17 Recruiting Metrics Analytics in HR PDF

10/22/2018 17 Recruiting Metrics You Should Know About | Analytics in HR
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17 Recruiting Metrics You
Should Know About
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Erik van Vulpen
9 min read
Recruiting metrics are an essential part of a data-driven hiring and
recruitment analytics. However, if you would keep track of every

recruiting metric you could nd on the web, you’d have no time left
to do actual recruiting! In this article, we’ll list the 17 most
important ones for you.
But rst, let’s answer the question: What are recruiting metrics?
What are recruiting metrics?
https://www.analyticsinhr.com/blog/recruiting-metrics/ 1/20
Recruiting metrics are measurements used to track hiring success

and optimize the process of hiring candidates for an organization.
When used correctly, these metrics help to evaluate the recruiting

process and whether the company is hiring the right people.
Making the right recruiting decisions is important. This image (from
134 Greenhouse) shows the employee’s lifetime value as the sum of all
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the HR decisions made about that employee.
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82 Sheet
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implementing a set of relevant HR
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e ciency and impact of the
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Using this image we can see that hiring someone who is more suited
for the job has the potential to create an enormous return on
82 investment (ROI).
This is why recruiting the right people is so important. Whether
you’re starting off by measuring recruiting data or ne-tuning your
recruiting metrics, this list will give you a great overview.
17 Recruiting Metrics: An
Overview
Now that we’ve set the stage, let’s look at the 17 most relevant
recruiting metrics.
1. Time to ll
This refers to the time it takes to nd and hire a new candidate, often
measured by the number of days between publishing a job opening
and hiring the candidate. Time to ll is in uenced by supply and
134 demand ratios for speci c jobs.

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It’s a great metric for business planning and offers a realistic view for
the manager to assess the time it will take to attract a replacement

for a departed employee.
82
In addition, a short time to ll a position usually has a positive effect
on the rest of the team as it means less overtime and instability.
2. Time to hire
Time to hire represents the number of days between the moment a
candidate is approached and the moment the candidate accepts the
job. In other words, it measures the time it takes for someone to

move through the hiring process once they’ve applied. Time to hire
thus provides a solid indication of how the recruitment team is
performing. This metric is also called ‘Time to Accept’.
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82 3. Source of hire
Tracking the sources which attract new hires to your organization is
one of the most popular recruiting metric. This metric also helps to
keep track of the effectiveness of different recruiting channels. A few

examples are job boards, the company’s career page, social media,
and sourcing agencies.
4. First-year attrition
First-year attrition is a key recruiting metric and also indicates hiring
success. Candidates who leave in their rst year of work fail to

become fully productive and usually cost a lot of money. First-year
attrition can be managed and unmanaged.
Managed attrition means that the contract is terminated by the
employer. Unmanaged attrition means that they leave on their own
accord. The former is often an indicator of bad rst-year
134 performance or bad t with the team.

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The second is often an indicator of unrealistic expectations which

cause the candidate to quit. This could be due to a mismatch
between the job description and the actual job, or the job and/or
company has been oversold by the recruiter.

82
This metric can also be turned around as ‘candidate retention rate’.
5. Quality of hire
Quality of hire, often measured by someone’s performance rating,

