Recruitment Metrics You Should Be Tracking: Extensive List

Intro

What are recruiting metrics?

Recruiting metrics are standardized measurements of your recruiting process.

Recruiting metrics are used to monitor, track and measure your whole hiring process.

Why should you track recruitment metrics?

Tracking recruiting metrics enable you to provide validated, data-backed evaluation of your hiring process.

Tracking recruiting metrics will tell you what which parts of your recruiting process work well, and which don’t. 
That way you can recognize and establish your best recruiting practices, but also spot bottlenecks and issues that need to be dealt with.

This is why HR professionals use hiring metrics – to make better and more informed decisions and find and hire the ideal job candidate easier and faster.
According to LinkedIn research, HR teams who track and measure recruiting metrics are 2 times more likely to find talent faster and more efficiently.  

In short, recruiting metrics provide valuable insights into the efficiency and effectiveness of your recruiting process.
Based on this insights, you will gain a deeper understanding of your recruiting process, which will enable you to improve it. 

Tracking recruiting metrics will tell you how you spend your time and money in your recruiting process and what can you do optimize your spending and improve your whole hiring process.

Types of recruitment metrics

There are many different HR and recruiting metrics created to measure and track every step of your recruiting process and evaluate every aspect of your hiring methods and practices.

To make the list of recruitment metrics easier to understand, we structured them into 6 main categories:

1. Recruitment Marketing metrics
2. Hiring Velocity metrics
3. Hiring Expenses metrics
4. Hiring Quality metrics
5. Hiring Source metrics
6. Referral metrics

Each of these 6 main categories f recruitment metrics consists of subcategories that contain specific recruitment metrics.
In the following text, we will provide an overview of all the 6 main recruitment metrics categories and a brief explanation of every subcategory and its specific recruitment metrics. 

1. Recruitment Marketing metrics 

➡️ Definition 

Recruitment Marketing metrics is a group of recruitment metrics that measure the results and effectiveness of your Recruitment Marketing strategy.

➡️ Importance 

Tracking these recruitment metrics can show you how successful you are in promoting your company’s Employer Brand and attracting candidates to apply for your open positions.

1.1. Employer Branding metrics

Employer Branding metrics will tell you is your company perceived as a desirable employer.

• Giveaway/Takeaway ratio 
  How many of your applicants come from your competitor companies? / How many of your employees leave to join the competition?
  
  
• Number of open applications 
  How many people apply to work at your company even when you don’t have any open job positions?
  
  
•  Brand awareness 
  Is your Employer Brand positively recognized by your target groups?  
  
  
• Retention rate
  How many employees leave your company in a certain time period?
  
  
• Offer-acceptance rate
  Out of all the job offers, how many of them get accepted? 

1.2. Candidate Experience metrics

Candidate experience metrics will tell you how satisfied candidates are with your recruitment process.

• Offer-acceptance rate 
  Out of all the job offers, how many of them get accepted?
  
  
• Net promoter score 
  How likely are your candidates to recommend your company as a great place to work for?
  
  
• Candidate engagement 
  How engaged are your candidates in your recruiting process?  
  
  
• Candidate satisfaction 
  How satisfied are your candidates with your overall recruiting process?   

1.3. Career Site metrics

Career site metrics will tell you how effective is your career site in turning your career site visitors into applicants.

• Career site visitors 
  How many people visit your career site?
  
  
• Career site bounce rate 
  What is the percentage of visitors who come to your career site and immediately leave without doing anything?
  
  
• Average session duration 
  What is the average length of time that visitors spend on your career site?
   
• Career site conversion rate 
  What is the percentage of your career site visitors that complete the desired action (apply for your open job positions, join your talent pool, register for an event, etc.)?
  
  
• Career site new visitors 
  What percentage of your career site visitors are new visitors?
  
  
• Career site returning visitors 
  What percentage of your career site visitors are returning visitors?
  
