The 25 most important KPIs that every recruiter needs to know!

There are countless KPIs that can be used to measure the success of recruiting processes. We have summarized 25 of the most important metrics for efficient recruitment controlling in the following list.

The 25 most important recruitment KPIs at a glance

	Recruiting KPI	Description
1	Time to Hire	Duration from the time at which a position becomes vacant or newly created in the company until this position is filled with a new employee.
2	Time to Interview	Duration from job advertisement to first interview with candidates.
3	Channel Effectiveness	Efficiency of a recruiting channel – measured, for example, by the impressions, clicks or conversions generated via the corresponding channel.
4	Source of Hire	Percentage of hires by recruiting channel – e.g. career page, social media, trade fair appearances, etc.
5	Time of Vacancy	Duration, how long a position remains vacant. This KPI enables, for example, comparisons of which positions remain vacant longer than others.
6	Candidate Satisfaction	Candidate satisfaction with the recruiting process from application to hiring - often measured through surveys/feedback forms that the candidate receives after the application process. The aim is to improve the quality of the recruiting process.
7	Hiring Manager Satisfaction	Hiring managers' satisfaction with the recruiting process - often measured through surveys/feedback forms that hiring managers receive after the position has been filled. The aim is to improve internal processes, e.g. appointment coordination.
8	Offer Acceptance Rate	Number of candidates who accept a contract offer. This allows the attractiveness of a job offer to be determined. The offer acceptance rate can be calculated using a formula.
9	Quality of Hire	How well the newly hired candidate fits with the company – has he contributed to the company's success over a certain period of time? The KPI allows conclusions to be drawn about the quality of recruitment and can be calculated using various metrics.
10	Rejection rate	Number of rejections for an advertised position. The active rejection rate measures the rejections issued by the company. The passive rejection rate measures the rejections issued by the candidate.
11	Early fluctuation	Percentage of candidates who leave the company after the onboarding phase – i.e. who end their employment after less than six months.
12	Cost per Hire	Costs for filling a position. The calculation must take into account both external costs (costs for placing job advertisements, etc.) and internal costs (primarily personnel costs).
13	Cost of Vacancy	Costs for an unfilled position. The idea behind this recruiting controlling KPI is that each employee generates a certain share of the company's turnover and this share is lost accordingly if this employee is not available in a certain period of time.
14	Cost per Application	Average cost of an application. This figure is calculated by adding the external costs for placing job advertisements and HR marketing to the internal personnel costs. This sum is then divided by the number of applications generated by the measures.
15	Sourcing Channel Costs	Costs of a recruiting channel measured by the number of applicants returned. This allows the costs of the individual channels and their efficiency to be measured. To calculate this KPI, for example, divide the total costs per month by the number of applications received in a month.
16	Cost per Candidate	Costs for all channels in relation to the number of qualified candidates. The total costs of all recruiting measures are divided by the number of candidates acquired.
17	CPC job ads	Cost per click on a job advertisement ad (e.g. via Google Ads). The click prices for ads depend on various factors such as demand, time of day, location, etc. depending on the channel.
18	Candidate Conversion Rate	Number of career site visitors applying.
19	Traffic – Career Page	Number of visits to the careers page within a certain period of time.
20	CTR Company Page – Career Page	Click rate from the company page to the careers page.
21	CTR Career Page – Job Advertisement	Click rate from the careers page to a job advertisement.
22	Conversion rate application form	Number of candidates who submitted an application.
23	Time Average Job Advertisement	Length of time candidates spend on the job advertisement.
24	Abandonment rate of application process	Number of applications started minus the number of applications actually received.
25	Churn Rate per Channel	Dropout rate of candidates in the application process by recruiting channel.

Why these key figures in particular?

With the help of this compilation, you are prepared to measure the most diverse facets of recruiting:

While KPIs such as Time to Hire, Source of Hire or Channel Effectiveness of the application process, provide key figures such as Quality of Hire and Offer Acceptance Rate Information about the recruitment success.

KPIs such as cost per hire or cost of vacancy are important for financial controlling. Rejection rates and early turnover show how many candidates reject or quit early. With key figures such as candidate conversion rate or click rate, the success of the careers page and online activities can be analyzed in great detail.

The SMART principle can help to justify the selection of certain key figures to decision-makers. This defines 5 criteria for relevant KPIs: They must

specific,
measurable,
reachable,
results-oriented,
time-bound

In summary, a key performance indicator is selected according to the SMART method if it is linked to a precisely defined goal.

