Businesses are looking at innovative and evolving ways for getting a competitive edge in the industry. For them, prioritizing the continual improvement of their internal processes is no more a choice but a dire necessity – and talent recruitment tops the list!

Recruiting the right talent has always been a strenuous task for companies irrespective of their size, brand, global presence, emoluments offered, etc. Most companies are adopting creative and value-driven recruitment strategies which are quite visible in most social media platforms. But are they really gauging the effectiveness of these efforts? This is something that we need to delve into further. Measuring recruitment effectiveness adds to the hassle since most companies are unsure on why and how to do the same.

If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.

Peter Drucker

Long gone are the days when we made decisions based on assumptions. A data-driven approach is the new normal. We need to measure the effectiveness of recruitment efforts since they open realms to answer questions, present results, make improvements, deliver value, and set trends in the industry. For that matter, companies need to track recruitment metrics which are measurements used to streamline the recruitment process. It is very important to link the recruitment metrics to business outcomes for reduced cost and increased revenue for any organisation. Let’s try to understand the why part!

Create candidate experience:

This is a widely discussed topic nowadays since companies started realising the importance of the same. As per PWC reports, 49% of candidates turned down offers due to bad recruiting experience. Some of the reasons can be unclear communication, lack of timely response, etc. By understanding how to professionalize the recruitment process, companies can deliver an exceptional and ,engaging candidate experience.

Organizational reputation:

Most organizations use their brand name to attract top talent since there is an existing perception about assured job security, exceptional employee benefits, etc. A very few candidates would be willing to apply in companies they have never heard of. But the changing times have proved that even companies with a strong reputation of what they stand for, have started attracting the best talent. Tracking candidate perception about most notable factors like training opportunities, work life balance, culture, diversity and inclusion, etc. helps companies to develop strategies to reinforce the strengths and restore the weaknesses.

Optimize recruitment process:

Most candidates complain about the time taken for progressing into each recruitment step and the lack of an effective feedback mechanism. While analysing the timeline for recruitment of each role, we will be able to find out the exact reason for the same and bring in proper mechanisms to address the issue.

Channel recruitment efforts:

Companies come up with a variety of recruitment efforts which at times involve huge cost. But most of them are unsure on the impact it has created since the effort outcome is not tracked. Analysing the same can give a better idea on creating engaging ads, sources/top channels to attract quality candidates, target audience, candidate application pattern, etc.

Impact of changing times:

We are all going through a different phase of time since the outbreak of Covid, where complete virtual recruitment has become a new normal. How prepared companies were to tackle the situation in terms of technology, is still a question. This new normal is creating new trends across every function which is still an ongoing process. Companies need to foresee these trends and evolve to match the new expectations.

Diversity & Inclusion (D&I):

According to PWC reports, 62% of job seekers are more likely to apply for a job where a company is openly committed to improving diversity and inclusion in their workforce. D&I efforts need to be formulated and implemented based on the business goals which again needs to be tracked for better results.

Understanding the reasons for which we need to track the recruitment metrics is a stepping stone towards success in talent recruitment. There are a bountiful number of metrics which we can track to measure recruitment success. Let’s discuss a few of them which attributes directly to the cause we are working towards.

Recruitment metrics are of two types: Qualitative and Quantitative in nature. While qualitative metrics speak about tracking subjective information, quantitative metrics are more about representation using numbers.

Qualitative Metrics:

