Recruitment KPIs: what are the 20 key indicators you need to know to boost your performance?
Every company has its own recruitment strategy.
Nevertheless, they all seek to save money by integrating the most qualified candidate into their teams as quickly as possible.
In order to optimize this hiring process, it is imperative to be able to rely on reliable and relevant indicators: recruitment KPIs 👍.
What are recruitment KPIs?
A recruitment KPI (Key Performance Indicator) can be defined as an indicator used to measure the effectiveness of a company's hiring policy. These indicators can take a variety of forms, depending on what the company is trying to assess.
👉 Generally speaking, we're going to find elements reflecting the quality of the recruitment process, the cost generated or even candidate satisfaction.
What is the purpose of recruitment KPIs?
As precise, objective indicators, recruitment KPIs enable you to assess the strengths and areas for improvement in your hiring policy. They give you an overall idea of the effectiveness of your hiring practices, which you can use as a basis for improving your performance.
In order to have a clear mapping, we tend to divide recruitment KPIs into several categories 👉.
💡 Tip: gathering hiring data and calculating all indicators by hand takes a considerable amount of time... which HR and recruiters don't have! That's why they often rely on specialized software.
Take Softy, for example, a solution for managing the entire recruitment process (application processing, career site, multicasting of vacancies, etc.). This tool integrates statistical functions for in-depth analysis of the efficiency of different aspects of the recruitment process, based on reliable, up-to-date information, for better decision-making.
Workforce-related recruitment KPIs
💡 These indicators, which could be described as basic, are the first on which the company will base its recruitment policy.
Turnover rate
For a company, it's normal to see a form of turnover between outgoing and incoming employees. This is all the more true at a time when spending one's entire career within a single structure is no longer the order of the day.
A high turnover rate can be both harmful and alarming. It may reflect a feeling of discomfort in the workplace. Conversely, too low a rate can be interpreted as reflecting a lack of ambition or dynamism.
💡 For information, INSEE has set the average turnover rate in France at 15% over the whole of 2021.
| Calculation of turnover rate = [(departures in year N + arrivals in year N) / 2] / Headcount at January 1st of year N |
Recruitment needs
Whether to compensate for announced departures or simply to meet the company's development needs, recruitment is carried out throughout the year.
In order to determine whether our recruitment policy is effective, we compare the number of actual arrivals with the number of desired arrivals, expressed in terms of recruitment needs.
Recruitment KPIs linked to company attractiveness
💡 To attract candidates, your company needs to demonstrate a minimum of attractiveness. To assess this, you can rely on the following recruitment KPIs.
Number of applications received
Unsurprisingly, the more applications you receive, the more attractive you are to future employees.
☝️ However, these figures need to be interpreted in the light of various factors (current market conditions, recruitment marketing campaign, etc.).
Volume of applications received by job offer and field of activity
In a similar vein, the volume of CVs received for each profession (communications, sales, etc.) gives you a good overview of the most attractive areas within your company.
A good way to know where to deploy and focus your efforts, depending on your recruitment needs.
Average career site traffic
If you have a career site, analyzing its traffic gives you a precise idea of the number of visitors.
Insufficient traffic, for example, could lead you to rework the site and give it more prominence.
Recruitment KPIs linked to the performance of your ads
💡 The number of applications is closely linked to the quality of your ads. To assess this, there are three main criteria.
Conversion rate
Your ad may have been seen a hundred times, but if it doesn't trigger any applications on arrival, its visibility will have had no impact.
To measure the performance of an ad, you need to focus on the conversion rate.
| Calculation of conversion rate = (number of conversions / number of interactions) x 100 |
Bounce rate
An ad's bounce rate is defined as the number of visitors who immediately leave the site without having interacted with the ad.
Generally speaking, a satisfactory bounce rate should be less than 50%.
Abandonment rate
Getting a candidate to click on your ad is one thing. Getting them to actually apply is quite another!
The abandonment rate determines the percentage of visitors who decide not to go through with the application process.
A high abandonment rate is generally synonymous with an unsatisfactory candidate experience, which can manifest itself in overly long and tedious steps.
It's worth noting that the abandonment rate helps determine the breaking point that causes visitors to give up applying. This enables you to think about how you can make your process smoother and more user-friendly .
Recruitment KPIs linked to your process
💡 Here, we're going to focus on recruitment KPIs that highlight the efficiency of your hiring policy.
Application processing time
The better a company's HR department is able to collect, sort and follow up on the applications it receives, the smoother the recruitment process becomes.
This makes it easier to organize a series of interviews, and - if necessary - launch a new recruitment campaign if no satisfactory candidate is found.
