There are many different HR and recruitment metrics created to measure and track every step of your recruiting process. Which ones should you be tracking? We created an extensive list of all recruitment metrics you could ever need!
Intro
What are recruiting metrics?
Recruiting metrics are standardized measurements of your recruiting process.
Recruiting metrics are used to monitor, track and measure your whole hiring process.
Why should you track recruitment metrics?
Tracking recruiting metrics enable you to provide validated, data-backed evaluation of your hiring process.
Tracking recruiting metrics will tell you what which parts of your recruiting process work well, and which don’t. That way you can recognize and establish your best recruiting practices, but also spot bottlenecks and issues that need to be dealt with.
This is why HR professionals use hiring metrics – to make better and more informed decisions and find and hire the ideal job candidate easier and faster. According to LinkedIn research, HR teams who track and measure recruiting metrics are 2 times more likely to find talent faster and more efficiently.
In short, recruiting metrics provide valuable insights into the efficiency and effectiveness of your recruiting process. Based on this insights, you will gain a deeper understanding of your recruiting process, which will enable you to improve it.
Tracking recruiting metrics will tell you how you spend your time and money in your recruiting process and what can you do optimize your spending and improve your whole hiring process.
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There are many different HR and recruiting metrics created to measure and track every step of your recruiting process and evaluate every aspect of your hiring methods and practices.
To make the list of recruitment metrics easier to understand, we structured them into 6 main categories:
Recruitment Marketing metrics
Hiring Velocity metrics
Hiring Expenses metrics
Hiring Quality metrics
Hiring Source metrics
Referral metrics
Each of these 6 main categories f recruitment metrics consists of subcategories that contain specific recruitment metrics. In the following text, we will provide an overview of all the 6 main recruitment metrics categories and a brief explanation of every subcategory and its specific recruitment metrics.
1. Recruitment Marketing metrics
➡️ Definition
Recruitment Marketing metrics is a group of recruitment metrics that measure the results and effectiveness of your Recruitment Marketing strategy.
➡️ Importance
Tracking these recruitment metrics can show you how successful you are in promoting your company’s Employer Brand and attracting candidates to apply for your open positions.
1.1. Employer Branding metrics
Employer Brandingmetrics will tell you is your company perceived as a desirable employer.
Giveaway/Takeaway ratio How many of your applicants come from your competitor companies? / How many of your employees leave to join the competition?
Number of open applications How many people apply to work at your company even when you don’t have any open job positions?
Brand awareness Is your Employer Brand positively recognized by your target groups?
Retention rate How many employees leave your company in a certain time period?
Offer-acceptance rate Out of all the job offers, how many of them get accepted?
1.2. Candidate Experience metrics
Candidate experiencemetrics will tell you how satisfied candidates are with your recruitment process.
Offer-acceptance rate Out of all the job offers, how many of them get accepted?
Net promoter score How likely are your candidates to recommend your company as a great place to work for?
Candidate engagement How engaged are your candidates in your recruiting process?
Candidate satisfaction How satisfied are your candidates with your overall recruiting process?
1.3. Career Site metrics
Career site metrics will tell you how effective is your career site in turning your career site visitors into applicants.
Career site visitors How many people visit your career site?
Career site bounce rate What is the percentage of visitors who come to your career site and immediately leave without doing anything?
Average session duration What is the average length of time that visitors spend on your career site?
Career site conversion rate What is the percentage of your career site visitors that complete the desired action (apply for your open job positions, join your talent pool, register for an event, etc.)?
Career site new visitors What percentage of your career site visitors are new visitors?
Career site returning visitors What percentage of your career site visitors are returning visitors?
Career site paid traffic How many visitors come to your career site from paid advertising campaigns (via Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, LinkedIn Ads or another paid search platform)?
Career site organic traffic How many visitors come to your career site directly from the search engines?
Career site paid keywords Which keywords (or search phrases) bring visitors to your career site through paid search?
Career site organic keywords Which keywords (or search phrases) bring visitors to your career site directly through search engines?
Career site traffic source Where do your career site visitors come from (form email, social media, search engines, other websites, online advertisements, etc.)?
1.4. Application Form metrics
Application Form metrics will tell you how effective is your application form in turning your career site visitors into applicants.
Application form conversion rate Of all the candidates that see your application form, how many convert into applicants?
Application form abandon rate Of all the candidates that start filling out the application form, how many are drop-offs?
Application form return rate Of all the candidates that have abandoned application form before, how many return and complete it?
1.5. Recruiting Email metrics
Recruiting email metrics will tell you how successful are your recruitment email campaigns.
Email open rate What percentage of candidates have opened your email?
Email response rate What percentage of candidates have responded to your email?
