Last month, we discussed why and how to utilize metrics to assist you in meeting your organization's goals and objectives. But how do you use metrics in your daily recruitment functions? What do you track and why? Allow me to share an example with you.

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A couple of years ago, a recruiter was approached by a previous client with the opportunity to partner with them again. The recruiter was not excited about the business proposal; he had walked away from the organization previously. When the recruiter had tried to assist the client before, it had been "the black hole" of resumes. He sent candidate information in, but never got anything back. The organization also had long hiring processes and was inconsistent with interview feedback.

When the recruiter shared his previous experiences with the newly hired company representative, the representative said, "Okay, track it. Show me weekly which managers have openings, who you are submitting, and how long we're taking to get feedback to you. I will communicate with our managers what we're tracking and why and that the objective is to accelerate the hiring process."

The recruiter accepted, but also said, "In addition, I will track our individual success rate: candidate submittal-to-interview, interview-to-offer, and offer-to-acceptance." The company representative was anxious to see the results and be able to have real data to assist him in accelerating the hiring process.

 

The lack of response time in the hiring process was costing the company poor community representation, since candidates were finding other positions or they were losing interest in the opportunity altogether. The recruiter was happy to track his ratios and show that he was consistently presenting qualified candidates in a timely manner.

 

Within six months, the organization and the recruiter were working as true partners in the process. The hiring managers were aware of the "targeted" time frame for feedback and knew their results were being documented and shared with VP-level decision makers. The recruiter was focused on only supplying candidates that met the specifications, since he was being tracked on his success ratios, as well, which earned him a true client partner.

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How does this affect you and your organization? How can you use metrics to assist in the hiring process? The most common tracking system in the recruitment world is time to fill. Often, HR professionals and recruitment managers are evaluated by how long it takes them to fill each opening. But what's happening in between? Why does it take so long and why do some people review so many candidates to make a fill? There are additional metrics that can be tracked either internally, externally, or both:

• Submittal-to-interview - How many candidates are submitted to hiring managers and how many of those candidates get interviewed? This ratio tracks the quality of the candidates being shared with the hiring manager.
• Interview-to-hire - How many candidates are interviewed before making a hire? This is another quality measureable. Are you interviewing the right candidates? Does everyone have the same job description in mind?
• Offer-to-acceptance - How many offers are made before you fill the position? Is your organization making timely competitive offers? Too many offers for one open position will show a trend and determine that more research is needed to find the root cause of the problem.
• How many candidates were reviewed for each position? - A quality and quantity measurement.
• How long until you get feedback from hiring managers? - From the time a resume is put in front of the hiring manager, when do they get back to you with feedback?
• Interview-to-offer date - How quickly do you make an offer after the final interview? This will track the speed of the process.
• ROI on recruitment tools - Where are your candidates coming from? What is effective for you? Are you getting your money back?
  

These metrics, especially when working with multiple managers, will show trends and real-time data. With real-time data, goals and objectives for future recruitment tasks can be established. If you aren't in a hiring mode at this time, plan for the future. Evaluate your numbers from previous hiring strategies and develop what you will measure in the future and what you will track. Remember, continuous improvement in today's business world is always a measurable.