Get your recruitment right, and you set your company up for growth – it might sound like a cliche, but ain’t one.
Companies that excel at recruiting grow 3.5 times faster than their competitors. That’s the difference between racing ahead and watching your competitors zoom past.
But here’s the thing: top-performing companies aren’t just getting lucky with their hires. They’re tracking specific recruitment metrics that tell them exactly what’s working and what isn’t.
We’ve done the heavy lifting and compiled 30+ essential recruitment metrics that high-growth companies use. Whether you’re aiming to slash hiring costs, speed up your process, or simply build a stronger team, these metrics will show you the way forward.
Why Are Recruitment Metrics Important?
Teams using advanced recruiting analytics are twice as likely to boost their recruiting success and 3x more likely to cut costs and improve efficiency.
Here’s what measuring the right metrics can do for your organization:
☑️Build Better Candidate Experience: When you track how candidates move through your hiring process, you can spot where they’re dropping off and why. This insight lets you fix pain points before they cost you great talent.
☑️Create Stronger, More Diverse Teams: Quality-of-hire and diversity metrics help you build teams that bring different perspectives and skills to the table. You’ll understand which hiring decisions lead to the best outcomes and adjust your strategy accordingly.
☑️Keep Your Best People Longer: Nobody likes surprise resignations. Understanding why people stay (or leave) through turnover and attrition metrics helps you develop targeted retention strategies that work. It’s like having a heads-up system for keeping your best people happy.
☑️Fill Roles More Efficiently: Time-to-fill metrics show which roles require a different approach, where candidates get stuck, and even which hiring managers might need extra support. The result is faster hiring without cutting corners on quality.
Important Recruitment Metrics to Track (Why it Matters and How to Calculate)
Time-Based Recruitment Metrics
From posting to making a job offer, these recruitment metrics show how long it takes to hire someone and help you speed up the process with the right fit.
1. Time to Fill
The average time to fill a position is 44 days. The time to fill metric is basically a countdown from posting a job to hiring that perfect candidate.
Formula: Time to fill = No. of days all job positions remain open / Total number of open positions.
Why track it?
Someone else will snatch the candidate you took too long to hire. Also, knowing your time to fill gives you the upper hand in workforce planning—start hiring too late, and you’re scrambling. Start early, and you’re ahead of the game.
2. Time to Hire
Time to hire is how quickly you move a candidate from ‘You’re a great fit! To ‘welcome aboard.’ This metric reflects how efficient your recruitment process is. It calculates the total number of days it takes for a candidate to enter the recruitment pipeline till they accept your job offer.
Formula: Time to hire = The number of days from when a job is posted to when the new hire starts.
Why track it?
A shorter time to hire hits fast-forward — filling roles quickly, fewer delays and you will always be on track. On the flip side, a longer time to hire can mean productivity dips, higher recruitment costs, and the risk of losing top talent to competitors.
3. Candidate Response Time
Candidate response time measures how quickly candidates reply to communication from the recruitment team, such as interview requests, follow-up emails, or job offers. Faster response times typically indicate higher candidate engagement, helping you move the hiring process smoothly.
Formula: Candidate response rate = (Total responses ÷ Total candidates contacted) x 100
Why track it?
Low response rates tell you something’s off — maybe your job descriptions need work, or you’re reaching out to the wrong candidate pool. When you know what’s working, you can focus on the outreach methods that actually get responses.
4. Application Completion Rate
The application completion rate is the ‘finish line’ of your job application process. It tells you how many applicants begin and end the process.
Formula: Application completion rate = Total no. of job application / Total no. of job application started.
Why track it?
This metric directly reflects the effectiveness of your organization’s hiring process. A low rate is a red flag for various reasons, including confusing steps, a slow platform, or a long process. Taking steps toward it helps you hire quality candidates before it’s too late.
Quality-based Recruitment Metrics
These recruitment metrics track your hiring’s effectiveness in terms of quality—how well the new hires perform and fit into the company.
5. Quality of Hire
Quality of hire measures the ROI your hired candidates bring in. Though assessing quality is tough, you can consider the new hire’s cultural fit, performance, and how much they help push your company’s goals forward.
