To appraise the effectiveness of their recruiting procedures, organisations rely on crucial recruiting metrics. Time-to-hire, cost-per-hire, and quality-of-hire are examples of measurable figures that enable organisations to evaluate their recruiting strategies in a concrete manner as well as make sound decisions based on their assessment.
A combination of metrics can help companies rapidly recognise success or failure in their recruitment practices. As a result, recruiters can pinpoint where they should concentrate their energy and resources for the best possible results. However, the overwhelming amount of recruitment metrics and data can be daunting for recruiters to navigate.
For hiring managers to guarantee ideal efficiency during and following the hiring process, this blog outlines a list of the fifteen most crucial recruitment metrics that should be routinely monitored. By monitoring these metrics, hiring managers can make sound decisions that will help optimise their recruitment endeavors and maximise their ROI.
What are recruitment metrics? What are recruiting metrics?
Recruiting metrics are gauges used to evaluate the effectiveness of your hiring procedures and the caliber of candidates.
Hiring managers must utilise these metrics to make data-based decisions and improve their recruitment endeavors.
Recruiting engineers is a multi-step process that involves planning, sourcing, screening, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding. To optimise the process, an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) or Human Resources Management System (HRMS) can be employed. This suite of software tools is engineered to organise and process pertinent information in order to streamline the recruitment life cycle.
Below are the fifteen recruitment metrics that hiring managers must monitor.
15 recruitment metrics that directly impact your hiring process
Time to Hire
Time to hire is a pivotal metric that businesses utilise to measure their capacity to expediently secure and employ the right personnel. It offers valuable insight into a company’s effectiveness in sourcing and onboarding individuals, empowering them to make sound decisions on how to optimise their recruitment process.
The ‘time to hire’ metric enables businesses to assess their recruitment strategy’s effectiveness by measuring the duration between when a software developer applies for a job and when they accept the job offer. Tracking this metric can aid in identifying areas for improvement in the recruitment process and provide insight into how quickly a vacant position is filled.
This recruitment metric divulges two crucial aspects of the hiring process:
Recruiting efficiency: The speed at which the Human Resources department evaluates, interviews, and woos candidates to accept the job offer is a reflection of the company’s current recruitment process’s efficiency and effectiveness. A delay in the hiring process indicates that the current process is ineffective and inefficient.
Candidate experience: An expedited hiring process benefits job seekers by providing them with a more positive experience. Prospective employees prefer companies that can make a prompt decision within two weeks, rather than having to wait for two months for a response.Source of Hire
Source of hire is a technique utilised by businesses to determine the percentage of their new employees recruited through each hiring portal or channel, including job boards, websites, referrals, and direct sourcing. This metric provides businesses with valuable insights into the most effective recruitment methods, allowing them to adjust their recruitment strategies accordingly.
At its core, the Source of Hire (SOH) recruitment metric helps organisations optimise their recruitment by identifying the most efficient and effective recruiting channels for allocating resources. By offering valuable insight into the areas that generate the highest return on investment, businesses can focus their recruitment efforts accordingly.
Depending on the type of Applicant Tracking System (ATS) employed by the company, the system should be configured to track the application source from which candidates enter the hiring process.
This data can assist businesses in more efficiently allocating their recruitment resources, and here are a few ways the source-of-hire recruitment metric can help:
– Precisely identify cost-saving opportunities
– Determine the most effective recruiting websites or agencies on which to focus further resources
– Allocate the advertising budget more effectively
– Evaluate the efficiency of recruiting staff
Moreover, businesses can segment this recruitment metric by team and job function to gain a better understanding of their recruitment process.Cost per Hire
For businesses, cost-per-hire is a vital metric for evaluating their recruitment process. It calculates the total cost incurred to fill a vacant position, encompassing all associated expenditures, including but not limited to, recruitment events, equipment, administrative fees, advertising costs, subscription fees to recruitment software platforms, and relocation expenses. So, cost-per-hire provides organisations with valuable insight into their recruitment process’s efficiency and effectiveness.
This metric can be used to determine costs associated with internal promotions or transfers within the organisation, as well as external hires.Application Completion Rate
For companies with a complex online recruitment system, the application completion rate metric is crucial.
Many organisations require potential applicants to manually enter a large volume of data before submitting a job application. Unfortunately, numerous developers abandon the application process at this stage due to the extensive demands, incompatible web browsers and application systems, or a user-unfriendly interface.
The application completion rate is the ratio of the number of applicants who initiated the application process to the number of applicants who completed and submitted their application.
This recruitment metric evaluates the performance of your application platform and strategy by analysing the number of applicant interactions.Number of Applicants per Opening
The number of applicants per vacancy, commonly referred to as applications per hire, is a significant metric that reflects the level of interest in a specific job in the labour market. An abundance of applications could signify a strong demand for employment in that field. Conversely, an excessively high number of applications may indicate that the job posting was overly broad and possibly not specific enough.
