Tell me I’m wrong. Seriously.
Let’s play a game. I’ll suggest 3 uncommon recruiting metrics people should actually look at, then you tell me why I’m dumb.
No, seriously. Unlike a lot of common recruiting metrics, Jeff Smith and I think these have a practical application. But we’re just a couple of dudes talking on Linkedin (and as we’ve covered, no one on LinkedIn knows anything.)
1. Percentage of candidates who make it through multiple interviews.
Submission-to-Interview and Interview-To-Hire ratios get skewed by a few things. False starts, changing requirements (often from first time position hires), and the dichotomy of hiring managers who act on the first good candidate vs those who need to see a hundred. (Different discussions for a different day.)
The true purpose of recruiting is to make hires. But as a top of the funnel goal, isn’t just getting solid people, who fit the job *and* want it, a sign you’re on the right track?
Isn’t simply tracking the ratio of candidates who made it to multiple interviews (invited back and want to come back) the best way to gauge that?
2. Historic tenure by source (for internal TA teams, not agency.)
Tracking source effectiveness for agency recruiting is going to give you a lot of junk data. Every client is different. And it’s literally your job to use any and all means necessary to find people. Even if you know which source is most effective for placements, it’d be silly to lever entirely into it or cut out others.
And isn’t retention a more interesting measure for companies anyway?
What if you could measure that your longest hires were all from referrals? Or all from a particular agency? Or what if job ads (people who found you) tended to stay longer than direct outreach (people who you found)?
Internal teams’ biggest struggle is time and bandwidth. What if the data showed not only where to spend the most time, but what time added the most long term value?
Or conversely, it shows there’s no difference and you can get over your source biases.
3. Percentage of clients who return as customers (for agency, not TA teams.)
Or the inverse, how many clients have fired you?
Is there a better metric to gauge long term satisfaction than repeat buying? In any industry?
Just some thoughts. What uncommon metrics do you look at that are useful? Hit me up.
Partner at Hirewell. #3 Ranked Sarcastic Commenter on LinkedIn.