gives an indicator of rst-year performance of a candidate.
Candidates who receive high-performance ratings are indicative of
hiring success while the opposite holds true for candidates with low-
performance ratings.
Low rst-year performance ratings are indicative of bad hires. A
single bad hire can cost a company tens of thousands of dollars in
both direct and indirect costs. To read more about how to assess
these costs, check out our article on HR costing.
When combined with the channel through which the candidate was
sourced, you can measure sourcing channel quality (see recruiting
metric no. 17).
Quality of hire is the input for the Success Ratio. The success ratio
divides the number of hires who perform well by the total number of
candidates hired. A high success ratio means that most of the hired
candidates perform well, however a low ratio means that you need to
ne-tune your selection process!
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The success ratio is used as input for recruitment utility analysis.
This analysis enables you to calculate an ROI for different selection
instruments.
82
6. Hiring Manager satisfaction
In line with quality of hire, hiring manager satisfaction is another
recruiting metric that is indicative of successful recruiting metrics.
When the hiring manager is satis ed with the new candidates in his
team, the candidate is likely to perform well and t well in the team.
In other words, the candidate is more likely to be a successful hire!
7. Candidate job satisfaction
Candidate job satisfaction is an excellent way to track whether the
expectations set during the recruiting procedure match reality. A low
candidate job satisfaction highlights a mismanagement of
expectations or incomplete job descriptions.
A low score can be better managed by providing a realistic job
preview. This helps to present both the positive and negative aspects
of the job to potential candidates, thus creating a more realistic view.
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Data-driven HR starts by setting up
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8. Applicants per opening
Applicants per job opening or applicants per hire gauges the job’s
popularity. A large number of applicants could indicate high demand
for jobs in that particular area or a job description that’s too broad.
The number of applicants per opening is not necessarily an indicator
of the number of suitable candidates. By narrowing the job
description and including a number of ‘hard’ criteria, the number of
applicants can be reduced without reducing the number of suitable

candidates.
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To learn more about metrics and how to implement them in your
organization, check out our strategic HR metrics course.
9. Selection ratio
82
The selection ratio refers to the number of hired candidates compared
to the total number of candidates. This ratio is also called the
Submittals to Hire Ratio.
The selection ratio is very similar to the number of applicants per
opening. When there’s a high number of candidates, the ratio
approaches 0. The selection ratio provides information such as the
value of different assessment tools and can be used to estimate the
utility of a given selection and recruitment system.
To calculate the utility of these tools, take a look at this article by
Stuurman (2003) on the ROI of selection tools.
10. Cost per hire
We could write a full article on cost per hire. The cost per hire
recruitment metric is the total cost invested in hiring divided by the
number of hires.
Cost per hire consists of multiple cost structures which can be

134
Shares divided by internal and external cost. By quantifying all of them you
can calculate the total recruitment cost.
82
11. Candidate experience
When we talk about recruiting metrics, candidate experience
shouldn’t be overlooked. Candidate experience is the way that job
seekers perceive an employer’s recruitment and onboarding process,
and is often measured using a candidate experience survey. This
survey uses Net Promotor Score and helps to identify key
components of the experience that can be improved.
12. Offer acceptance rate
The offer acceptance rate compares the number of candidates who
successfully accepted a job offer with the number of candidates who

received an offer. A low rate is indicative of potential compensation
problems. When these problems occur often for certain functions,
pay can be discussed earlier in the recruiting process in an effort to
134 minimize the impact of a refused job offer.

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13. % of open positions

82 The % of open positions compared to the total number of positions
can be applied to speci c departments or to the entire organization
even. A high percentage can be indicative of high demand (for
example due to fast growth) or low labor market supply.
14. Application completion rate
Application completion rate is especially interesting for organizations
with elaborate online recruiting systems. Many large corporate rms
require candidates to manually input their entire CV in their systems
before they can apply for a job. Drop-out in this process is indicative
of problems in this procedure, e.g. web browser incompatibility with
the application system, or a non-user-friendly interface.
This recruiting metric ts well with our number 15.
15. Recruitment funnel effectiveness
Recruitment is a funnel which begins with sourcing and ends with a
signed contract. By measuring the effectiveness of all the different

steps in the funnel, you can specify a yield ratio per step. This makes
for some excellent recruiting metrics.
For example,
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15:1 (750 applicants apply, 50 CVs are screened)

5:1 (50 screened CVs lead to 10 candidates submitted to the
hiring manager)
2:1 (10 candidate submissions lead to 5 hiring manager
82 acceptances)
5:2 (5 rst interviews lead to 2 nal interviews)
2:1 (2 nal interviews lead to 1 offer)
1:1 (1 offer to 1 hire)
The recruiting funnel has changed a lot over the last few years due to
advances in HR tech. The rst few steps are often atomized:

software helps to automatically screen CVs and select the best ts.
Some companies opt to go for video interviews to change submittals

and even rst interviews.
In other words: expect this funnel to change over time.
16. Sourcing channel effectiveness
Sourcing channel effectiveness helps to measure the conversions

per channel. By comparing the percentage of applications with the
percentage of impressions of the positions, you can quickly judge

the effectiveness of different channels.
A simple way to do this is by using Google Analytics to track where

the people who viewed the job opening on your website actually
came from.
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By setting ‘goals’, like the successful completion of an application
form, this conversion rate can be made much more accurate. Maybe
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the people coming from LinkedIn and Twitter don’t apply, but the
people coming in from Facebook do!
17. Sourcing channel cost