It is crucial to remember that the number of applicants per job opening does not necessarily correspond to the number of suitable candidates. Though this may seem like an elementary concept, it is critical to consider why this statistic is being monitored and its implications. The number of individuals applying for a position can indicate the efficacy of your recruitment strategies and marketing endeavours.Qualified Candidates per Hire
The number of qualified applicants per hire is a key recruitment metric that measures the number of candidates who successfully progress beyond the initial stage of the hiring process. This statistic is an effective indicator of the recruitment process’s efficiency, providing businesses with insights into the success of their strategies for attracting and selecting suitable candidates.
This metric calculates the number of individuals who successfully pass the initial screening stage and receive an invitation to attend an interview, as per the established process.
It can be computed by dividing the number of qualified candidates by the number of individuals who initially applied for the job.Diversity
In recent years, businesses around the world have increased their efforts to create a workplace that prioritises diversity and inclusion. Significant resources are being dedicated to enhancing the gender and cultural diversity of the workforce.
McKinsey & Company estimated that around $8 billion is spent annually in the United States on diversity training. In today’s job market, candidates seek out organisations that prioritise Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) in the workplace. Studies have shown that businesses that prioritise DE&I objectives experience higher profitability, productivity, and innovation compared to those that do not prioritise them.
Implementing a diversity and inclusion strategy during the hiring process can help reduce the possibility of unconscious bias. The easiest way to measure the success of your DE&I initiative is to compare the number of developers hired against the stated DE&I objectives.Offer Acceptance Rate
The offer acceptance rate is the proportion of candidates who accept your employment offer.<Selection Ratio
The selection ratio, also referred to as the Submittals to Hire ratio, compares the number of candidates recruited to the total number of applicants.
The selection ratio offers insights into the effectiveness of recruitment and evaluation procedures. Additionally, this ratio is useful for evaluating the efficacy of specific recruitment strategies.Attrition in the First Year
The rate of attrition among first-year developers is a useful metric for gauging the success of recruitment efforts. This rate measures the percentage of developers who leave the organisation of their own volition within the first year of their employment.
Many businesses put considerable effort into finding and hiring the right people, yet having a comprehensive retention plan is just as important. Having a good retention rate not only boosts employee morale, but it also helps to reduce the expenses associated with recruiting new staff. Consequently, investing in a retention plan is an essential part of any successful business.
If your company’s first-year employee turnover rate is high, it may be indicative of a misalignment between the job description and the actual job requirements at the time of hire. Additionally, a high attrition rate could signify that the organisation does not have an effective onboarding process or that its strategies for retaining remote engineers need to be improved.Satisfaction of Hiring Managers
Measuring the degree of satisfaction among hiring managers is a critical component of assessing the performance of the recruitment process. Recruitment managers play a significant role in the hiring process, and it is therefore essential for companies to be able to measure this indicator in order to ensure that their recruitment efforts are producing desired results.
It is of utmost importance that the hiring manager is satisfied with the potential recruit, as this will increase the chances of them performing to a high standard and integrating well into the team. To put it simply, an applicant who appeals to the hiring manager is more likely to be hired.Candidate Job Satisfaction
Assessing the level of job satisfaction among candidates who have been through a recruitment process is crucial for evaluating its success. Low candidate satisfaction may indicate an inability to meet expectations set during the recruitment process. Therefore, measuring candidate job satisfaction is vital in determining the effectiveness of the recruitment process.Candidate Net Promoter Score
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is commonly used to measure customer satisfaction, but it can also be used to evaluate candidate satisfaction.
The Candidate NPS measures applicant satisfaction with their overall recruitment experience and interaction with the organisation. It assesses the likelihood of applicants recommending the organisation to others based on their overall perception of the recruitment process. Essentially, the Candidate NPS evaluates the satisfaction of applicants, aiding organisations in improving their recruitment process.Percentage of Open Positions
The ratio of open positions to total positions in a department is an indicator of the demand for those roles. A high ratio of open jobs in a department suggests that these roles are in high demand. Furthermore, a high percentage of open positions may imply a shortage of competent personnel in the labour market for that particular type of job.
As a result, this measure can aid recruiting managers in analysing the labour market and forming appropriate hiring strategies.Cost per Sourcing Channel
Hiring managers can assess the cost-effectiveness of various sourcing channels by calculating the cost per applicant. To compute this metric, divide the cost of advertising on each platform by the number of applicants who applied through the corresponding job posting. This calculation yields an overview of the cost-effectiveness of each sourcing channel, helping hiring managers make informed decisions about the optimal choice.
Employment process cannot be complete without recruiting metrics.
As the shortage of software engineering talent continues to affect businesses globally, having an effective recruitment process is crucial. Hiring managers should consistently enhance their recruitment process to attract and hire skilled software developers using the appropriate key performance indicators.
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