Six Important Metrics of Recruitment Success

Six important metrics of recruitment success

Welcome back to our blog! Today we wanted to go over the different metrics of recruitment success. As the world reopens with vaccines post-pandemic and job vacancies in the UK hit a record high these past months, it is a good time to assess your hiring process. . 

Whether you are a hiring manager or a recruiter these metrics will help guide you on building a strategic hiring process. By knowing where you are succeeding and where you are having challenges, you can adjust your marketing in the right places and get things going. Let’s jump in!

• Source of hire

This is where you are able to find qualified candidates whether it is on your website careers page, job boards, social media or referral networks. With COVID-19 this metric has changed the most as about 79% of job seekers have used social media and online job application methods especially via mobile phone. Understanding where your candidates are coming from can help you decide where to place your marketing resources.  

• Time to hire or fill

This shows the time it takes to get a candidate hired or a position filled from the different stages of the hiring process. Time to fill starts at the time the job is posted to the time the position is filled. While time to hire starts when the applicant is approached by the time they accept the offer. 

If you want to have a more nuanced metric, then you can use the days to hire where you look at the time it takes at each stage such as contacting the candidate, setting up the interview and follow up from the interview. This can help you see where there may be bottlenecks causing you to spend more time on a certain aspect of the hiring process.

• Cost per hire

This is a calculation of how much you have spent to get a candidate hired or a position filled. This includes how much you have spent on recruiting the candidate and getting them onboard such as office equipment. This supports you in getting an idea of your budget and where you may be over or under spending.   

• Quality of hire

In 2021, about 52% of employers are prioritizing improving the quality of hire. It refers to the first year performance rating of the employee after getting hired. Combined with the employee’s productivity, engagement and culture fit, this metric reflects the overall quality of the candidate after hire. A good quality of hire is the result of a good hiring process.  

• Retention rate

Given that it takes 20% to over 100% of an employee’s salary to replace that employee, retention is key as a success metric in recruitment. The retention rate can be calculated by dividing the number of employees at a certain time by the number of employees at the start of that time and multiplying the result by hundred. 

• Candidate satisfaction

One of the major reasons candidates leave after getting hired is disillusionment and frustration due to a mismatch of their expectations and the details of the job. This is why managing the candidate’s expectations early on, having a clear job description and ensuring they are a good fit will help in increasing the candidates job satisfaction on the job. Ultimately a happy candidate is a good measure of recruitment success as the employee will perform well and will be more likely to stay at the business. 

These six metrics can be a quick way to see if your recruitment strategy is working or not. Additional metrics include 

• Qualified candidates per opening. This measures the number of qualified candidates out of those that apply for each vacancy. This will show you if your talent pool is good enough or needs to be expanded.
• Offer acceptance rate. This shows the number of offers which were accepted over the total number of offers made. This is important to identify if you have been approaching candidates who are truly available and ready for the job.
• Applicants per opening. This shows the number of candidates who applied for each opening. This can tell you if there is high demand for that job type.
• Application completion rate. This is the number of applications that are submitted over the total number of applications started. This shows if you have a successful application method especially for online applications. 

There are plenty of methods to gauge how well your recruitment strategies are working in line with your short and long term goals. A data driven strategy can give you the advantage you need to successfully fill in your vacancies.

However, it is good if you take the overall view without getting too focused on each metric. Different jobs and candidates will require different costs, persistence, resources and some may be hard to fill. This is why the above six metrics will give you a general outlook on your recruitment strategy and guide you on where to make improvements. 

If you found this helpful and would like more information, feel free to contact us and one of our experts will be happy to support you. AJ Connect is a first class recruitment agency with a bespoke 6 step hiring strategy that results in a win win for clients and candidates.