You can also calculate the cost e ciency of your different sourcing
channels by including ad spend, the amount of money spent on

advertisement, on those platforms. By dividing the ad spend with the
number visitors who successfully applied through the job opening

you measure the sourcing channel cost per hire.
These 17 recruiting metrics form the basis of recruitment analytics.
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82
If you want to read more about different organizational metrics, check

out our articles on the 21 employee performance metrics or 14 HR
metrics. If you want to learn more about how to implement and

optimize HR metrics in your organization, check out our course on
strategic HR metrics.
134 by Erik van Vulpen

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Erik van Vulpen is founder of Analytics in HR
(AIHR). He is writer, speaker and trainer on

people analytics. Erik is instructor for the HR
Analytics Academy and has extensive
82
experience in the application HR analytics.
Contact Erik at erik@analyticsinhr.com or
connect with him on LinkedIn.
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10/22/2018 17 Recruiting Metrics You Should Know About | Analytics in HR

Blog Newsletter Community Resources

Erik van Vulpen

Recruiting metrics are an essential part of a data-driven hiring and

recruitment analytics. However, if you would keep track of every

important ones for you.

What are recruiting metrics?

Recruiting metrics are measurements used to track hiring success

When used correctly, these metrics help to evaluate the recruiting

Making the right recruiting decisions is important. This image (from

Download the FREE cheat sheet with

This is why recruiting the right people is so important. Whether

you’re starting off by measuring recruiting data or ne-tuning your

recruiting metrics, this list will give you a great overview.

measured by the number of days between publishing a job opening

and hiring the candidate. Time to ll is in uenced by supply and

134 demand ratios for speci c jobs.

the manager to assess the time it will take to attract a replacement

on the rest of the team as it means less overtime and instability.

Time to hire represents the number of days between the moment a

candidate is approached and the moment the candidate accepts the

job. In other words, it measures the time it takes for someone to

thus provides a solid indication of how the recruitment team is

performing. This metric is also called ‘Time to Accept’.

Tracking the sources which attract new hires to your organization is

keep track of the effectiveness of different recruiting channels. A few

and sourcing agencies.

First-year attrition is a key recruiting metric and also indicates hiring

success. Candidates who leave in their rst year of work fail to

become fully productive and usually cost a lot of money. First-year

attrition can be managed and unmanaged.

Managed attrition means that the contract is terminated by the

employer. Unmanaged attrition means that they leave on their own

accord. The former is often an indicator of bad rst-year

134 performance or bad t with the team.

The second is often an indicator of unrealistic expectations which

company has been oversold by the recruiter.

This metric can also be turned around as ‘candidate retention rate’.

Quality of hire, often measured by someone’s performance rating,

Candidates who receive high-performance ratings are indicative of

Low rst-year performance ratings are indicative of bad hires. A

single bad hire can cost a company tens of thousands of dollars in

these costs, check out our article on HR costing.

sourced, you can measure sourcing channel quality (see recruiting

metric no. 17).

ne-tune your selection process!

The success ratio is used as input for recruitment utility analysis.

This analysis enables you to calculate an ROI for different selection

6. Hiring Manager satisfaction

In line with quality of hire, hiring manager satisfaction is another

recruiting metric that is indicative of successful recruiting metrics.

In other words, the candidate is more likely to be a successful hire!

7. Candidate job satisfaction

Candidate job satisfaction is an excellent way to track whether the

expectations set during the recruiting procedure match reality. A low

candidate job satisfaction highlights a mismanagement of

expectations or incomplete job descriptions.

A low score can be better managed by providing a realistic job

of the job to potential candidates, thus creating a more realistic view.

Download the Syllabus and Start

8. Applicants per opening

popularity. A large number of applicants could indicate high demand

The number of applicants per opening is not necessarily an indicator