In 2020, PwC published a report on the perceptions of the HR department by its internal workforce to determine whether it is viewed as a cost or an asset. The report found that on recruitment and selection, 29% viewed Human Resources as a cost while only 17% felt it was an asset.
So, how do recruiters measure, optimize, and exhibit the business value of their recruitment process?
The answer is by identifying and focusing on the right metrics. Recruiting metrics are becoming essential for recruiters to demonstrate their department’s return on investment.
Digital investments are invaluable for talent acquisition as the infusion of data becomes a key enabler for recruitment. But, digital tools are only effective when paired with pragmatic goals.
Here we discuss the 4 important recruiting metrics that generate real value. These metrics, if approached right, fuel not only the right recruiting funnel but also impacts the bottom line, translating data into meaningful insights.
#1 Interview to hire ratio
The interview to hire ratio is the average of how many candidates the recruiter interviews to make an offer. It is a beneficial metric that shows the time spent on screening, interviewing, and selecting. Focusing on this ratio results in considerable savings in time and money.
A good ratio is 3:1. Unfortunately, a high interview to hire ratio usually means that the hiring managers are wasting time with too many unviable candidates for each job. To solve this problem, recruiters should create separate reports for individual roles or recruitment departments. This will help in identifying and analyzing the problem hires.
Figuring out the slow process in the recruitment funnel to see which stage is failing to effectively shortlist candidates for further interviews can also help. Recruiters may also revisit some of the assessments to ensure that the technical competencies, skills, and sub-skills are being evaluated correctly to fix the interview to hire ratio.
#2 ROI from the interview panel
A lengthy interview process can be an expensive exercise for companies. It requires sustained efforts of key personnel, thus increasing time and costs. It also affects the perceptions of top talent. Candidates with high calibre want to work for companies that have an efficient hiring process. A responsive interview and selection process generates and sustains excitement for the candidates. It also reflects well on the company’s interest to get the candidate on board.
To recruit the best candidates faster, the recruiting teams must invest in the right recruiting tools to facilitate faster decision making and shorten the process. For example, By using skills assessment tools, hiring managers can have all the necessary information about the candidates in one place.
Making remote interviews engaging with high-definition video calling will help the hiring managers test the candidates’ communication skills and their fitness with the team more accurately.
#3 Test completion ratio
Online skill assessments are an effective resource for identifying qualified candidates, but there are several reasons why candidates drop out at the test-taking stage. This creates an obstacle that could eliminate potential top talent. Candidates opt-out if they feel they aren’t prepared for the test, or the test is irrelevant, or too long-winded.
Ideally, a pre-employment skill test should –
- Have realistic duration to keep the candidates engaged
- Target specific job-related skills
- Present every candidate the same opportunity to showcase their skills
How to create tests that achieve these and increase the test completion ratio?
- Get the tests created by actual programmers or developers or use pre-built coding tests created by industry pros.
- Take candidate feedback on the assessments as they can tell all the factors to increase the test completion rate. This will enable companies to engage further with candidates and provide a competitive edge in the talent market.
Skill assessment tests are planned to target specific skills with realistic durations to keep the candidates engaged. They are standardized and based on strict job-related criteria, and every candidate gets the same opportunity to succeed.
#4 Shortlist quality
More than 50% of the recruitment process is spent on shortlisting the right candidates. While the candidate-driven talent market is growing to be a challenge, it is still non-negotiable to focus on this metric.
Shortlisting means identifying the best match for the desired criteria from your talent pool.
Here are some steps to take before shortlisting candidates –
- Determine essential and desirable skills required for the job
- Create a scoring method for each criterion
- Pre-determine the maximum number of candidates to shortlist
Using online assessments can help evaluate the right skills with the key performance parameters. When applicants take tests during the screening process, recruiters can quickly identify filter out the suitable candidates from a large pool.
The most common problems affecting shortlist quality are –
Recruiters and hiring managers looking for different qualities in the potential hires.
Solution – Here, communication is the key. Recruiters and hiring managers should be on the same page about the shortlisting criteria of the role, skills to be assessed and the metrics to evaluate candidates on. For example, everyone involved in the recruitment process can use a skill map created by experts to ensure the effective elimination of candidates right from the start.
Recruiters focusing only on closing the profile and ignoring the right way to do so.
Solution – Have predetermined evaluation parameters on both quantitative and qualitative metrics such as time taken to complete a test, chances of guesswork, choice of sequence while answering questions, etc. This will help evaluate candidates on various parameters quickly to get a true reflection of their capabilities and save recruiters from unnecessary interviews.
Conclusion
Measuring the right recruiting metrics helps companies streamline the recruitment funnel while improving the candidate experience. Above mentioned recruiting metrics may not be popularly talked about, but when used rightly, they have been proven to improve the overall recruiting quality, leading to increased productivity and overall growth of the organization.
These metrics play an important part in building your employer brand, planning, budgeting, and saving in costs. Without them, it is hard to justify spending and to measure productivity and the return on investment.
WeCP is an online technical skills assessment and video interviewing platform designed to improve the interview and selection processes. Trustworthy scores, efficient interview scheduling, and comprehensive talent reports are just some of the benefits that WeCP offers.
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