What metrics are key to improving the hiring process?

Staffing firms historically rely on specific data points and metrics to generate better engagements for their clients. What the target numbers should be fluctuate by market conditions, economic influences and quite often seasonal cycles.

Generally speaking, however, there are some bedrock recruitment and hiring metrics that are critical to how staffing buyers determine ROI. These are the metrics that make staffing firm “A” a more likely choice than staffing firm “B” for your talent needs.

With sales in my DNA, my job was always to make the case for, “why should you use my staffing firm to hire your talent?” That’s easy, right? It boils down to numbers — numbers are tangible, measurable and provable bits, and at least with today’s tech stacks, should be easily accessible.? “We offer the most competitive rates.” “We hire X times faster.” “Our retention rate is X.”

This data is incredibly important and it is most definitely what better engagement is measured upon; we’ll dive into those in a minute as to what those numbers should be.

First, however, if I take a step back, in addition to the data, I’ve also realized that while numbers are the bottom line, it’s becoming increasingly important to factor in the “intangibles” that consistently influence an improved hiring process and better business outcomes for customers.

Along with metrics that validate your hiring strategy, there are people executing the strategy that impact its success—and your experience with them can make all the difference in the world:

• You are met with Relationship teams, comprised of long-tenured staffing leaders that seek to strengthen partnerships and think creatively about the services that will make your business more competitive.
• There are dedicated, industry-driven Recruiting teams that are laser-focused on how to solve your tech staffing needs because they are the experts in each respective field, whether that be finance and banking, energy and utilities, IT and more.
• You interact with Account teams that anticipate what is needed before they are asked, and deliver solutions at precisely the right time to avoid a delay in your product launch.
• Then, of course, there is the onboarding team and back-office professionals who serve as the backbone of most any given staffing operation and strive to keep a pool of talented consultants happy and performance-ready.??

It is the people that drive the metrics for an improved hiring process. Engagements are better because the process is seamless, the product exceeds expectations and the customer service relieves stress, instead of adding to it. When all of the above falls into place, the metrics are usually on track.

Hiring Metrics that Matter:

When you factor in the above, blending your hard data together with the service and delivery evaluation, the scorecard for an improved hiring process could look something like this:

Cost per hire | Time to Hire | Fill Rates | Applicants Per Role

All important, all calculable and provable. But all can vary based on the timeframes you choose to measure, or the actions you place into “hard” vs. “soft” cost categories. For instance, cost per hire is market-driven, naturally, as you pay higher prices for talent from specific areas of the country as well as costs to recruit in terms of marketing, source channels, etc. These are great metrics to lean into to compare A to B, but keep in mind that all the input values must be comparable. They are also good metrics to help take action and uncover issues. If let’s say you have low applications for any given job, it is a trigger to review the components of the position – the pay, the skills needed, the benefits. Or perhaps, filling out the application had some stumbling blocks, causing candidates to drop off in the process. It’s an onion where you can peel back layers to the get to the root cause of any metrics that spark concern.

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Retention and Turnover Rates

There are different sub-categories here as well. You can have overall turnover rates, but you can break that down further by attrition according to time (first 3 months, new hires, first year) and all impact differently. The turnover rate in itself is significant because the cost to replace workers is high; it also hurts more if there is disruption to the business at a critical time that is often harder to quantify. To state the obvious— attrition rates low, retention rates high. But while?the reasons for turnover are often unforeseen and uncontrolled – personal reasons, family changes, etc.— the data should always lead you to “why” so that processes can be adjusted or in the case of retention, repeated. What was going on in the company when someone left? Was it an onboarding issue? Did the skills required miss the mark? The track record of attrition can also be related to how satisfied candidates are with their hiring experience, and ultimately if they were led down the right path to the right role in the first place.

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Candidate and Client Metrics?

These are important and quite often subjectively based on feedback and surveys.?

Net Promoter Score is a prized metric. It is an evaluation system that determines customer satisfaction so to speak and how likely someone would recommend a company. For staffing firms in 2023 it is an indicator of the candidate experience, where statistics note the industry average at 36%, considered favorable according to general rule. Various industry articles classify the 50s as an excellent range and anything above 80 as “world class.” Factoring in the NPS is certainly an indicator for what the staffing relationship will be like.

Candidate Call-Back Rates, Quality of Hire, Offer Acceptance and Candidates Per Hire

Again, all quantifiable, but also reflective of culture, experience and relationships. For example,? you’ll know if you’ve been assigned a stellar recruiter if their call-back rate is high. Are there job factors in play like salary, location, niche skills that drive candidate interest? Of course. But this is a people business and a recruiter who excels at connecting is highly coveted. As with calculating Offer Acceptance, you can get indicators into the process of not just simply “yes” or “no” but also where there may have been a breakdown in the interview process, change in terms, or lack of priority communication.

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Optimizing the Analytics

The metrics being what they are will give you the overview of whether or not the hiring process is working, both as individual indicators in that one particular area, and as triggers to dig deeper as measurables are often dependent on each other. Underscoring the metrics, however, is the team put in place to implement your hiring process and determining the value they bring to the day-to-day.

The data should tell you a story, ultimately outlining where improvements need to be made, how to adapt strategy, where more resources should go, and more. Most importantly, metrics are a catalyst to conversations.