  
• Career site paid traffic 
  How many visitors come to your career site from paid advertising campaigns (via Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, LinkedIn Ads or another paid search platform)?
  
  
• Career site organic traffic 
  How many visitors come to your career site directly from the search engines?
  
  
• Career site paid keywords 
  Which keywords (or search phrases) bring visitors to your career site through paid search?
  
  
• Career site organic keywords
  Which keywords (or search phrases) bring visitors to your career site directly through search engines?
  
  Career site traffic source  
  Where do your career site visitors come from (form email, social media, search engines, other websites, online advertisements, etc.)? 

1.4. Application Form metrics

Application Form metrics will tell you how effective is your application form in turning your career site visitors into applicants.

• Application form conversion rate 
  Of all the candidates that see your application form, how many convert into applicants?
  
  
• Application form abandon rate
  Of all the candidates that start filling out the application form, how many are drop-offs?
  
  
• Application form return rate 
  Of all the candidates that have abandoned application form before, how many return and complete it? 

1.5. Recruiting Email metrics

Recruiting email metrics will tell you how successful are your recruitment email campaigns.

• Email open rate 
  What percentage of candidates have opened your email?
  
  
• Email response rate 
  What percentage of candidates have responded to your email?
  
  
• Email conversion rate 
  What percentage of candidates have completed the desired action (clicked to see your open job positions, clicked to read your company blog, etc.)?
  
  
• Email bounce rate
  What percentage of your candidates has never received your email (due to full mailbox, deleted email address, etc.)?

1.6. Landing Page metrics

Landing page metrics will show you statistics related to each of your special campaign landing pages (for example, the landing page for your recruitment event, the landing page for your company blog, talent networking landing page, job opening landing page, etc.).

• Landing page visitors 
  How many people visit your landing page?
  
  
• Landing page new visitors 
  Of all your landing page visitors, how many are new visitors?
  
  
• Landing page returning visitors
  Of all of your landing page visitors, how many visit your landing page again?
  
  
• Landing page conversion rate 
  What is the percentage of visitors who complete your campaign goal (for example, fill in and submit a job application form, apply for your recruitment event, etc.)?
  
  
• Landing page bounce rate 
  What is the percentage of visitors who come to your landing page and immediately leave without doing anything?
  
  
• Landing page paid traffic 
  How many visitors come to your landing page as a result of paid advertising (via Google AdWords or another paid search platform)?
  
  
• Landing page organic traffic
  How many visitors come to your landing page from the search engines?
  
  
• Landing page traffic source 
  Where do your landing page visitors come from (form email, social media, search engines, other websites, online advertisements, etc.)? 

1.7. Social Media Metrics

Social Media metrics will show you how successful is your social media recruiting strategy.

• Social Media engagement 
  How many people have seen, clicked on, liked, commented and shared your recruiting social media posts?
  
  
• Social Media application rate 
  How many candidates have applied for your open job positions directly through social media (for example, Facebook job ads, Facebook job tab, Instagram job ads, etc.)?
  
  
• Social Media hires 
  What percentage of your new employees applied through Social Media?
  
  
• New hires by Social Media channel 
  Which Social Media channel (network) is your best source of hired candidates (is it Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.)?
  
  
• Applicants by Social Media channel 
  Which Social media channel (network) brings in the most applicants for your open job positions (is it Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.)? 

2. Hiring Velocity metrics

➡️ Definition
Hiring Velocity metrics is a group of recruitment metrics that measure the speed and duration of your hiring process. In other words, this metrics will tell you how long does it take you to find and hire candidates.

➡️ Importance
Tracking these recruitment metrics can show you how quickly can you fill your company’s open positions.

2.1. Pre-application metrics

• Time to find 
  How many days does it take to receive the first application after you publish and promote your open job openings (for example, on your career site, social media or job board)?
  
  
• Time to source 
  How many days does it take you to source a qualified candidate? 

2.2. Post-application metrics

• Time to fill 
  After you have candidates (sourced or applied) for a job opening, how many days does it take to hire someone?
  
