Effective Hiring Metrics: Augmented

Metric is an act of obtaining measurement.

Measurement is the key to understanding a process. It paves the way for improving the process.

Organization Objectives

An organization aspires to recruit:

• Quality hires
• in the fastest possible time
• at optimal cost

Recruiting Ecosystem

Recruiters enable recruitment by providing suitable applicants to hiring organizations.

The two important stakeholders for the recruiter are:

• applicants and
• hiring manager

The applicants are sourced from diverse sources like:

• job boards
• social networking sites
• agencies
• employee referrals
• career sites
• applicant tracking systems (a well-nurtured database within an ATS will eventually be a source of well-qualified resumes)
• other referrals

Towards a comprehensive list of metrics

To derive a comprehensive list of recruitment metrics it is important to pay attention to the activities in each of the following phases.

Phase 1: Until the time a recruiter or an organization accepts to work on a job description

Phase 2: From the time of acceptance to work on a job description to the time an applicant joins an organization

Phase 3: After the applicant becomes an employee

Let us first take a look at activities about Phase 1 and Phase 3 before we take a deep dive into Phase 2

Phase 1: Until the time a recruiter or an organization accepts to work on a job description

Two important metrics that impact the quality of recruitment

Working on an incomplete job description will result in delayed or wrong recruitment. 

a) It is therefore essential to measure the percentage of JDs received that is complete in all aspects. 

Working on unqualified job descriptions can lead to rework

b) It is, therefore, essential to measure the percentage of JDs that are well qualified.

Phase 3: After the applicant becomes an employee

An organization is desirous of insights into the following aspects after the applicant becomes an employee, especially during the first year after joining.

• Was the quality of the hire adequate for the needs of the organization?
• How long did it take for the employee to become productive?
• How is the employee performing compared to his peer group or his predecessors?
• How satisfied is the hiring manager?
• How happy is the employee with the job? 
• What is the level of attrition of the new hires?
• How did the new hires fare in the first year? What was their performance rating? 
• How many of them were let go in the first year?

Phase 2: From the time of acceptance to work on a job description to the time an applicant joins an organization

An organization can leverage the Recruitment Funnel to gain insights into the effectiveness of the Recruiter and the Recruiting Organization. Listed below are the possibilities of insights that can be discovered:

• Effort Ratio
• Selection Ratio
• Offer to Joining Ratio
• Hiring Organization Shortlisting Efficiency Ratio
• Recruiter’s Ability to Source
• Recruiter’s Understanding of the Requirement
• Recruiter’s Control of the Applicant
• Recruiter’s Ability to Negotiate
• Recruiter’s Ability to Establish Relationship
• Recruiter’s Ability to Communicate
• Recruiter’s Ability to Sell

It is also essential to get an idea of the responsiveness of the recruiting organization.

• Upon commencement of a job description, how soon did the recruiter submit relevant resumes? What is the average turnaround time for this activity?
• Upon receiving resumes, what is the average time taken by the hiring organization to shortlist resumes?
• Once shortlisted, what is the average time taken to schedule interviews?
• Once scheduled, what is the average time taken to select an applicant?
• Once selected, what is the average time taken to make an offer to the applicant?
• Once offered, what is the average time taken by an applicant to join?
• Once a job position is approved, or an applicant is identified, organizations may be desirous of understanding the average time taken for the applicant to accept an offer or the average time taken to join

All this and much more are possible when an applicant tracking system is implemented in an organization.

In addition to effectiveness and responsiveness, organizations are desirous of recruiting at optimal costs. Therefore, cost per hire is an important metric.

An applicant tracking system is also helpful to measure the source of hire, including the source of all applications.

It is essential to understand the effectiveness of every channel from where applicants are sourced. This insight can improve the responsiveness of the organization.

Going forward

We have discussed essential recruitment metrics that affect the fortunes of an organization. 

This list is by no means complete.

A deep understanding of the recruitment cycle and a well-implemented Applicant Tracking System can give an excellent idea to carve out imaginative metrics leading to beautiful insights.

Applicant tracking systems: Easing the process of measuring

Applicant tracking systems can help track the source of every resume that finds its way into it. 

When appropriately architected, all possible measures about the recruiting ecosystem can arrive. Capturing the time and date stamp at each step of the recruitment activity is an essential ingredient of the architecture.

A properly implemented ATS can:

• nurture a quantitative and qualitative database
• reduce dependency on job boards, agencies, employee referrals
• increase the responsiveness of the hiring organization 
• reduce the cost of recruitment 
• improve the quality of hires

Adherence to robust standard operating procedures improves the usage of an ATS.

Important: Unless an applicant tracking system is properly implemented, data may never get into the system. It is, therefore, difficult to arrive at metrics.

Respecting data

When an organization respects data, it has the necessary cultural fabric to reap rich dividends. There is no limit to conjuring all possible meaningful metrics when there is a well-architected ATS, a process-compliant organization, and data discipline