Selectivity rate
Receiving a large number of applications for a vacancy is a very positive aspect. On the other hand, to retain only a very small number of "credible" candidates indicates a need to rework your advertisements.
The same reasoning applies to the validation of successful candidates and the organization of interviews. If, for every 10 interviews you conduct, you formally reject 8 candidates, this means that your analysis of CVs and candidate profiles is not optimal.
| Selectivity rate = (number of applications accepted / number of applications received) x 100 |
The drop-out rate during the recruitment process
In the course of your recruitment process, a candidate may decide to withdraw. There may be many reasons for this, such as acceptance of a competing offer, or a hiring model that's deemed to betoo demanding or too long (two telephone interviews followed by a test to be handed in, then a physical interview itself followed by a two-month trial period, etc.).).
A high drop-out rate would suggest that you need to review your recruitment process.
| Drop-out rate = (number of candidates who withdrew during the recruitment process / number of candidates selected) x 100 |
Offer acceptance rate
This is the final stage in a company's recruitment process.
If everything has gone well with a candidate, you end up sending them your final offer of employment. Sometimes, however, the offer is rejected, leading you to turn to another candidate.
An abnormally low acceptance rate indicates that there is a real problem with the offers you are making. This could be related to working conditions, for example, or more simply to the salary offer. It's up to you to sound out the candidates who have turned you down to determine what obstacles you need to remove to make your offers more attractive.
| Acceptance rate = (number of proposals accepted / number of proposals carried out) x 100 |
Cost-related recruitment KPIs
💡 When it comes to recruitment policy, profitability is a very important aspect. The costs and efforts invested must necessarily be kept under control.
The total cost of recruitment
When we look at the sums invested in a recruitment campaign, we naturally think of the costs inherent in publishing advertisements on job boards or the rates charged by the recruitment firm where applicable.
But there are other resources to take into account, particularly in-house. These include, for example, the time needed to sort through CVs, conduct interviews or plan training sessions for future onboarding.
| Total cost of recruitment = all internal costs + all external costs |
Cost per recruitment
To optimize your recruitment profitability, you need to aim for the lowest possible cost.
This recruitment KPI enables you to find out how much it costs to turn a candidate into an employee of your company. For your information, it is estimated that the average cost of hiring a new employee is around €6,000.
| Cost per recruitment = total cost of recruitment / number of candidates recruited |
The internal recruitment rate
The advantages of in-house recruitment are numerous. Less costly than an external campaign, this method of hiring also helps to strengthen commitment to the company, in addition to building employee loyalty.
According to various studies, internal mobility offers greater satisfaction - on both employer and employee sides - and savings of up to 50% compared with traditional recruitment.
| Internal recruitment rate = (number of candidates recruited internally / total number of candidates recruited) x 100 |
Post-recruitment KPIs
💡 When we think of recruitment KPIs, we mostly have in mind the set of indicators that lead to hiring. Yet there is valuable data to analyze once the employment contract has been signed by the new employee.
Non-renewed trial periods
Although trial periods are not compulsory, many companies choose to introduce them to ensure that both parties are satisfied.
Unfortunately, either the company or the new employee may decide to end the trial period. This means going back to the drawing board to find a new candidate, which generates additional work and costs.
Retention rate
The chemistry between employer and employee may well develop during the first few months on the job.
However, it can also happen that employees are tempted to leave for a variety of reasons. If you notice a low retention rate among your new employees, it probably means that improvements need to be made in terms of employee commitment.
| Retention rate: (number of employees still in post at N+X / number of employees recruited at N) x 100 |
Level of satisfaction and performance
On the employer's side, it's possible that the new recruit's level of performance falls short of expectations.
Insofar as this is the case for the majority of employees recruited, it may reflect a lack of discernment or rigor in the selection criteria.
It is therefore important to ensure that managers are satisfied with the integration and development of new employees.
Other recruitment KPIs that might interest you
Parity rate
Ensuring gender diversity within your company is a good practice to maintain. The parity rate can help you in this task. It is a good way of orienting your recruitment policy and giving preference to certain profiles.
Candidate satisfaction
The easiest way to find out about the strengths and weaknesses of your recruitment process is to ask the people you're hiring!
With this in mind, don't hesitate to talk about it during your interviews, or to distribute a questionnaire to all selected candidates.
Recruitment KPIs: what you need to remember
Collecting and analyzing recruitment KPIs is the best way to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your hiring policy.
For a company, the benefits are numerous, ranging from lower recruitment costs to improved employee commitment, not to mention better targeting of candidates likely to bring satisfaction.
To help you in this mission, you should know that many specialized recruitment software packages are available on the market 💻.
Article translated from French