22 Must-Track Recruiting Metrics for HR Teams in 2024
July 19, 2021
In the vast sea of recruiting metrics, how do you fish out the ones that truly matter? Dive in to discern which metrics resonate most with your organization's HR objectives.
Talent acquisition strategies have come a long way from simplistic job postings on bulletin boards. Today’s digitized landscape demands advanced sourcing techniques while data-driven decision making has revolutionized recruiting analytics. Tracking key metrics is now pivotal to optimize costs, timelines and experiences across the hiring funnel. As competition intensifies for top talent, the metrics that recruiting teams monitor can make or break their ability to attract high-quality candidates.
What are recruiting metrics and why they matter?
Recruiting metrics are quantitative measurements used to track and evaluate the effectiveness of an organization’s talent acquisition strategies. They provide data-driven recruitment insights into the costs, timelines, quality, and other aspects of the hiring process. Tracking key recruiting metrics has become crucial for contemporary HR teams to:
- Identify inefficiencies in their recruiting funnel
- Continuously improve sourcing, screening and selection processes
- Benchmark performance against industry standards
- Prove the value of their recruiting function
- Strategize plans to obtain quality talent within budget
In today’s highly competitive job market, optimized recruiting directly impacts a company’s bottom line through improved talent retention, worker productivity, and employer branding. This makes monitoring and analyzing recruiting analytics a strategic priority.
22 critical recruiting metrics to track
With recruiting analytics becoming an indispensable part of talent acquisition strategy, HR teams need clarity on which metrics to prioritize. While hundreds of data points can be monitored, it is best to focus on a select few that offer maximum impact aligned to your organizational goals. The following table summarizes the most crucial HR recruiting metrics that provide actionable insights into key areas like efficiency, quality, cost, experience, and diversity. Whether aiming to reduce time-to-hire, enhance sourcing ROI, improve candidate satisfaction or any other recruiting objective – tracking these key performance indicators consistently will help identify what’s working, what’s not, and where to improve.
| No. | Metric | Description |
| 1 | Time to fill | The average number of days between when a job is opened and when an offer is accepted by the candidate. A quick and efficient recruiting process helps HR hire best candidates, preventing candidates from being snatched up by other companies. Executive search services help to improve time to fill saves money on vacancies and helps you get top talent before the competition. |
| 2 | Cost per hire | The average expenditure made across all hires in a given period. It is the total amount spent on recruitment divided by total successful recruits. Knowing your cost per hire helps you budget accurately and make wise recruiting investments. Working with a HR agency gives access to tools, talent pools and insights that optimize cost per hire. |
| 3 | Source of hire | An overview showing the specific sourcing channels that resulted in hires. Focus your recruitment money on the channels that bring in the most successful hires. |
| 4 | Quality of hire | A rating scale indicating a new hire’s job performance during onboarding/probation period. Good quality of hire means you’re finding candidates who’ll be successful and stick around. |
| 5 | Offer acceptance rate | The percentage of job offer acceptances out of total offers made. A low rate might mean your offers aren’t competitive or your interview process needs improving. |
| 6 | Time to hire | The average number of days from when a candidate first enters the hiring funnel to job offer acceptance. A shorter time to hire creates a better candidate experience and secures top talent. |
| 7 | Attrition rate | The overall percentage of employee departures out of total company headcount in a year. High attrition can mean problems with company culture, management, or compensation. |
| 8 | Applicants per role | The average number of candidates who have applied to an open job requisition. This metric helps HR understand the demand and interest in a position, or how effective the job description is. With a clear job description, the number of applicants can be reduced without losing out on eligible candidates. More applicants can mean a better fit, but it can also be time-consuming to manage. |
| 9 | Sourcing channel effectiveness | A comparison of the hiring ROI generated from each talent sourcing channel/platform. Focusing efforts on the most effective channels saves time and improves hiring outcomes. |
| 10 | Interview-to-offer | The percentage of interviews that lead to job offers being extended. A high ratio might suggest problems with interview screening or overly selective criteria. |
| 11 | Application completion rate | The percentage of candidates submitting completed applications out of all who initiate them. A low rate could signal a difficult or lengthy application process. |
| 12 | Conversion rate from job ad views to applications | The percentage of candidates viewing an ad who proceed to apply for that role. A low rate means your ads aren’t effective or aren’t reaching the right people. |
| 13 | Hiring manager satisfaction | Feedback scores from hiring managers regarding their experience with the recruiting process. Satisfied managers reflecting the effectiveness of the hiring process in matching the right candidates with the right positions. |
| 14 | Candidate diversity | An overview of diversity stats among candidates in hiring funnel and new hires. Diversity essential for assessing the effectiveness and impact of your diversity and inclusion efforts. |
| 15 | Number of open positions | A real-time look at how many approved job requisitions are pending recruitment. Tracking open positions helps plan recruitment efforts and workload. |
| 16 | Interviewee satisfaction | Feedback ratings from interviewees regarding their interview experience. Good candidate experiences boost your employer brand and can attract more applicants. |
| 17 | Job offer decline reasons | Categorized data on why candidates rejected job offers. This feedback can help improve your compensation, benefits, or the interview process itself, step closer to finding the right fit. |
| 18 | Employee referral rate | The percentage of hires originating from referrals made by existing employees. High referral rates can mean strong employee engagement and lower hiring costs. |
| 19 | Internal vs. External hires ratio | A comparison between the proportion of new hires from internal mobility programs relative to external recruitment channels. This can show how well you’re developing talent and opportunities for advancement. |
| 20 | Candidate Net Promoter Score (cNPS) | A metric gauging the likelihood candidates would recommend the hiring process to others. In other words, it’s how talent rates their experience applying and interviewing for a position. High cNPS means candidates are having a positive experience, even if they don’t get the job. |
| 21 | Passive vs. Active candidate hires | A breakdown of what percentage of new recruits were identified through proactive sourcing outreach strategies vs those who applied on their own. Helps gauge the effectiveness of active sourcing strategies. |
| 22 | First-year turnover | The percentage of new hires that have quit the organization within their first year of employment. High first-year turnover can show problems with your hiring, onboarding, or training. |
While this guide has covered the best recruiting metrics to track, bear in mind that companies should continually re-evaluate which data points resonate most with their talent needs and business goals. The recruiting function itself is being shaped by innovation and emerging technologies like AI. This makes room for new recruiting metrics to be defined that focus strongly on factors like candidate experience, diversity and retention. Stay updated on such developments to future-proof your analytics strategy.
Alternatively, rather than trying to master recruiting analytics yourself, consider leveraging the expertise of specialist agencies. By outsourcing to experts, you get regular analysis, actionable insights and guaranteed ROI without needing to become data scientists yourselves. Contact to learn more about how Talentnet’s outsourced solutions can improve your recruiting analytics output today.