Email conversion rate What percentage of candidates have completed the desired action (clicked to see your open job positions, clicked to read your company blog, etc.)?
Email bounce rate What percentage of your candidates has never received your email (due to full mailbox, deleted email address, etc.)?
1.6. Landing Page metrics
Landing page metrics will show you statistics related to each of your special campaign landing pages (for example, the landing page for your recruitment event, the landing page for your company blog, talent networking landing page, job opening landing page, etc.).
Landing page visitors How many people visit your landing page?
Landing page new visitors Of all your landing page visitors, how many are new visitors?
Landing page returning visitors Of all of your landing page visitors, how many visit your landing page again?
Landing page conversion rate What is the percentage of visitors who complete your campaign goal (for example, fill in and submit a job application form, apply for your recruitment event, etc.)?
Landing page bounce rate What is the percentage of visitors who come to your landing page and immediately leave without doing anything?
Landing page paid traffic How many visitors come to your landing page as a result of paid advertising (via Google AdWords or another paid search platform)?
Landing page organic traffic How many visitors come to your landing page from the search engines?
Landing page traffic source Where do your landing page visitors come from (form email, social media, search engines, other websites, online advertisements, etc.)?
Social Media engagement How many people have seen, clicked on, liked, commented and shared your recruiting social media posts?
Social Media application rate How many candidates have applied for your open job positions directly through social media (for example, Facebook job ads, Facebook job tab, Instagram job ads, etc.)?
Social Media hires What percentage of your new employees applied through Social Media?
New hires by Social Media channel Which Social Media channel (network) is your best source of hired candidates (is it Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.)?
Applicants by Social Media channel Which Social media channel (network) brings in the most applicants for your open job positions (is it Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.)?
2. Hiring Velocity metrics
➡️ Definition Hiring Velocity metrics is a group of recruitment metrics that measure the speed and duration of your hiring process. In other words, this metrics will tell you how long does it take you to find and hire candidates.
➡️ Importance Tracking these recruitment metrics can show you how quickly can you fill your company’s open positions.
2.1. Pre-application metrics
Time to find How many days does it take to receive the first application after you publish and promote your open job openings (for example, on your career site, social media or job board)?
Time to source How many days does it take you to source a qualified candidate?
2.2. Post-application metrics
Time to fill After you have candidates (sourced or applied) for a job opening, how many days does it take to hire someone?
Time to hire How long is your whole recruitment process, from creating a new job opening to hiring someone?
Time in stage How many days do candidates stay in each of your hiring stages (application stage, screening stage, talent assessment/testing stage, assignment stage, first interview stage, second interview stage, employment offering stage, etc.)?
Time to start How many days have passed between the day job offer was accepted to the day new hire's first day at work?
Days to offer How many days does it take you to make a job offer to a candidate (since the candidate has applied/been sourced)?
3. Hiring Expenses metrics
➡️ Definition Hiring Expenses metrics is a group of recruitment metrics that measure the cost of your hiring process.
➡️ Importance Tracking these recruitment metrics can help you plan your recruiting budget and optimize your spending so you can achieve the best result while spending less money.
3.1. Pre-application metrics
Cost to find Overall, how much money do you spend until you get your first job applicant (this metric includes the cost of sourcing and advertising needed to attract potential candidates to apply for your open job positions)?
Cost per applicant How much money do you need to spend per job applicant (this metric includes sourcing and/or advertising costs)?
Cost per qualified applicant How much money do you need to spend per qualified job applicant (this metric includes sourcing and/or advertising costs)?
Cost per advertising channel How much money do you spend on each of the channels that you post your job opening on (Glassdoor, Indeed, LinkedIn, Social Media, etc.)?
3.2. Post-application metrics
Cost to fill How much money do you spend to fill a job position once you have candidates in your hiring pipeline (this metric includes all the cost needed to hire the best candidate among candidates that you have in your hiring pipeline)?
Cost per hire What is the total amount of money you need spend to hire a candidate (this metrics includes the total costs of filling a job position, including costs needed to advertise and/or source candidates and to hire the best candidate in your hiring pipeline)?
Onboarding expenses How much money do you spend to onboard a new hire?
4. Hiring Quality
➡️ Definition Hiring Quality metrics is a group of recruitment metrics that measure the quality of the candidates you hire.
➡️ Importance Tracking these recruitment metrics will help you find out if you are hiring the best people for your job openings and your company culture.
4.1. Employee Performance metrics
Promotion rate How many of your new employees were promoted in a certain time frame?
Ramp-up time How long does it take for new employees to reach their full productivity?
Engagement How driven and enthusiast are your new employees at their everyday job and how invested they are in their new role?
Employee evaluation How successfully is your new employee performing their job?
4.2. Employee Satisfaction metrics
Retention rate How long does the new employee stay at your company?
