For anyone recruiting senior tech talent this year it may feel like a boom time with applicant volumes being so high there is a perception that companies have the pick of the market, the reality is that companies are swamped by applications which is proving hard to manage, taking business leaders away from key activities which more often than not means the best talent available is being missed or not in the mix for these roles at all.
This is not only affecting their wider employer brand but more critically they are not seeing the best talent available and teams are stretched too thinly often reviewing hundreds of unsuitable applications, interview 20+ people at first stage and not seeing the streamlined hiring process they need to be successful.
The senior IT leadership market in particular is a showcase of this, senior candidates are not hearing back on opportunities they do apply for, and this is leading to some of the best candidates waiting to be found, not seeking out the opportunity.
Roles that are publicly advertised are either taken down too soon or left open for too long, candidates feel like there is a constant smoke and mirrors situation with zero transparency leading to candidates investing time and effort to apply for roles that are at interview or even offer stage, or worst still not applying for the roles at all – they are tired of this market and expect better!
Without sounding too provocative it seems that having a vacancy for some seems to mean candidates can be treated as a commodity and not an opportunity to be engaged, nourished and ultimately hired.
Having a process of attracting and retaining your senior talent is business critical, ensuring you have the right strategies and access to talent and then being consistent in that delivery will define whether you are able to see and hire the best talent.
For CIOs, CEO's, CFO's, Chief People Officers and Talent Leaders the pressure to build high-performing IT teams is immense. But how do you measure the effectiveness of your recruitment process
As someone responsible for recruitment do you rely on gut feel on whether its performing or use a data driven approach, is it simply a cost issue, or do you care?
This blog explores key metrics CIOs, CEO's, CFO's, Chief People Officers and Talent Leaders should track to assess their recruitment process's efficiency and impact.
Are the old ways really a measure of recruitment process success?
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”
Its disputed who actually said that but when it comes to measuring the success of a recruitment process is it time to be more commercial and less reliant on the “old ways”. That really is dependant on the needs of the company but the purpose of my article is to educate so when it comes to critiquing whether you have a good service in place some of the metrics below are a good place to start, however they shouldn’t be the only way you view recruitment processes and services, the value you see and how you measure it should be unique and evolve, otherwise we are all guilty of expecting “different” results. Let's dive into them:
Time to Offer: This measures the average number of days from when a candidate applies to when a job offer is extended. A shorter time-to-offer often indicates a streamlined recruitment process and can enhance candidate experience .
Time to Hire: The average number of days from when a job is posted to a candidate's start date. It includes the time taken for recruitment, onboarding, and pre-employment checks.
Cost per Hire: Are you looking total cost of filling a position, including advertising, agency fees, recruiter salaries, and other expenses. The companies that are really excelling are looking at the cost of not hiring and using this to accelerate the costs. More often than not the cost of the “fee” is less than the cost of taking too long!
Quality of Hire: This is arguably the most critical metric but the most difficult to gauge properly. It assesses the performance of new hires against predefined criteria, such as meeting performance expectations, achieving goals, and tenure.
Tenure: For a lot of companies this is critical because some employees need than run up time to be utilised and deliver outputs (consultancy is a good example of this where often people need 3-6 months to bed into roles) but if you have a high attrition rate below your early life tenure targets this is an indicator your recruitment process isn’t performing. A high tenure rate in new joiners suggests you have effective recruitment and onboarding.
Performance Impact: The overall contribution of new hires to your goals and objectives. Again, like quality of hire it’s difficult to gauge properly but can be measured through performance reviews, project outcomes, or revenue generated.
Beyond the basic measures of success:
While these metrics provide a solid foundation every company, the CEO, CFO, Chief People Officer, Talent Leader and hiring manager all have different views on what defines a successful recruitment strategy and process. Here are a few more factors you can consider when you look towards 2025:
Candidate experience
Offer acceptance rate
Offer decline reasons
New hire satisfaction
Hiring manager satisfaction
Diversity and Inclusion
Sourcing effectiveness
Employee referral %
Applicant conversion rate
Interview to offer ratio
Applicant to offer
Turning Data into Action
Tracking these metrics is essential, but it's equally important to use the data to drive improvements. Analyse trends, identify issues, and implement targeted actions to enhance your recruitment process.
By focusing on these metrics and taking a data-driven approach, CIOs can build high-performing IT teams that drive business success.
By working with Vitreus Talent you gain a partner who works towards your priorities, understands the measure of success and can help you build optimal ways to measure the effectiveness of your recruitment process.
What metrics do you prioritize in your recruitment process?
Mark
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