Recruiting metrics are increasingly important in today’s global market where it’s becoming easier to obtain a large amount of candidate data in your applicant tracking system (ATS.)

Though key word searches and database smart tools aid in the process, talent acquisition still requires people to sift through information and make decisions in a quick and efficient manner.

Recruiting analytics can be applied to measure activity from the moment a job ad surfaces on a job board and becomes internet searchable until the time a candidate completes the full onboarding lifecycle.

3 Ways to Use Recruiting Metrics Effectively

1.     Establish an Analytics Culture at Your Company

The first hurdle is changing the way your company uses big data and analytics. How is recruiting viewed in your organization? Have you ever even considered analyzing the data in your applicant tracking system?

When an analytics culture is established over a transaction culture, benchmarks become more of a sprint instead of a marathon. Key recruitment metrics will begin to expose what is and isn’t working. They will also help define trends that can explain what time of the year or business cycle variations need to take place.

It’s common to look at fixate on simple transactions and numbers. But, it’s imperative to view these numbers as a larger part of the recruiting analytics puzzle. It will help you pinpoint areas where efficiencies can be realized.

Understanding trends and realizing behaviors that shift numbers in the right direction should always be the goal — not making recruiting into a science where the opposite takes effect — time is wasted striving for perfection. Taking a balanced approach will help achieve the greatest results.

2.     Get Help from Your Organization’s Big Data Experts

You might know what you want to know — but not certain exactly how to find it. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from accounting professionals in your organization who have tools in place for doing similar metrics but for different functions. Find out what tools your company is already utilizing to measure business processes. Can you apply these tools to your recruiting analytics efforts?

Involve IT in your discussions. Let the professionals handle the technology side of getting what you need. You are the steward and champion of your recruiting data. Help IT to help you by outlining what it is you would like to see with the raw data coming into your applicant tracking system.

3.     Utilize Tools and Technology

You’ll want to ensure you have the tools and technology in place to achieve your recruiting metrics goals. Cloud-based technology is key in having the ability to pull internet click rates and site visits.

Core reporting and metrics functionality should be a part of your applicant tracking system, so that you can pull the data you need to answer your business questions in one place, without resorting to exporting data to a spreadsheet or having to merge data from various sources.

Some Key Recruiting Metrics Your Organization Should be Using

Though many organizations want to know some of the same things like what it costs to hire an executive level employee versus an hourly employee – or which job boards provide the best candidates overall – realize that your organization is unique. Don’t waste time measuring things for the sake of measuring.

What are the overall goals of your organization? The departments you serve? By keeping the big picture in mind, you can help define key recruiting metrics that are unique and meaningful to your organization and its bottom line success.

So, what are some key recruiting metrics that other companies care about?  Some examples include the following:

  • Job Optimizing – When creating job postings, are you simply cutting and pasting the same job data over and over and then waiting around wondering why you’re not getting more traction online?  Job postings are a key place to start applying recruiting metrics.

Tools like Google Analytics can help you define your key word placement by seeking out the latest and greatest key word searches on the internet. If most people search for RN positions by typing “nursing jobs” but this term is nowhere to be found on your job posting, you have already missed the boat.

Job post optimization is fluid. Job posts are not something that you create once based on last year’s analytics and then hope they continue to work. It is the minimum measurement you should be taking as part of your overall recruiting metrics benchmarks.

  • Time to Hire – How long does it take to fill positions in your organization? How long does it take to fill executive positions? Regular salaried? Management? Hourly?

Seeing the trends in your human capital management system over the long haul for your specific job categories in terms of time-to-hire will provide you with some great planning measurements to apply to your recruiting process. It will also help hiring managers schedule their time to better suit their role in the recruiting process.

  • Interview to Offer Conversion Rates – If you have qualified candidates and gotten them to the interview stage, how many of them make it to an offer stage or even the offer acceptance stage? You can watch for trends and key recruiting metrics to figure out where in the process improvements can be made.

Recruiting and applicant tracking metrics will only become a bigger part of your company’s Big Data strategy. By putting in the legwork now, you can not only make recruiting measurements an easy part of your every day business cycle, but also contribute greatly towards your organization’s overall business goals.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jordann Donskey is a senior marketer at EPAY Systems is a leading SaaS provider of seamless human capital management technology and services designed to help medium to large businesses manage their workforce in a lot less time and with a lot less work.