11 recruitment metrics for hiring managers

The source of hire brings new people to your company. Therefore, you need to keep track of your source channels to find which platform attracts most of the new candidates.

Sourcing platforms can be social media, company websites, and job boards. When you start tracking these platforms, you will get to know where a large number of new hires are booming or which sourcing channel is effective for hiring candidates. As a result, you can manage your advertising budget more effectively.

The measurement of time to hire starts once you receive job applications from candidates. It focuses on how long it takes to hire a candidate, which includes a detailed analysis of the resume, interview, and the final hiring of a qualified candidate, whereas time to fill is the measurement of the overall time of the hiring process.

A formula to calculate the time to hire:
Day candidate accepted offer-Day candidate entered the pipeline = Time to hire

For instance, you posted a job description for a position on Day 1. If the candidate has applied for the vacant position on Day 10 and accepted your job offer on Day 25, then your time to hire will be: 25-10 = 15 days

With time-to-hire metric, you can find out the areas of improvement you need in the hiring process. A shorter time to hire will enable you to hire better candidates because taking a longer time will result in losing the top talents.

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Another metric you need to check is the time to fill a position, which includes the day of releasing a job description to the final hiring day. Factors like supply and demand, offer acceptance rate, and conversion rate can influence the time-to-fill rate.

The time to fill metric represents how effectively your recruitment process and strategies work. Here’s the formula to check:

Total number of days to fill all the vacant job roles/total number of roles = Average time to fill a position

For instance, If you have hired two employees for two different roles in the last month, and it took you 10 days to fill the first position and 40 days to fill the second position. Then your calculation will be:

10+40/2 = average time to fill of 25 days

If it takes a longer time to fill a position, it seems like a slow speed and more time-to-fill rate. In this situation, you need to improve your recruitment strategies and automate the hiring process.

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An application completion rate refers to the fulfillment of the number of required applications. Having a low completion rate means your applicants are not following your application process or losing interest in the middle of the process.

This situation can happen due to complicated application form, which is time-consuming for candidates to fill and submit. Here’s the formula to calculate the application completion rate:

Number of submitted applications/number of incomplete applications = Application completion rate (%)

For example, if you have received 400 applications for the vacant job role and 10 applications are not completed by the candidates, then your application completion rate will be 400/10 = 40%

This metric gives you a complete data analysis of your job posting. You can discover the candidate's interest and demand for the role by having the data, such as applicants per role or job. Here’s the formula to calculate this:

Total number of applicants/total number of open positions = Applicants per role

For instance, 300 candidates have applied for the 2 different job roles you posted a week ago. So, the applicants per role will be: 300/2 = 150 applicants

This data lets you better understand the candidate pool and create an effective recruitment strategy. Receiving a large number of applicants refers to the high demand, but with less percentage of applicants, you may need to reevaluate the recruitment strategy.

Cost-per-hire is one of the crucial metrics for your business that you need to understand because it refers to the total cost of recruiting a candidate. It includes the costs associated with posting a job description, advertising, training, the recruitment agency (if you use them), screening, interviewing candidates, and the onboarding period.

The formula to calculate cost per hire:

Total internal costs + total external costs / total number of hires = Total recruitment costs

Total recruitment costs / total number of hires = Cost per hire

Here, internal costs include compliance costs, administrative costs, training and development, and hiring manager costs. External costs include background checks, sourcing, travel, and marketing expenses. With this cost calculation, you can make the hiring process more efficient and less expensive.

For example, if you have spent $100,000 on the recruitment process of 50 new hires, then your cost per hire will be:

$100,000/50 = $2000

If you want to understand the performance of a new employee or the value they have added to the team, calculate the quality of the hire. This metric includes the employee performance rating during the first year of employment. It will help you to determine whether you have wasted time and money or recruiting valuable assets. A formula to calculate the quality of hire:

Number of hired candidates considered satisfactory / number of candidates hired = Success ratio

A high success ratio indicates that candidates perform well, whereas a low ratio indicates that you need to improve your screening or selection process.

The attrition rate is the rate of losing employees in a certain time period. It is also known as the first-year attrition rate, which is the number of employees who resign during the first year of work. Here’s the formula to calculate the attrition rate:

(Number of leaves/number of employees) x 100 = Attrition rate (%)

For instance, you have 245 employees at the start of the year, and by the end of the year, 25 employees left your company. So the attrition rate will be:

(25/245) x 100 = 10.2%

With this metric, you can analyze whether your job posting or job description communicates your requirements well to candidates. If you have a high attrition rate, then it is a red flag for you, which means you need to make improvements to your hiring process, such as evaluating the cause of leaving the company and establishing new strategies as an effective solution that saves your company money.

Conversion rate refers to the percentage of candidates hired compared to the number of vacancies available. It is an effective way to track recruiters' performance. If they are unable to recruit the majority of qualified and experienced candidates, then you need to make improvements in the recruitment strategies they follow.

Here’s the formula to calculate the conversion rate:

(Successful hire made/total vacant jobs) x 100 = Conversion rate (%)

For example, if you have successfully hired 15 candidates for the 3 vacant positions in your company, then your conversion rate will be: (15/3) x 100 = 500%

If you have high conversion rates, it means you are receiving a good return on investment, but having a low conversion rate, means you’re recruitment strategies are not effective anymore.

As the title suggests, the offer acceptance rate is the number of applicants who have accepted a job offer with the number of applicants who received a job offer. A low offer acceptance rate can be due to compensation, delayed or lengthy recruitment process. The problems regarding pay can be discussed earlier in the recruitment process to minimize the impact of refused job offers.

The formula to calculate the offer acceptance rate:

(Number of successful job offers/number of job offers made) x 100 = Job offer acceptance rate (%)

For instance, your company has made 200 job offers to candidates, and only 138 of those offers were accepted, so your job offer acceptance rate will be:

(138/200) x 100 = 69%

The candidate withdrawal rate is the metric that calculates how many candidates withdraw from the hiring process. The reasons behind candidate withdrawal can be they are hired faster elsewhere, offered better compensation, or felt the complicated hiring process. The formula to calculate your candidate withdrawal rate:

(Number of candidates that withdrew/number of candidates that were invited for an interview) x 100 = Candidate withdrawal rate

For example, if you have invited 40 candidates for an interview, but 5 of them withdraw from the hiring process, then your candidate withdrawal rate will be: (5/40) x 100 = 12.5%