How to Measure Your Recruitment Efforts
Like anything else in business, companies are looking for their return on investment. Businesses are always searching for results from the efforts being made and if it’s worth the time, money and resources being expended. Questions like, “Was it worth the money to travel there to recruit?” or “Is our money being spent here worth the number and quality of leads we’re getting from it?” need to be answered. Here are some tips to help better measure your recruitment efforts.
What Should You Be Tracking?
Time: One thing everyone seems to need more of is time. When it’s such a precious resource, recruiters should be keeping track of the time it takes to hire a candidate. Measuring the time it takes to hire a candidate gives your company a better look at efficiency. While the time for each position will vary based on the scope of the job, there should be a standard amount of time allotted for each position.
Turnover: Turnover is a fact of life, one-fourth of top performers are considered high-retention-risks. Employees leave for various reasons, and you’ll need to identify the top reasons people are leaving. Measuring their departures can help you assess what needs weren’t being met or potentially address management issues.
Cost per Hire: You could say determining the cost per hire is one of the most important metrics there are in determining ROI, but it’s not the only metric. A standard formula created by The Society of Human Resource Management can help you understand how much you’re department is spending to hire a candidate.
Cost per Hire = (Internal Costs + External Costs / Total Number of Hires)
Using this formula shouldn’t be an end-all-be-all for measuring your efforts though. If you find your CPH is a little high but you’re seeing great results from hires, then set a new standard for the cost of hire. This metric should be accounted for along with other metrics but should not serve as a standalone measurement.
Offer Ratios:
During the interview process, you should be keeping track of two conversions:
Interview to Offer Ratio
Offer to Acceptance Ratio
If you’re offering jobs to candidates but they’re not accepting the job offers and this isn’t a one-time situation, it may be time to reevaluate your interview process. Are you selecting candidates that are culture fits and are their expectations being met? When someone declines your offer you’re back to square one with filling the position, this leads to more money and time.
There are plenty of metrics out there to help measure your recruiting effectiveness. Ultimately, having these numbers can help you revise your approach and figure out how your efforts are best spent for recruiting. 95% of employers that have worked with an RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing), like Skywalk Group, say that their metrics improved significantly. If you’re looking to step up your recruiting efforts, contact us and we can assist you.
This blog post was originally published in October 2021 and has been updated for content and clarity.