4 Recruiting Data Points to Measure Success

Have you ever mulled over your recruiting-metric data like a sports fan or an analytical coach looking for ways to win and improve?

In sports, there’s an endless amount of data about players, teams, championships, and performance. It’s the kind of insight that can help coaches and players make adjustments to fix problems and keep getting better.

And that same idea can help you too.

If you want to level up your hiring efforts, take a closer look at your recruiting-metric data to find out what’s working and where you can improve.

Use this data to create your own recruiting-metric game plan to hire top performers and build your team.

If you’ve ever heard a sports fan rattle of player stats, you know there’s an almost endless number of data points you could look at. 

So, what are the recruiting-metric data points you should focus on to improve performance and measure success?

Pay attention to these 4 recruiting metrics:

1. Your hiring sources

How are candidates learning about your company? Where are you showing up that puts you on their radar? What hiring sources are you using to attract potential hires?

This is one of the most important recruiting-metric data points to understand because it’s where the job search starts for you and job seekers.

If your hiring sources are working, you probably don’t have trouble attracting top candidates and filling positions. But you need to really drill down which sources work better. And analyze if some hiring sources be a waste of time.

Take a closer look at your hiring sources to find out how candidates find you. This can include:

- Job boards, listings, and ads
- Referrals from employees or colleagues
- Hiring from within your organization
- Your company jobs page
- A recruiting agency

Industry data shows that more than 50% of candidates find you via job boards and referrals.

2. The time it takes to fill positions

On average, how long does it take to fill a position? 

Think about it. You post a job, receive applications, screen candidates, conduct interviews, and make an offer. Then you greet your new employee on their first day. 

How long does it take? It’s another recruiting-metric that can help you evaluate and improve your hiring process.

Data from the Society for Human Resource Management suggests that it takes most employers an average of 41 days from start-to-finish to fill a position.

FYI...the biggest bottleneck in the recruiting process appears to be the time it takes your HR team and hiring managers to screen and review candidates. Combined, this part of the recruiting process takes 60 percent of the time to hire a new employee.

How long does it take you to fill a position? Can you improve this?

Here are some ways to streamline the hiring process and save time:

- Use automated software to post jobs, send notifications to potential candidates, and promote on social media
- Once you receive a pool of candidates, use software to automate the screening process
- Invite past candidates to apply for new positions via automated email
- Give hiring managers a snapshot of a candidate’s skills and experience
- Use software to schedule and host interviews virtually
- Automate checking references and e-signatures for contracts

3. Your investment per hire

How much does it cost you to hire a new employee?

There’s a lot of variables or moving parts in this recruiting-metric data point.

And if you’re trying to budget for bringing on new employees, or expect a wave of hiring at some later date, you’ll want to know this recruiting metric.

Industry data suggests that it costs an average of $3,400 to $4,100 to a position. But that jumps for hiring managers, executives and C-suite leadership.

So what’s your investment per hire? Take a closer look at:

- Cost to post, publish, and promote a position using job boards
- Time/hourly rate for staff to screen resumes, review candidates, conduct interviews, and make an offer
- Costs to advertise positions through membership sites, professional networks, and associations
- HR costs to plan, budget, prepare position for posting, and administrative work to make an offer and bring on a new employee

4. Hiring quality of candidate

Here’s a recruiting metric that isn’t quite as cut and dry as cost and time. 

It’s a little more subjective. But there are still some objective data points you can use to measure the hiring quality of your candidates.

Think about it this way: The hiring process can get expensive if you have a high turnover rate.

PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates hiring and human resources costs represent 28% of a company’s operating expenses.

If you can dial in your recruiting process and hire great people, this recruiting metric is going to help you improve your bottom line.

Some of the data-driven ways to evaluate the hiring quality of a candidate include:

- The retention rate. How long does a new hire stay?
- Recruiting time. How much time did you spend on recruiting a new employee?
- Performance: How does the employee’s manager rate their performance?
- Productivity: Is the employee performing their duties in a timely manner?

Other metrics to measure the quality of hire may include the level of engagement and cultural fit. 

Dig into your recruiting-metric data to improve your hiring process 

If you want to improve your hiring process, save time, save money, and hire better employees, dig into your recruiting-metric data. Find out what’s working and make adjustments where needed. It’s an investment that will ultimately help you build a better team.