6 Hiring Metrics Your Business Needs Right Now

Figures released by the Office of National Statistics yesterday reveal that unemployment fell to 1.6 million in the three months to September, reaching an 11 year low. Accompanying those statistics, REC reports an ongoing drop in candidate availability. Understanding your recruitment metrics is vital to compete for talent and achieve long-term goals. Here are the most important:-

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Source of hire : Insight into the sources of your most qualified applicants and hires allows HR to focus its efforts across appropriate online recruitment channels. HR technology provides insight into where every applicant in your data base comes from. For example, job boards often provide the highest number of applicants but the lowest number of hires. Employee referral programmes on the other hand are typically the source of your most qualified applicants and should ideally provide ‘no less than 40%’ of your new hires. Data analysis provides a clear comparison between all candidate sources, allowing you to adjust your hiring process accordingly.

Candidate ‘fall-out’ : A variety of factors can result in prospective candidates abandoning your hiring process. Most job seekers won’t spend more than 15 minutes completing an application form. Keep your process succinct and allow candidates to complete a simple register of interest rather than click through several pages requesting the same information.
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Time to hire : A new survey from Robert Half found that HR directors in the UK take an average of 28 days to make a successful hire. Top performers appear only briefly on the jobs market so the longer it takes, the more likely there is to be a gap between the vision of your ideal candidate and the person you ultimately hire. Time to hire is the metric which can have the most impact on your ability to engage talent in your recruiting funnel.

Quality of hire : Less than a quarter of UK businesses are confident in evaluating their quality of hire and only 5% view themselves as ‘best in class’. Employee attrition rates are a good indicator of the quality of your hire.

Offer to acceptance : Earlier this year, CV Library reported a rise in the number of ‘job hoarders’, with half of all job seekers accepting multiple offers to strengthen their negotiations. A rejected offer impacts both employee morale and your cost of hire. If your rejection ratio is high, carry out a more in-depth analysis of your offer, including salary, benefits, flexible working and career development opportunities. As an additional measure, request candidate feedback and the reasons for rejection as part of your hiring process.

Cost of hire : In 2014, Oxford Economics calculated the cost of a new hire at £30,614. More recent research supports that figure specifically for SMEs. Depending on the skills required it could be significantly higher. Your cost of hire will include posting to job boards, management of social media accounts, interview time, general admin costs and agency fees where relevant. The additional ‘hidden’ costs include the impact on your team morale and the onboarding and initial training of new hires. Supporting your talent acquisition strategy with HR technology which incorporates video interviews will help to reduce the cost of hire. 

​Effective data depends on streamlined recruitment processes. The success of talent management strategies goes beyond this data and is influenced by issues such as a negative employer brand, toxic leadership or unconscious bias in hiring. Companies which continue to rely on manual recruitment systems will also experience problematic hiring.  

As your metrics begin to reveal your hiring patterns, HR can adjust and amend recruitment strategies in order to target talent pools and candidates who possess business critical skills.

Further reading:-

Talent Acquisition : 9 Ways To Boost Your Interview Success

5 Ways To Create A Happier Workforce