15 sourcing and recruiting metrics: How to measure your hiring success

Erik Fiala
Erik Fiala
Founder, CEO at Source
Feb 23, 2023
10 min read
A group of people sitting in the office kitchen

Hiring the right talent for your company is a critical task, and measuring the success of your recruitment process is equally important. By tracking and analyzing sourcing and recruiting metrics, you can improve the effectiveness of your hiring strategy and make data-driven decisions. In this guide, we'll explore 15 sourcing and recruiting metrics that every organization should measure to determine their hiring success.

Table of contents

  1. Sourcing metrics
  2. Recruiting metrics
  3. Quality of hire metrics
  4. Conclusion
  5. FAQ

Sourcing metrics

Source of hire

The source of hire metric measures the channels through which candidates find your job postings and how many candidates apply for your job openings. By tracking this metric, you can identify which channels are the most effective in attracting quality candidates. This metric is essential for refining your sourcing strategy and identifying which recruitment channels you should focus on.

Percentage of referral hires

Referrals from existing employees are a great source of quality hires. By tracking the percentage of referral hires, you can measure the effectiveness of your employee referral program. This metric helps you determine whether your current employees are referring quality candidates and whether your referral program is effective.

Source quality

Source quality measures the quality of candidates that apply through different channels. This metric helps you understand which channels are attracting the most qualified candidates. By analyzing this metric, you can focus on the channels that are attracting the highest quality candidates.

Sourcing channel effectiveness

Sourcing channel effectiveness measures the efficiency of different channels in terms of the number of candidates hired. This metric helps you understand which channels are most effective at filling your open positions. By analyzing this metric, you can refine your sourcing strategy and focus on the most effective channels.

Sourcing channel cost

Sourcing channel cost measures the cost of hiring a candidate through different channels. By analyzing this metric, you can determine which channels are the most cost-effective for your recruitment process.

Recruiting metrics

Time to fill

Time to fill is a crucial metric that measures the time it takes to fill a job opening. This metric helps you understand the efficiency of your recruitment process. By analyzing this metric, you can identify the bottlenecks in your recruitment process and take steps to streamline it.

Application drop off rate

Application drop off rate measures the percentage of candidates who abandon their application before completing it. By tracking this metric, you can identify the points in the application process where candidates are dropping off. This metric helps you optimize your application process and improve candidate experience.

Time in workflow step

Time in workflow step measures the time candidates spend in each stage of your recruitment process. By analyzing this metric, you can identify which stages of your recruitment process are taking the most time. This metric helps you identify bottlenecks and optimize your recruitment process.

Offer acceptance rate

Offer acceptance rate measures the percentage of candidates who accept job offers. This metric helps you understand the effectiveness of your job offers and the attractiveness of your company to candidates. By analyzing this metric, you can identify areas of improvement in your job offer process.

Quality of hire metrics

The quality of hire metrics measures the overall effectiveness of the hiring process by evaluating the performance and retention of new hires.

Time to hire

Time to hire measures the length of time it takes to hire a new employee, from the job posting to the acceptance of the job offer. It's an important metric because a lengthy time to hire can result in losing top candidates to competing companies.

Cost per hire

Cost per hire is a metric that calculates the total cost of hiring, including recruitment expenses, advertising costs, and staff time. It helps organizations understand how much they are spending on recruiting and whether they need to adjust their hiring strategies to be more cost-effective.

Selection ratio

Selection ratio is a metric that measures the number of hires compared to the number of applicants for a particular job. A high selection ratio can indicate a problematic recruiting process or a lack of suitable candidates.

Retention rate

Retention rate measures the percentage of new hires that remain with the company for a specified period, usually the first year. A low retention rate could indicate problems with the recruiting process, job fit, or company culture.

Candidate job satisfaction

Candidate job satisfaction is a metric that measures the level of satisfaction among new hires with their job, work environment, and overall experience during the hiring process. It helps organizations evaluate their recruitment and onboarding process and make changes where necessary.

Conclusion

To measure your hiring success, you need to use a combination of sourcing, recruiting, and quality of hire metrics. These metrics provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your recruitment process, enabling you to identify areas of improvement and make data-driven decisions. By tracking and analyzing these metrics regularly, you can improve your hiring process, reduce costs, and increase the quality of your new hires. Remember, your ultimate goal is to find and retain the best talent to drive your company's growth and success.

FAQ

  1. What are sourcing metrics?

Sourcing metrics are the data points that help organizations measure the effectiveness of their hiring sources. These can include source of hire, percentage of referral hires, source quality, sourcing channel effectiveness, and sourcing channel cost.

  1. Why are sourcing metrics important?

Sourcing metrics help organizations evaluate the success of their recruiting efforts and make data-driven decisions. By analyzing sourcing metrics, companies can identify which sources are most effective at generating qualified candidates and which channels are costing too much without delivering quality hires.

  1. What is the source of hire metric?

Source of hire metric is a measure of where your successful job candidates come from. This metric helps you identify the most effective sources of candidates for your organization.

  1. What is the percentage of referral hires metric?

The percentage of referral hires metric is the percentage of new hires that were referred to the company by existing employees. This metric is a great way to measure the effectiveness of your employee referral program.

  1. What is the sourcing channel effectiveness metric?

Sourcing channel effectiveness metric helps organizations measure the quality of candidates generated by different sourcing channels. This metric allows you to compare the effectiveness of different recruiting channels, such as job boards, social media, and employee referrals.

  1. What are recruiting metrics?

Recruiting metrics are the data points that help organizations measure the efficiency of their hiring process. These can include time to fill, application drop off rate, time in workflow step, and offer acceptance rate.

  1. Why are recruiting metrics important?

Recruiting metrics help organizations identify bottlenecks in their hiring process, evaluate the success of their recruiting efforts, and make data-driven decisions. By analyzing recruiting metrics, companies can identify areas for improvement in their hiring process.

  1. What is the time to fill metric?

Time to fill metric is the amount of time it takes to fill a job opening, from the time the job is posted to the time the candidate accepts the offer.

  1. What is the application drop off rate metric?

The application drop off rate metric is the percentage of job seekers who start the application process but don't complete it. A high application drop off rate can indicate that the application process is too long or complicated.

  1. What is the offer acceptance rate metric?

Offer acceptance rate metric is the percentage of candidates who accept job offers. This metric helps organizations evaluate the effectiveness of their hiring process and the attractiveness of their job offers.

  1. What is the quality of hire?

Quality of hire is a measure of how successful a new hire is in their job. This can include metrics such as time to hire, cost per hire, selection ratio, retention rate (first-year attrition), and candidate job satisfaction (or candidate net promoter score).

  1. Why is the quality of hire important?

Quality of hire is important because it helps organizations measure the effectiveness of their hiring process and the success of new hires in their job. By analyzing quality of hire metrics, companies can identify areas for improvement in their hiring process and make data-driven decisions.

Share this post

Discover hidden technical talent

Source is a talent acquisition software that helps businesses hire hidden technical talent.
You’re on the waitlist!

Share these great news with your peers on LinkedIn.
Share on LinkedIn
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.