects of the recruitment process. Identifying which ones to use depends on your company’s hiring and business objectives. However, combining different metrics from the below categories will enable you to optimize processes and understand return of investment (ROI) rates for hiring activities.
Candidate Pipeline Metrics
1. Time to Fill
This is one of the best recruiting metrics that provide a holistic view of how long it takes to open and close a vacant position. Time to fill measures the number of calendar days between creating a job opening to a qualified candidate accepting the job offer.
Formula: Date the candidate accepted the offer – Date the job opening was created = Time to fill
Example: August 27, 2024 – July 15, 2024 = 44 calendar days
With this metric, you can identify how quick and efficient your hiring team is in moving candidates through the various stages of the recruitment pipeline. It can also reveal factors that hinder pipeline movements. Knowing what and where these bottlenecks are will help you come up with workable solutions to address the issues.
Note that the above formula is the most common way of tracking time to hire. Depending on hiring objectives, some companies measure time to fill as the number of days between when a job opening is posted and when a new hire starts as a way to track how long it took before someone started in the position.
2. Time to Hire
If the measurement for time to fill starts at the creation of a job opening, time to hire looks at the number of calendar days from when a candidate applies for the job until they accept an offer.
Formula: Date candidate accepted the offer – Date the candidate entered the hiring pipeline = Time to hire
Example: August 27, 2024 – August 1, 2024 = 27 calendar days
While it also tracks how fast an open role gets filled, this is more candidate-centric. If you have a shorter time-to-hire rate, you are more likely to hire qualified applicants before competitor companies get a chance to extend a job offer.
However, if the time to hire is long, it might result in applicants deciding to give up their applications. Data from the 2023 Candidate Experience Report supports this, wherein respondents ranked the long recruitment process as their second reason for withdrawing their applications, with being disrespected as the top reason.
3. Time in Process
This is one of the key metrics for recruiters to gauge how long a candidate stays in a hiring stage or process step. The steps or stages can vary depending on your recruitment pipeline. To better track candidate movement through the pipeline, create separate metrics for each stage.
Formula: Date candidate entered the hiring manager interview stage – Date candidate moved to the next stage = Time in process
Example: August 14, 2024 – August 9, 2024 = 6 calendar days
This is also a good metric to use if you want to see where hiring bottlenecks are. Let’s say, you received a sufficient number of applications. However, this metric uncovered that applicants are moving slowly from resume screening to the next stage. You should check if your recruiter needs assistance reviewing resumes.
Consider getting another employee to help or invest in an applicant tracking or recruiting system with screening questions and artificial intelligence (AI) tools that automatically remove candidates who don’t meet your basic requirements.
If you don’t want to manually compute this, consider Zoho Recruit, one of the five best applicant tracking software solutions. Its analytics tools measure time spent in each hiring stage and even show year-over-year changes.
Sourcing Method Metrics
4. Source of Application
This is one of the most common recruiting metrics to help you discover and track your application sources. Candidate applications can come from various recruitment channels, such as employee referrals, job postings, job fairs, your company’s careers page, or social recruiting activities from LinkedIn. Knowing where most of your applications are coming from allows you to focus hiring initiatives in those channels.
Formula: Count the number of applications for each sourcing channel
Example: 100 applications from online job boards
However, don’t just rely on the numbers. Before deciding which channel to prioritize, check the quality of applications you get from that source to ensure that your hiring strategies yield a better ROI.
For example, you discover that many of your qualified applications came from your careers page. You may want to invest more resources in keeping your careers page updated or even upgrading it to improve user experience, boost employer brand, and attract more applicants.
5. Source of Hire
While source of application measures the total number of applications, this metric helps you determine where successful candidates, or those who were hired, found your job posting and applied to it. Tracking this is similar to measuring the source of application—you simply take note of the total number of successful candidates from each recruiting channel.
You can also compute the source of hire as a percentage. This is useful for identifying the yield rate of each source.
