Recruiting metrics that matter
A recruiting metric is worth keeping if a hiring manager would change this week’s work because of it. Counts of emails sent rarely qualify. Time, drop-off, and the quality of the shortlist do.
Time to hire, measured from a real start
Time to hire is the number of days from an approved role to an accepted offer. Starting the clock when the job post goes live hides the weeks spent writing the description. Starting it at the first application hides a slow offer.
Split the number by stage. If most of the days sit between final interview and offer, the problem is decision making, not sourcing. If they sit before the first interview, the top of the funnel is the problem.
The three counts a small team can keep
You do not need a recruiting warehouse. Keep the number of people who reached a screen, the number who reached a hiring-manager conversation, and the number of offers accepted. Review them every Friday for each open role.
Add one quality check: of the people a sourcer sent, how many did the hiring manager want to meet? If that ratio is low, more volume will not help. The search is pointed at the wrong people.
Metrics that create busywork
Source mix, career-site traffic, and email open rates describe activity. They are useful once the basic ratios are healthy. They are a distraction when the role has been open for two months and nobody can say which stage is stuck.
Do not set a target for “candidates added.” People will add unqualified names to hit it.
How to reduce time to hire
Decide the scorecard before you source. Book interview slots before the shortlist exists, so a yes does not wait on a calendar. Give one person the authority to move a candidate forward the same day. Ava compresses the front of this: sourcing, the first screen, and scheduling happen without a recruiter coordinating each step.
Common questions
- What is time to hire?
- Time to hire is the number of days from an approved open role to an accepted offer. Define the start date the same way for every role or the number is not comparable.
- Which recruiting metrics should a startup track?
- Time to hire, how many sourced people the hiring manager accepts for interview, and where candidates drop. Add more only after those three are visible.
- Why do recruiting metrics stay unused?
- They are often counts of activity with no owner. A metric needs a person who will change the search, the screen, or the decision process when the number moves.