  
• Time to hire 
  How long is your whole recruitment process, from creating a new job opening to hiring someone?
  
  
• Time in stage 
  How many days do candidates stay in each of your hiring stages (application stage, screening stage, talent assessment/testing stage, assignment stage, first interview stage, second interview stage, employment offering stage, etc.)?
  
  
• Time to start 
  How many days have passed between the day job offer was accepted to the day new hire's first day at work?
  
  
• Days to offer 
  How many days does it take you to make a job offer to a candidate (since the candidate has applied/been sourced)?  

3. Hiring Expenses metrics

➡️ Definition
Hiring Expenses metrics is a group of recruitment metrics that measure the cost of your hiring process.

➡️ Importance
Tracking these recruitment metrics can help you plan your recruiting budget and optimize your spending so you can achieve the best result while spending less money.

3.1. Pre-application metrics

• Cost to find 
  Overall, how much money do you spend until you get your first job applicant (this metric includes the cost of sourcing and advertising needed to attract potential candidates to apply for your open job positions)?
  
  
• Cost per applicant 
  How much money do you need to spend per job applicant (this metric includes sourcing and/or advertising costs)?
  
  
• Cost per qualified applicant 
  How much money do you need to spend per qualified job applicant (this metric includes sourcing and/or advertising costs)?
  
  
• Cost per advertising channel 
  How much money do you spend on each of the channels that you post your job opening on (Glassdoor, Indeed, LinkedIn, Social Media, etc.)? 

3.2. Post-application metrics

• Cost to fill 
  How much money do you spend to fill a job position once you have candidates in your hiring pipeline (this metric includes all the cost needed to hire the best candidate among candidates that you have in your hiring pipeline)?
  
  
• Cost per hire 
  What is the total amount of money you need spend to hire a candidate (this metrics includes the total costs of filling a job position, including costs needed to advertise and/or source candidates and to hire the best candidate in your hiring pipeline)?
  
  
• Onboarding expenses 
  How much money do you spend to onboard a new hire? 

4. Hiring Quality

➡️ Definition
Hiring Quality metrics is a group of recruitment metrics that measure the quality of the candidates you hire.

➡️ Importance
Tracking these recruitment metrics will help you find out if you are hiring the best people for your job openings and your company culture.

4.1. Employee Performance metrics

• Promotion rate 
  How many of your new employees were promoted in a certain time frame?
  
  
• Ramp-up time 
  How long does it take for new employees to reach their full productivity?
  
  
• Engagement 
  How driven and enthusiast are your new employees at their everyday job and how invested they are in their new role?
  
  
• Employee evaluation  
  How successfully is your new employee performing their job?  

4.2. Employee Satisfaction metrics

• Retention rate 
  How long does the new employee stay at your company?
  
  
• Net Promoter Score 
  How likely are your new employees to recommend your company as a great place to work at to their family and/or friends?
  
  
• Employee turnover rate 
  What is the percentage of employees that leave your company in a certain period of time? 

4.3. Cultural fit

• Mission and value alignment 
  Are your new employee’s personal values and goal aligned with your company mission and values?
  
  
• People fit 
  How well does the new hire communicate and work with colleagues and supervisors?
  
  
• Office culture 
  How well does the new employee fit into your office environment and rules? 

4.3. Hiring manager satisfaction

• Competency satisfaction 
  How satisfied is your hiring manager with your new hire’s competencies?
  
  
• Performance satisfaction 
  How satisfied is your hiring manager with your new hire’s work performance? 

5. Hiring Source metrics

➡️ Definition
Hiring Source metrics is a group of recruitment metrics that measure where your candidates come from.

➡️ Importance
Tracking these recruitment metrics will help you find out which sources/channels (such as job boards, referrals, social media, etc.) bring in most qualified candidates.

5.1. Quantitative metrics

• Applicants per job opening
  How many applicants do you get per job opening?
  