Formula: (Number of hires from a source ÷ Total number of hires) × 100= Percentage of hires from a source
Example: (12 ÷ 50) × 100 = 24% of hires came from job boards
If you need hiring metrics that show which channels are great to find specific roles, source of hire can help with that. You can check the profiles of successful hires and analyze which sourcing method yields the best pool of candidates.
Let’s say, you’re looking to find employees to fill a senior management position. If your source of hire percentage for similar roles suggests that LinkedIn is the ideal channel, then post a job on LinkedIn to attract qualified candidates.
Candidate Application Metrics
6. Candidates per Job Opening
This is one of the important recruiting metrics to track because it allows you to measure how many candidates are applying to each of your open roles. Having a high number here denotes that there’s a big pool of candidates for the open role.
It also suggests that your job post is popular among job seekers, which can be attributed to several factors, such as your positive company culture, strong employer brand, and a competitive employee compensation package.
Formula: Count the number of candidates for each job opening
Example: 30 candidates for a payroll accountant role
However, a low candidates-per-job-opening rate could mean that there’s a limited supply of workers for the role. This can be due to many factors, such as the role being too niche, the job description being too vague or too narrow, or the sourcing channel not being the right one.
In this situation, it’s best to take a step back, take a look at your job description or requirements, and review your hiring strategies for the role. There may also be changes affecting the labor market, so it’s best to look at the latest trends and recruiting statistics.
7. Application Completion Rate
If you want to know how efficient and user-friendly your hiring process or job application system is, use this metric. This measures the percentage of candidates who complete the application process.
Formula: (Number of candidates who completed applications ÷ Total number of candidates who started applications) × 100= Application completion rate
Example: (17 ÷ 45) × 100 = 37.78% application completion rate
Having high numbers here indicates that you have a streamlined application process. However, if you have a lengthy and complex process, this can negatively impact application completion rates.
Let’s say, you require candidates to answer screening questions with online applications. You should limit the number of questions and only include those that will help you determine if applicants will move to the next step. If candidates are asked to answer a long list of questions so early in the hiring process, they might decide to drop or discontinue their application.
8. Offer Acceptance Rate
This metric shows the percentage of candidates who accepted your job offer. Measuring this is straightforward. You can track overall offer acceptance rates for all of your open roles or monitor this on a per-position basis, which will help you see whether there are specific jobs you need to focus on.
Formula: (Number of offers accepted ÷ Total number of offers) × 100= Offer acceptance rate
Example: (5 ÷ 15) × 100 = 33.33% offer acceptance rate
You should always aim for a high number here, but if you get low offer acceptance rates, check why your candidates declined. If the common reason is salary, take a look at your compensation package and use one of the best salary comparison tools to conduct a salary survey and determine competitiveness. You may be offering a salary lower than market rates or what your competitors are offering.
Recruiter Performance Metrics
9. Fill Rate
Unlike time to fill, which measures the time it takes to close open roles, fill rate allows you to determine how many positions have been filled compared to the total number of open jobs.
Formula: (Number of jobs filled ÷ Total number of job openings) × 100= Fill rate
Example: (7 ÷ 25) × 100 = 28% fill rate
This metric is useful for measuring the efficiency of your hiring team or a third-party recruiter if you’re using a recruiting agency to handle your hiring needs. You can track how many positions each recruiter closed, depending on the number of open roles assigned to them. You can even add tracking timelines, such as monthly, quarterly, or yearly.
10. Interview-to-Offer Ratio
The interview-to-offer ratio is one of the recruiting metrics to track if you want to understand how many interviews it takes to find candidates that you extend a job offer to or hire. The ideal ratio varies by industry, labor market conditions, and role. A niche, highly technical, or senior position may need more interviews to find candidates who best fit the role’s required skills.
Formula: Total number of interviews ÷ Total number of offers made= Interview to offer ratio
Example: 100 ÷ 10 = 10
This gives you a ratio of 10:1 or 10 interviews for one candidate offer.