Key figures are always interesting when they can be benchmarked. This means that you have comparative values from the industry. For example, if you have insights or, better yet, concrete data on how successful competitors are with certain channels, you can use corresponding KPIs such as channel effectiveness, churn rate per channel, etc. to make direct comparisons with your own measures.

What are recruiting KPIs anyway?

Was sind Recruiting KPIs? — *(Photo: https://de.freepik.com/fotos-kostenlos/geschaeftsmann-praesentation-mit-seinen-kollegen-und-business-strategie-digitalen-layer-effekt-im-buero-als-konzept_1202403.htm by snowing )*

In order to be targeted and efficient in recruiting, the recruitment strategy and its individual processes should be constantly monitored for success. And the easiest way to do this is with recruiting KPIs!

KPI stands for Key Performance Indicators. They are an essential tool in recruiting controlling. They can be used to measure and evaluate recruiting processes.

Many recruiters use special software and dashboards to introduce KPIs using templates, analyze metrics and create benchmarks.

Does my company even need this?

Regardless of whether the company is large or small, measuring the success of the recruiting process brings many advantages. Potential for improvement can be derived from recruitment analytics metrics and the recruitment processes can be optimized accordingly. This makes it easier to address and win over candidates, but also saves costs.

A concrete practical example: You have a Career Page created to advertise job vacancies there. To attract visitors, you advertise on social media and with Ads in search engines to draw attention to the career page. The question arises: How is the performance of the individual channels?

Only if you measure these can you know which channels bring in the most leads and whether individual channels are really necessary or just waste money unnecessarily. The whole thing can be expanded further - how satisfied are the candidates with the channels, how many women and how many men were acquired via a certain channel, etc.? KPIs provide the relevant answers and insights.

Use recruitment KPIs strategically

Recruiting KPIs strategisch nutzen — (Photo: https://de.freepik.com/fotos-premium/datenanalyst-der-an-einem-business-analytics-dashboard-mit-grafiken-mit-kpis-und-metriken-arbeit-die-mit-der -database-for-technology-financial-operations-sales-marketing-connected-are_58520366.htm by smilephotoap)

In order to work strategically with KPIs in recruiting, the first question to ask is: What goals should be achieved in terms of recruiting? The answers to this can range from "increase the reach of the careers page" to "generate XY applications with ads". Based on such goals, it is possible to determine which key figures should be tracked. KPIs are often used that provide information about the costs, efficiency and quality of the measures and channels selected to achieve the goals.

The tracking of the key figures should be evaluated (regularly) after a predefined period of time. The KPIs then provide information on how well individual measures have worked to achieve the goal so far. For example, you can find out how much the different ad formats have cost during this time or which channel had the lowest or highest reach. Conclusions can be drawn from all of these findings for optimizing processes, channels and measures.

Why Recruiting KPI Dashboards are so helpful

A recruiting dashboard can be used to display KPIs in personnel recruitment. The relevant data is linked to one another - individual data only makes sense in connection with other KPIs. Various key figures are visualized in a compact manner, for example using diagrams, tables, charts or infographics.

The clear presentation makes it easy to explain progress in recruiting to other departments and managers. The dashboards make it possible to quickly and easily see the development of certain measures over a defined time interval.

Another big advantage is that various analytics dashboards automatically collect and provide data, provided they are linked to other tools. This means that you generally don't have to laboriously enter individual data yourself and have all the important KPIs bundled and clearly presented in one software. Benchmark data can usually be easily imported and evaluated (e.g. as an Excel table).

Even more successful in recruitment with KPI controlling

KPI Controlling Service — *(Photo: https://de.freepik.com/fotos-kostenlos/nahaufnahme-frauen-mit-grafiken_7332965.htm by freepik)*

To be successful in the war for talent, monitoring and using key performance indicators is essential. KPIs help to develop an efficient and data-based strategy. However, the correct selection, analysis and use of this data is not always easy.

Are you unsure which key figures are relevant for your recruiting? Or do you need support with controlling, e.g. evaluating data? Or do you lack suitable KPI dashboard software?

Our experts will support you in terms of recruiting metrics! Take advantage now Contact Contact us and tell us how we can help you.

(Source cover photo: Photo: https://de.freepik.com/fotos-kostenlos/geschaeftsleute-die-im-finanz-und-rechnungswesen-arbeiten-finanzanalyse-analysieren_16068554.htm by our-team)