Uncertainty and unpredictable twists and turns in the industry are constantly challenging businesses. For example, businesses had to cope with sudden changes for the pandemic and a global crisis. Though the effect seems to recede, the changes it has introduced in the workplaces and operations will still be very relevant and continue to be strong this year. A prominent example is remote workers and remote hiring by organizations. It enabled recruiting teams to use a larger talent pool but also brought complexities like maintaining legal compliances, communication and coordination difficulties, and more.
The technologies and approaches were customized accordingly, but recruiting teams and leadership must constantly monitor the recruitment process to ensure it is performing optimally. Recruitment metrics are an excellent way to measure and track how your hiring process is performing and identify the potential issues that can hinder it or the hidden patterns and trends that can bring significant change to the system. Integrated or standalone hiring solutions, like HR recruitment software, applicant tracking system, and candidate management software, can aid in measuring key metrics and help to analyze the process.
Here is an example of some key metrics that can be used independently or with other metrics to measure and understand the hiring process:
Time to hire and time to fill
Recruiting teams generally start measuring the time to fill when an open position is created and the time ends when a candidate is hired for that position. Time to hire begins when a candidate applies for that position and ends with an applicant recruited for that position. “hired” can also refer to a different meaning for organizations as some consider employee hired when the employee signs the offer/ contract letter, whereas other marks the day employee starts working as the end of the hiring.
The number of hires
It is pretty simple and easy to measure with HR recruitment software; they need to view how many individuals have been hired in a month, quarter, or year. But the number of hires should be measured against the open positions for that period. For example, if there is ten open position and eight people are hired in a month against the last month when open positions were five and all of them were closed by the team. Therefore, though the number of hires was less last month, the performance is better as the 100% target has been achieved by the team.
Source of hire
Most successful sources are that provide high-performing and high-quality candidates quickly and offer better-retained candidates or employees. HR recruitment software or other hiring solutions can help track the source of each candidate, and integrated with employee and workforce management software, it can reveal how these candidates performed or were retained. Depending on these metrics hiring team can select the most effective sources and concentrate more on them.
The number of candidates
Determining how many candidates applied for a position or the total number of candidates who applied for your organization is manageable with any ATS or other Hiring applications. Recruiting team can view and understand the trends, like how many candidates are applying for positions of developer or HR. Are there any seasonal or other changes that impact the number? They need to worry if there are too many applicants as they need to close the position on time, but less candidate warrants immediate attention as it can significantly affect talent acquisition.
Conversion Rate
It is determined by how many candidates were in the former phase of hiring and how many advanced to the next stage. It can reveal critical insights depending on the stage or phase of the recruitment process you look at. For example, if there are fewer candidates who progress to the next stage than expected, the team must investigate the reasons behind it. Moreover, it can help to identify significant issues in the hiring process.
In addition to these fundamental metrics, more hiring metrics can be used to enhance the recruitment process.
Additional hiring metrics to enhance your recruitment process.
Recruitment funnel speed
It is critical to maintain track of how long your hiring process takes, and one method to do so is to look at how much time candidates spend in each stage of the recruitment funnel. Otherwise, you risk losing good prospects because they will go to organizations that can move faster. There is no need to hasten a process, but it is beneficial to assess what is happening at each level and see if anything needs to be tweaked or corrected.
For example, why are individuals spending so much time in the testing or assessment stage? Are applicants unwilling to complete the assessments you have assigned to them? Are they taking the test but waiting too long for feedback? Both circumstances are worth investigating to determine if you can do anything to make the process go more smoothly, as this will directly impact the time to fill or hiring time.
It is a straightforward ratio of how many offers are made and how many are accepted. There are ways to increase the likelihood that a candidate will accept an offer, yet there is always a chance that the candidate will reject the offer date. HR recruitment software is essential to accurately track this metric.
Offer Acceptance Rate
Therefore, a 100% offer acceptance rate goal is unrealistic. In the long run, that is simply impossible to achieve. Furthermore, if that is your goal, you might give in to potentially unreasonable demands, leading to a hiring decision that you will regret later. The market, your function, work conditions like pay, and the number of hiring determine a reasonable rate. If you have a few hires and are regarded as a reputable employer, you should aim for 90% or above. If any other conditions are less than ideal, you should make the necessary adjustments.
Application completion
The metric measures how many candidates have completed the application process and successfully applied for the position. It can happen that many candidates viewed the job; some of them clicked to open the application page but finally dropped off the page or left in the middle of the application. If too many candidates are dropping off, there may be a lack of candidate engagement or recruitment branding. The team must review the job description, job adverts, and other ways to engage candidates if candidates leave the application page quickly or in the middle of the application. In addition, the application process may not be user-friendly and complex for the applicants.
Test completion rate
Similarly, the test completion rate shows the number of candidates who competed for the test or the assessments. Suppose candidates are not completing tests or leaving in the middle of them. In that case, the reason can be that the test is irrelevant, too complex, artificial, and lacks the attraction and fun elements to retain candidates. Assess candidates with an AI-enabled candidate evaluation tool with online proctoring capabilities and engaging content to assess, retain and select the most suitable talents for your organization. HR recruitment software can provide the numbers of completed candidates who completed the test and dropped out with an application completion rate for a period.
Probation passing candidates.
How many candidates are passing the probation period, if any, reveals many aspects of the hiring process, for example, the quality of the hire? If the number is lower than expected, the quality of hires needs to be improved. Additionally, the team must look into the current onboarding process, orientation, and training. It can also happen because of poor leadership and management styles.
Retention rate
How many new hires stay a year or beyond is an excellent way to determine how engaged these candidates or employees are. It also shows the effectiveness of the onboarding and orientation programs and reflects the recruits’ quality. It can also help identify healthy channels and sources that can offer candidates with potential for longer retention. Rehiring for a position is very costly. Therefore, it is a critical metric to track in hiring.
Average cost per hire
Another critical metric team must track average expenses for each hire. It can be determined by dividing the total cost of recruitment by the number of hires for a specific period. Also, tracking the recruitment cost and its components will help optimize the hiring budget. Furthermore, the goal is to decrease the expenses without compromising the quality of the hire or other advantages.
Diversity of the talent pipeline
It is a critical metric. While it is not suggested to check boxes or have a minimum number of applicants from a specific category, it is crucial to maintain track of the number of people from varied backgrounds applying for your sector or location. How can you promote better representation of your society if you don’t have applicants in the talent pool? But, on the other hand, if you have an accurate representation, what did you do to support it so it can be maintained and developed further?
Keeping the data on things like ethnic background, gender, and more can be difficult in some areas, so please familiarise yourself with your state or county legislation beforehand. Furthermore, you can include the diversity-style questionnaire part of every application, but keep it short; otherwise, candidates may be discouraged from completing it. Many HR recruitment software applications already offer surveying options at different hiring stages.
Conclusion
There are other metrics for measuring recruiters’ effectiveness, like candidate screening, outreach, etc. The candidate net promoter scores and employee engagement can help to understand the engagement level of the candidates or recruits. Many HR recruitment software offers feedback surveys after a candidate completes the application process to understand the candidate’s experience.
Candidates rejecting offers and the reasons are also worth tracking to see if there are any patterns. It allows them to understand the reasons for losing quality candidates and how to prevent it. Selecting the right combination of hiring metrics, tracking them through HR recruitment solutions, and understanding the meaning hiding behind these numbers will enable organizations to acquire and retain the best talents in the industry and enhance the hiring process.