You can use the interview-to-offer ratio to determine a recruiter’s efficiency in finding and screening applicants. A lower number here denotes that your screening processes are effective as they require fewer interviews to find a candidate to hire. A higher number suggests the position is difficult to fill as there may be a low talent supply in the market or the job is a niche role.
A high ratio could also mean that there may be inefficiencies in your hiring process. You can address this by using applicant screening questions, looking at the sourcing methods, and reviewing the position’s job description—it may be too vague so your recruiters can’t filter out unqualified candidates.
11. Hiring Manager Satisfaction
Feedback from the hiring manager is essential to understand if your recruiting strategies and processes are effective. This allows you to gather data and qualitative comments on what works well and what doesn’t, enabling you to enhance current procedures or initiatives.
You can do this by having the hiring managers complete a survey. Or you can schedule a one-on-one feedback session to collect the data yourself by asking hiring managers how satisfied they are with the quality of hire, the recruiting process, and the sourcing methods used.
Recruiting Costs & ROI Metrics
12. Cost per Hire
For this metric, look at the total costs of your recruiting strategies for the position you closed or the candidate hired. This includes internal costs, such as office rental fees and the labor costs of your hiring team to source and interview candidates.
You should also factor in all external costs you spent posting job ads, running recruitment fairs, and using software and services like applicant tracking and background check tools.
Formula: (Total internal recruiting costs + Total external recruiting costs) ÷ Total number of hires= Cost per hire
Example: ($2,700 + $2,000) ÷ 3 = $1,566.67
This means you’re spending over $1,500 before a new hire starts working for your company.
You can also measure this by specific timelines, such as month, quarter, or year. However, it’s easier to do it annually. Note that there’s no ideal rate for this metric—it varies depending on the labor market, industry, and position.
13. Sourcing Channel Cost
Assessing the costs of your sourcing channels allows you to determine the best platforms for your open roles or specific positions during a specific timeline (e.g., monthly, quarterly, or annually).
Formula: Amount spent on the sourcing channel ÷ Number of hires for that channel= Sourcing channel cost
Example: $1,000 ÷ 10 = $100 sourcing channel cost
Let’s say, you post your job ads on LinkedIn for three months and many of your successful hires during the same timeframe come from that platform. This suggests that you get more value for money when you use LinkedIn to find qualified candidates to hire.
On the flip side, if you spend too much on a sourcing channel, such as online job boards, and only get one or two hires, that channel may not be the right platform for the position or your open jobs. However, if job boards offer free postings, take advantage of it. Some of the best free job posting sites, like Indeed and GigSmart, are great places to get more for less.
14. Sourcing Channel Effectiveness
If the source of hire metric measures how many candidates get hired in a specific channel, sourcing channel effectiveness tracks the quality of candidates you get from sourcing platforms. This metric enables you to determine which platforms are effective in attracting qualified candidates.
Formula: (Number of qualified candidates from a source ÷ Total number of candidates from that source) × 100= Sourcing channel effectiveness
Example: (6 ÷ 27) × 100 = 22.22% sourcing channel effectiveness
A low number here suggests that the sourcing channel may yield a lot of applications but only a handful convert into qualified candidates. You may want to divert your hiring focus to other platforms with high sourcing channel effectiveness rates.
New Hire Metrics
15. Quality of Hire
For hiring managers, this is one of the best recruiting metrics to track. The candidate’s skills, work ethic, and knowledge will directly impact their department’s daily operations, including that of the business. Generally, the way to measure quality of hire is to look at the candidate or new employee’s first-year performance rating or probation review if the worker is subject to it. A high rating suggests a good hire, while a low rating denotes a bad hire.
However, in evaluating quality of hire, you should also consider other factors, such as team collaboration skills and job/culture fit. If the candidate or new hire is unable to fit in or doesn’t work well with others, it could impact your worker engagement levels and attrition rates. So be sure to get feedback from team members and check how well the candidate is adjusting to the new work environment.
16. Time-to-Productivity Rate
This metric tracks the time it takes for the candidate or new hire to become productive at work. To measure this, look at the number of weeks or calendar days from when the employee first reports for work until the date the employee fully contributes to the business and can manage the day-to-day workload.
