What are the best ways to track recruiting metrics for startups?

1 Define your goals and KPIs

Before you start tracking your recruiting metrics, you need to define your goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) for your hiring process. What are you trying to achieve with your recruitment? How do you measure your success and progress? What are the benchmarks and targets that you want to reach? Your goals and KPIs should be aligned with your overall business objectives, and should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). For example, you might want to hire 10 developers with a certain skill set in the next three months, with an average cost per hire of $5,000 and a retention rate of 80%.

2 Choose the right metrics

Once you have your goals and KPIs, you need to choose the right metrics that will help you track and evaluate them. Although there are many possible metrics, not all of them are relevant or useful for your specific situation. Focus on the metrics that reflect the quality, quantity, speed, cost, and diversity of your hiring process – such as time to hire, cost per hire, quality of hire, source of hire, and diversity of hire – in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your recruitment strategy. Time to hire is the average number of days from the moment a candidate applies to the moment they accept the offer. This metric shows how fast and efficient your hiring process is. Cost per hire is the average amount of money spent on recruiting a new employee. Quality of hire is the value and performance of a new hire. Source of hire is the origin or channel from which a candidate applied or was referred. Lastly, diversity of hire is the representation and inclusion of different groups of candidates based on factors such as gender, race, ethnicity, age, disability, or background. All these metrics can help you promote and foster diversity and inclusion in your hiring process and workplace.

3 Collect and analyze the data

Once you have selected the metrics to track, you need to collect and analyze the data that will help measure them. Utilizing an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is one way to gather and store data related to candidates, such as resumes, contact information, status, and feedback. Surveys and feedback forms offer a way to collect qualitative and quantitative data from candidates and employees, such as their satisfaction, expectations, opinions, and suggestions. Analytics and dashboards are useful for visualizing and interpreting the data acquired by providing graphs, charts, tables, and reports. This allows for comparing the data, recognizing trends and patterns, as well as uncovering insights and opportunities.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?