When you’re ready to scale your company, bringing the right people on board is critical to your future success. Because there’s such a razor thin margin of error in the early stages of growth, executives believe that attracting and retaining top talent is their top risk concern for 2023. Hit-and-miss approaches to hiring aren’t going to cut it. 87% of recruiters believe that talent acquisition has become a more strategic function. Recruitment metrics enable you to craft a thoughtful strategy based on real data. From there, you can critically evaluate your processes and make changes to improve your outcomes.

Recruiting metrics are a set of measurements that teams use to track, manage, and optimize the process of hiring candidates for an organization. Now that 98% of Fortune 500 companies rely on an applicant tracking system (ATS) to screen resumes, leaders have access to a treasure trove of data used to create these metrics.

A data-driven approach to recruiting appeals to leaders that are motivated by the immediate and pragmatic need to prioritize their bottom line. After all, wasting time and money is the faster path to going out of business. But it also benefits two counterintuitive categories that are just as crucial to the success of the company.

First, the better you understand your data, the better you can prioritize the people involved in your recruiting process. This includes your team members, the candidates, and recruiters (or hiring managers). Efficient systems allow you to create more meaningful human connections, which lead to better personal experiences and professional matches.

Second, the details of the data enable you to focus on your Big Picture. Your company’s mission determines its critical path steps. Recruiting metrics allow you to work backwards to find the human resources you’ll need, to get to where you want to go.

The most helpful metrics measure how efficiently you manage your time, how effectively you invest your money, and the quality of the results.

Time metrics include time to fill (how long does it take to fill a role from the time the position is posted?) and time to hire (how long does it take to fill a role from the time the candidate initiates the application process?) Comparing these two metrics helps you pinpoint any disconnects. If there’s a lag between posting the job and a candidate reaching out, other metrics to consider are the application completion rate (does your application have too many steps?) and call back rate (are your outreaches personal, and are they targeting the right people?)

Another strategic time metric is the interview to hire ratio (how many interviews do you conduct per each successful hire?) Once you’ve extended an offer, how long does it take for the candidate to accept the offer, and for a new hire to start the job? If your system isn’t streamlined, you’re leaving space for candidates to lose interest or get snatched up by a competitor.

The most important money metric is your cost per hire. This is all costs incurred, divided by the number of new hires. Costs include obvious categories such as recruiting staff salaries, software, and advertising. Other expenses that are easy to overlook include health screenings, drug tests, sign-on bonuses, and relocation fees.

Quality metrics measure satisfaction, retention rates, and quality of hire. In addition to ATS data, assessments can help you quantify objective performance outcomes, and surveys give insight into subjective experiences.

Metrics that measure quality can help you identify areas of concern, but they can be difficult to interpret. The hiring process doesn’t work in a vacuum, and there may be other issues to address.

If job performance is low, are you hiring unqualified candidates, or have they not been properly trained during your onboarding process?

If your fill rate is lagging, have you written a compelling job description, or has your company’s reputation taken a hit? Are there issues out of your control, such as there being fewer qualified applicants because of the niche skill setrequired for the role?

If your company doesn’t reflect the diversity you prioritize, do you need to broaden your pool of applicants? Or do you need to address issues in your company’s culture?

In a competitive job market, smart leaders prioritize their hiring process. Recruiting metrics are an effective way to analyze your strategies and pinpoint the tweaks that create meaningful change.

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