Formula: Date employee became productive at work – Candidate’s hire date = Time-to-productivity rate
Example: Sep. 16, 2024 – March 5, 2024 = 28 weeks or 196 calendar days
Measuring a new hire’s time-to-productivity rate shows the effectiveness of your onboarding program. It’s a good indication of whether or not the employee is the best fit for the role and your organization. It also allows you to spot areas in your onboarding process that need to be improved, as well as identify potential attrition risks if new hires feel that they lack support to become successful in their new roles.
17. First-year Attrition
Knowing how many new hires stay beyond their first year at the company will help you understand whether or not your recruiting process is selecting the right individuals for your open roles. Low first-year attrition rates suggest that your sourcing and screening strategies are effective. However, if you have high numbers, there might be a mismatch between what the organization or position needs and the employee’s expectations of the job or work environment.
Formula: (Total number of new hires who leave within their first year ÷ Total number of new hires with similar tenures) × 100= First-year attrition
Example: (2 ÷ 16) × 100 = 12.5% first-year attrition
To prevent high attrition or turnover rates among new hires, ensure that members of the hiring team are transparent during the hiring process about what the job entails and if there are major projects that the candidates are expected to handle if they are hired.
Having a careers page with a section showcasing your organization’s workplace culture will provide job seekers with an idea of what to expect if they work at your company. Creating a strong onboarding program with the required training sessions and new hire support will also help reduce first-year attrition rates.
Candidate Experience Metrics
18. Candidate Job Satisfaction
Candidate job satisfaction measures how well your company presents the open role during the hiring process. This includes whether the position’s responsibilities and the company’s core values are reflected well in job postings. It also helps you evaluate if the recruiter and/or hiring manager clearly explains the job’s requirements.
You can get this by requesting qualitative feedback from candidates or using an anonymous survey that prompts applicants to respond to statements with strongly disagree to strongly agree with answer options. If you use an applicant tracking system, check if it integrates with survey tools or if it offers one—this will streamline the survey distribution and collection processes.
Some of the best HR software, such as Rippling, also have similar features. With Rippling, you can create workflows that automatically send candidate surveys based on location, job roles, and departments.
19. Candidate Net Promoter Score
Measuring the hiring manager’s satisfaction levels is important, but it’s also vital to assess whether applicants who applied to your open roles had a good recruitment experience. To track this, use a candidate net promoter score survey. This survey asks just one question, allowing you to evaluate how candidates perceive your hiring process and the likelihood that they will recommend you to others.
Here’s a sample question:
- Based on your experience as a candidate, how likely are you to recommend applying to our company to your friends and colleagues?
Respondents choose an answer between 0 to 10 with 0 as “not at all likely” and 10 as “extremely likely.”
A high candidate net promoter score indicates that you have an efficient and streamlined application process. However, a low score denotes that some steps may be too complicated or you’re not meeting candidate expectations.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Around Recruiting Metrics
What is the importance of tracking recruiting metrics?
Tracking recruiting metrics enables you to get insights into the effectiveness of your recruiting processes, the quality of hire, and the efficiency of your hiring teams. Knowing these will help you understand what works and come up with actionable solutions to address problem areas.
How to evaluate recruiting performance?
There are many ways to measure recruiting performance, some of which are listed in this guide, such as time to hire, cost of hire, fill rate, source of hire, application completion rate, hiring manager satisfaction, and sourcing channel effectiveness.
What are the most common sourcing metrics?
The most common sourcing metrics include time to fill, time to hire, offer acceptance rate, cost of hire, sourcing channel cost, and quality of hire.
How can you keep track of recruiting metrics?
If you don’t hire often, you can track recruiting metrics manually by using Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. If you hire often, I recommend getting either a recruitment system or applicant tracking software. Both typically offer reporting and analytics tools that measure and track common recruiting metrics. Many of these systems also integrate with popular HRIS and payroll platforms, making it easy to convert applicable candidate data into basic profiles to complete employee onboarding and payroll setups.