  
• Number of applicants per source 
  How many applicants come from each of your hiring sources/channels (such as job boards, referrals, social media, etc.)?
• Number of hires per source 
  How many of your hires come from each of your hiring sources/channels (such as job boards, referrals, social media, etc.)?
  
  
• Number of qualified candidates per source
  How many qualified candidates come from each of your hiring sources/channels (such as job boards, referrals, social media, etc.)?
  
  
• Retention rate per source  
  Which of your hiring sources/channels bring in the employees who stay the longest with your company? 

5.2. Qualitative metrics

• Source of best applicants 
  Which channel provides the most of your best applicants?
  
  
• Source of best hires 
  Which channel provides your best hires?
  
  
• Source of influence 
  Which channel has the greatest influence on your candidate’s decision to apply for your open job positions?
  
  
• Source of awareness 
  Where do your candidates first find out about your job opening? 

6. Referral metrics

➡️ Definition
Referral metrics is a group of recruitment metrics that measure the results and effectiveness of your employee referral programs.

➡️ Importance
Tracking these recruitment metrics can show you how engaged and successful your employees are in promoting your open job positions.

6.1. Employee metrics

• Employee referral rate 
  How many employees participated in the referral program this month/quarter/year?
  
  
• Best referee per job opening
  Which one of your employees referred the best candidates for a certain of your job openings?
  
  
• Most referrals per employee 
  Which one of your employees referred the most candidates in total (for all your open job positions in a certain period of time)?
  
  
• Most qualified referrals per employee 
  Which one of your employees referred the most qualified candidates?  

6.2. Alumni metrics

• Alumni referral rate
  How many of your alumnus participated in the referral program this month/quarter/year?
  
  
• Best alumni referee per job opening
  Which one of your alumnus referred the best candidate for a certain of your job openings?
  
  
• Most referrals per alumni
  Which one of your alumnus referred the most candidates in total (for all your open job positions in a certain period of time)?
  
  
• Most qualified referrals per alumni
  Which one of your alumnus referred the most qualified candidates?  

Should you track all of these recruitment metrics?

Seeing this extensive list of all these recruiting metrics can be quite intimidating.
But don’t worry - you don’t have to track all of them! 

In fact, this is exactly were beginners who are just getting started with HR analytics and data-driven recruiting make the biggest mistake.
They try to track too many recruitment metrics and get lost in the process. 

Trying to comprehend and analyze all of these recruiting metrics gets them stuck.
This is what we call “analysis paralysis”.
It means that you spend most of your time analyzing your recruiting process, instead of improving it. 

Remember, tracking recruiting metrics should be a way to improve your recruiting process, not a goal per se.

Which recruitment metrics should you be tracking?

We recommend starting with a few basic recruitment metrics.
Cost per hire, time to hire and quality of hire are most commonly referred to as the top 3 key recruiting metrics. 

However, these top 3 traditional recrutiment metrics are not enough anymore.

Recruiting has changed. It now incorporates marketing, too.
Today there is a whole new area of so-called recruitment marketing that also needs to be captured and measured.
This is why we strongly suggest you start tracking at least some of these recruiting marketing metrics, too.  

Tracking these basic metrics will give you an insight into the overall success of your recruiting process.
Once you get comfortable with them, you can slowly add new ones to gain a deeper understanding of each of your recruiting stages and strategies.  

Every recruiting metrics you add to the list of the ones you decide to track and measure should be problem-oriented.
For example, if your time-to-hire shows that your recruiting process is taking way longer than the industry standard and has negative effects on your recruiting outcomes and overall business results, you can add additional metrics to inspect it.
By adding additional metrics such as time your candidate spends in each stage of your recruiting process, you can spot the bottlenecks and optimize them. 

We will repeat once again: measurement should always be in the function of improving.
Keep that in mind and you’ll be fine, we promise. 

Now go on and start measuring! 🙂
And don’t worry, we’ve got your back.