Net Promoter Score How likely are your new employees to recommend your company as a great place to work at to their family and/or friends?
Employee turnover rate What is the percentage of employees that leave your company in a certain period of time?
4.3. Cultural fit
Mission and value alignment Are your new employee’s personal values and goal aligned with your company mission and values?
People fit How well does the new hire communicate and work with colleagues and supervisors?
Office culture How well does the new employee fit into your office environment and rules?
4.3. Hiring manager satisfaction
Competency satisfaction How satisfied is your hiring manager with your new hire’s competencies?
Performance satisfaction How satisfied is your hiring manager with your new hire’s work performance?
5. Hiring Source metrics
➡️ Definition Hiring Source metrics is a group of recruitment metrics that measure where your candidates come from.
➡️ Importance Tracking these recruitment metrics will help you find out which sources/channels (such as job boards, referrals, social media, etc.) bring in most qualified candidates.
5.1. Quantitative metrics
Applicants per job opening How many applicants do you get per job opening?
Number of applicants per source How many applicants come from each of your hiring sources/channels (such as job boards, referrals, social media, etc.)?
Number of hires per source How many of your hires come from each of your hiring sources/channels (such as job boards, referrals, social media, etc.)?
Number of qualified candidates per source How many qualified candidates come from each of your hiring sources/channels (such as job boards, referrals, social media, etc.)?
Retention rate per source Which of your hiring sources/channels bring in the employees who stay the longest with your company?
5.2. Qualitative metrics
Source of best applicants Which channel provides the most of your best applicants?
Source of best hires Which channel provides your best hires?
Source of influence Which channel has the greatest influence on your candidate’s decision to apply for your open job positions?
Source of awareness Where do your candidates first find out about your job opening?
6. Referral metrics
➡️ Definition Referral metrics is a group of recruitment metrics that measure the results and effectiveness of your employee referral programs.
➡️ Importance Tracking these recruitment metrics can show you how engaged and successful your employees are in promoting your open job positions.
6.1. Employee metrics
Employee referral rate How many employees participated in the referral program this month/quarter/year?
Best referee per job opening Which one of your employees referred the best candidates for a certain of your job openings?
Most referrals per employee Which one of your employees referred the most candidates in total (for all your open job positions in a certain period of time)?
Most qualified referrals per employee Which one of your employees referred the most qualified candidates?
6.2. Alumni metrics
Alumni referral rate How many of your alumnus participated in the referral program this month/quarter/year?
Best alumni referee per job opening Which one of your alumnus referred the best candidate for a certain of your job openings?
Most referrals per alumni Which one of your alumnus referred the most candidates in total (for all your open job positions in a certain period of time)?
Most qualified referrals per alumni Which one of your alumnus referred the most qualified candidates?
Should you track all of these recruitment metrics?
Seeing this extensive list of all these recruiting metrics can be quite intimidating. But don’t worry - you don’t have to track all of them!
In fact, this is exactly were beginners who are just getting started with HR analytics and data-driven recruiting make the biggest mistake. They try to track too many recruitment metrics and get lost in the process.
Trying to comprehend and analyze all of these recruiting metrics gets them stuck. This is what we call “analysis paralysis”. It means that you spend most of your time analyzing your recruiting process, instead of improving it.
Remember, tracking recruiting metrics should be a way to improve your recruiting process, not a goal per se.
Which recruitment metrics should you be tracking?
We recommend starting with a few basic recruitment metrics. Cost per hire, time to hire and quality of hire are most commonly referred to as the top 3 key recruiting metrics.
However, these top 3 traditional recrutiment metrics are not enough anymore.
Recruiting has changed. It now incorporates marketing, too. Today there is a whole new area of so-called recruitment marketing that also needs to be captured and measured. This is why we strongly suggest you start tracking at least some of these recruiting marketing metrics, too.
Tracking these basic metrics will give you an insight into the overall success of your recruiting process. Once you get comfortable with them, you can slowly add new ones to gain a deeper understanding of each of your recruiting stages and strategies.
Every recruiting metrics you add to the list of the ones you decide to track and measure should be problem-oriented. For example, if your time-to-hire shows that your recruiting process is taking way longer than the industry standard and has negative effects on your recruiting outcomes and overall business results, you can add additional metrics to inspect it. By adding additional metrics such as time your candidate spends in each stage of your recruiting process, you can spot the bottlenecks and optimize them.
We will repeat once again: measurement should always be in the function of improving. Keep that in mind and you’ll be fine, we promise.
Now go on and start measuring! 🙂 And don’t worry, we’ve got your back.
Checklist of Most Important Hiring Metrics & Tips for Improvement
Check out our checklist of most important hiring metrics you should be using to measure your hiring and recruitment efforts.
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