Key Metrics for Efficient Talent Acquisition

Recruitment KPIs measure recruiting performance and process, reveal areas for improvement and show the value and RoI for specific recruitment efforts. Traditionally, talent acquisition teams would measure popular HR performance metrics and unique ones like cultural fit, source of hire, and sourcing channels. 

Since talent acquisition is an operating expense, choose KPIs to show efforts are saving capital, acquiring top-quality talent, and improving efficiency. 

Building an efficient recruitment pipeline or talent pool involves 

• building a brand as an attractive workplace, 
• finding passive candidates, and 
• staying in touch with applicants. 

Measuring your recruitment funnel, building and maintaining a talent pipeline requires a significant investment of resources that will tie efforts to measurable outcomes that boost your company’s bottom line and performance. 

We examine the top seven metrics to track for informed talent acquisition.

1. Applicants-to-hire ratio

This metric represents the number of applicants applying for a role to the number of candidates hired for that position. Talent acquisition teams can understand the hiring intensity and decide if they want to use additional criteria to vet candidates. 

If the ratio is consistently higher, for instance, 100:1, pre-employment tests and data-driven recruitment processes can save time and resources while hiring the most qualified candidates. 

2. Time to hire

It tracks the speed of screening, evaluating, interviewing, and hiring candidates for a position. It indicates the talent acquisition process’s efficiency and overall candidate experience. 

This metric depends on the role type, industry, and your company’s talent acquisition process. 

3. Cost per hire

This metric gives the talent acquisition teams the efficiency of the recruiting process and evaluates RoI. It is the average amount of money you spend on recruiting an employee. 

CPH = (Internal recruiting costs + External recruiting costs)/Total number of hires 

It includes talent acquisition, onboarding, travel, equipment, advertising, administrative costs and benefits, referral programs, job board fees, and agency fees. 

4. Quality of hire

An important metric that indicates a new candidate’s value to your company’s long-term success, it continues to be valuable and considers the following factors 

• Employee engagement describes the relationship between an organization and its employees qualitatively and quantitatively. 
• Time-to-productivity measures a new hire’s time to full productivity and gages fresh candidates on how quickly they attain certain productivity levels. 

• Job performance indicators report the performance reviews for a given employee. 
• Cultural fit is measured by 360-degree ratings of the new employees by their colleagues and managers. 

Measuring the quality of new employees can be subjective and is critical for your organization’s success. 

5. Attrition rate

Attrition rate = No. of employees who left the company/Avg. no. of employees over a given period 

High attrition rates concern recruiters as replacing top talent can be costly in terms of money and resources required to onboard new candidates. This metric will help companies understand employee satisfaction levels and shape employee retention strategies. 

6. Efficiency ratio

Calculate hiring efficiency by dividing the talent acquisition costs by the starting pay of the new employees. Why? It is directly linked with how efficient your existing hiring is and gives you an idea of how many applicants you can take. 

This is important for the long-term growth of your business so you can meticulously configure your model into one that is not economically detrimental. 

7. Candidate experience

With this metric, talent acquisition teams can drill down into specific areas of your recruitment process with an understanding of the overall satisfaction levels of your candidates. 

Additionally, it will help them optimize specific areas of your hiring journey – from initial application and first interviews to assessments, digital communications, and beyond. 

As per a recent survey: 

• 60% of candidates stated that timely communication during the application process makes a positive impact. 
• 80%+ candidates say that negative experience can change their decision even at the last minute. 

Engage with every candidate to ensure a positive candidate experience, ensuring they remain informed of their progress, increase candidate satisfaction, and keep them from considering other opportunities. 

Recruitment KPIs help your talent acquisition efforts be more data-driven and cost-effective. Talent management teams can automate the process and delivers advanced data visualization and reporting features. 

As talent acquisition is a long and imperfect journey, HR leaders must leverage artificial intelligence to deep dive into candidate persona. 

Draup’s talent intelligence platform analyses and evaluates the underlying talent attributes across firms, industries, individuals, and regions to make better talent acquisition decisions. 

Draup’s researchers have collected data from over 4,500+ job roles spread across 33 industries, 7,000+ universities, and 30,000 skills to provide accurate data sets, expertly analyzed data points with tailor-made reports and insights to make talent acquisition a seamless experience.