1. Source of hire: Companies need to track the source of each resume like whether the candidate applied through any job boards, referrals, social media platforms, etc. This data helps companies to identify where to focus their recruiting efforts like posting job ads, publishing engaging content, etc., to control recruiting costs and to implement the system effectively.Tips: Tracking each candidate source and analysing the data is a strenuous task when done manually. So companies need to invest in a good recruitment automation platform which would automate the whole process, thereby delivering meaningful insights to the recruitment team.
2. Candidate Experience: Creating an exceptional candidate experience is one of the main focus areas for most companies in this present scenario. Since most recruitment processes are conducted virtually; collecting and analysing candidate feedback on the whole recruitment process is important. This data helps the companies to identify the recruitment delays or lags and how to rectify the issue. Collecting feedback from candidates regarding their perception on employee benefits like work life balance, training opportunities, company culture, work environment, etc. helps companies to understand their expectations and aspirations.Tips: Collecting feedback from candidates (even if they are not selected at any stage of the recruitment) using an interactive AI enabled conversational chatbot helps companies to create a great candidate experience and also gives useful information to the recruiters.
3. Quality of hire: Filling an open position isn’t just enough to ensure successful recruitment since quality of hire is what determines the same. Some of the metrics which can be tracked to assess quality of hire are as follows:a) New hire retention rate: New hire retention rate gives a direct input on the quality of hire since it helps companies to assess and improve the interview stages better. Measured as rate of new hires retained in an assessment period vs. new hires in the start of an assessment period.b) Performance time period: This refers to the time taken by a new hire to ramp up to outcome based performance. The duration gives a clear indication on the quality of hire which may or may not be influenced by other factors.c) Recruitment practice: Companies need to gauge the new hire efficiency when hired using an automated resume screening software against when done manually. Comparing the difference helps companies to select and invest intelligently in technology.Tips: Choosing an intelligent recruitment platform helps companies to ensure best talent hiring since an automated and intelligent platform helps recruiters in matching the best talent to their requirements.
4. Diversity Track: Tracking candidate diversity is yet another important metric since it helps companies to attract diverse skilled talent. Diversity is not just limited to gender and age but it needs to cover a range of other factors related to a candidate’s personal characteristics and workplace characteristics. Personal characteristics to be tracked are age, gender, differently abled, sexual orientation, racial or ethnic background, education background, marital and parental status, religious beliefs, etc. Workplace characteristics include job level, service in each organisation, career growth, skill rating, leadership style, communication style, etc.Tips: A wide range of candidate attributes can be easily and effectively tracked using an AI based ATS platform which will help companies to identify candidate application pattern and channel efforts accordingly.

Also Read: Benefits of Recruitment Process Automation In Your Hiring Process.

Quantitative Metrics:

1. Recruitment Timeline: Most candidates have concerns on this point since they are left unsure on either an interview feedback or on further steps. Companies need to track the recruitment timeline for each candidate. The number of days taken for each recruitment step per candidate helps companies to identify the lag/delay and speed up the process to make faster decisions.Tips: Use of an AI-enabled recruitment software helps to track the timeline efficiently and streamline the process accordingly.
2. Applicants per hire: Tracking applicants per hire gives the recruiters an input on several areas like the efficiency of platforms where the job ad is published, job preferences like location, and also the quality of the job ad itself like engaging content, etc.Tips: Tracking applicants for each role is quite difficult for recruiters when done manually since it requires a lot of organising to be done. Using an automated recruitment platform eases this process thereby giving more time for recruiters to focus on implementing process improvement.
3. Cost per hire: As per PWC reports, HR costs make up to 20% of a company’s total operating expenses on an average. So there is always an increased demand to track metrics and demonstrate ROI. Tracking cost per hire helps companies to plan recruitment efforts and allocate budget efficiently. The cost per hire includes both internal recruitment cost and external recruitment costs.Internal Recruitment Costs include expense of recruitment process (no: of hours*hourly salary of interviewer or hiring manager), equipment cost, travel cost, administrative cost, benefits, referral bonus, etc.External Recruitment Costs include external or out-of-office costs, agency/consultant fees, advertisement cost(job boards), technology costs (eg-recruitment software), recruiting event costs, candidate costs like travel costs, relocation costs, joining bonus, notice period cover up costs, etc. Cost per hire is calculated by:(Internal Recruitment cost+External recruitment cost)/total hires in a time frame.Tips: Using interactive dashboards in AI enabled recruitment platforms help in tracking and analysing the cost per hire metric effectively.
4. New hire joining per role: The new normal of remote work has broken all barriers with respect to work location since most companies are offering complete work-from-home opportunity to candidates. Candidates are holding more than 3 to 4 offers at a time while they still pursue bigger offers during their notice period. So it’s very important for companies to track new hire joining per role since it gives wide information to recruiters on the candidate’s behaviour. This metric when linked to candidate information helps recruiters to identify trends in candidates who accept the offer and join as promised.Tips: AI recruitment platforms with predictive hiring feature increases the accuracy of hiring by giving intelligent recommendations on hiring the most suitable candidate.

Consistency is the key! Consistent innovation in recruitment is inevitable since attracting and hiring the right talent is always challenging. Companies need to adopt smarter and intelligent platforms where they can gather, analyze and validate the recruitment data. For successful recruitment practices, companies need to shift their focus from a traditional assumption-driven approach to a data-driven approach.

,Get in touch with us to understand how you can take your recruitment efforts to the next level!