Formula: Quality of hire = 3 (cultural fit + performance + retention rate)
Why track it?
Quality of hire is a checkpoint for your hiring processes. Tracking quality helps catch mismatches early, shows if your interview process works, and reveals which hiring channels bring your best talent. It also helps improve the hire retention rate and positively impacts your company’s performance.
| 👉 Conduct a 360-degree review post-hiring to ensure the quality of the recruitment and to reduce 90% of the workload. Peoplebox provides Next-Gen 360-degree review features, helping you perfect the process. |
6. Cultural Fit Score
The cultural fit score tells how well a candidate vibes with your company’s values and culture. It helps you see if someone will be a great fit for your team beyond just skills.
Formula: Cultural Fit Score = (Number of candidates who fit / Total candidates evaluated) × 100
Why track it?
Poor cultural fits cost twice: lost productivity and eventual turnover.
Tracking this helps make sure you’re hiring candidates who fit your company culture, keeping everyone happy and productive. If the score is low, you might want to rethink your hiring approach to avoid mismatch hiring.
Suggested Read: 30+ Stay Interview Questions You Can Ask To Retain People
7. Hiring Manager Satisfaction
Hiring manager satisfaction will tell you how happy hiring managers are with your recruitment strategies. Though it’s a subjective measure, it’s a good way to check the hiring manager’s pulse — from candidates they see to the overall recruitment flow.
You can calculate this through surveys addressing candidate engagement skills or simply asking how satisfied they were with the available talent pool after the screening process.
Why track it?
If you are filling roles, but the hiring manager is not thrilled, it’s a sign of a few things going wrong. The candidate pool may be shallow, and the team is left with picking from the ‘almost-but-not-quite’ pile. A low recruiting metric means it’s time to take a close look at the recruiting process.
| 👉 Optimize your recruitment process through surveys. Use Peoplebox’s automated engagement survey, which includes questions on how hiring managers feel about the talent pool. You can also set recurring surveys for better engagement. |
8. First-Year Attrition Rate
The concept is simple: knowing how many candidates left the company within the first year of hiring. Forbes says almost 38% of employees leave their jobs within the first year! This metric is a wake-up call to rethink your talent acquisition strategy.
Formula: First year attrition rate = (No. of attritions in a year / Total no. of employees in a year) x 100.
Why track it?
A higher attrition is expensive — recruiting costs, lost training investment, and productivity gaps add up quickly. High first-year exits often signal mismatched expectations or onboarding issues. Look for patterns in departments or roles with higher rates.
9. Retention Rate
The retention rate tells you the percentage of employees who stay over a period. Typically, you should aim for a 90% retention rate. Meaning your company’s attrition rate should be within 10%.
Formula: Employee retention rate = (Total number of employees at the end of the period ÷ Total number of employees at the start of the period) x 100
Why track it?
When low retention means constantly refilling the same roles, which is expensive and exhausting. Watch for drops after major changes (new leadership, policy updates). If you’re noticing a retention issue, level up your job descriptions, fine-tune your interview process, and dig deeper with reference checks to spot the best candidates.
Note: Each percentage point drop means more recruiting costs and lost institutional knowledge.
| 👉You can use employee retention software to analyze data, identify at-risk employees, and develop strategies to improve retention rates. Check out this article on 9 best employee retention software to learn more. |
Cost-based Recruitment Metrics
These metrics measure your hiring process’s cost-efficiency, helping you balance recruitment expenses with hiring success.
10. Cost Per Hire
The cost per hire or to fill is the price tag for finding the right talent. It tells whether your talent acquisition strategy is effective or falling short. These metrics include everything from staff expenses to job board fees and the cost of resume screening and sourcing.
It includes internal (staff time, referral bonuses) and external (job boards, agencies)costs, including recruitment software, advertisement expenses, etc.
Formula: Cost per hire = Total recruiting expenses (internal+ external) / No. of total hires
Why track it?
Knowing your cost per hire helps spot expensive recruiting channels that aren’t paying off and find more cost-effective ways to attract talent. If your cost per hire is very high, you can take steps to lower it, such as trading big-budget ads for more wallet-friendly options.
| 👉To make the resume screening process cost-efficient, make use of Peoplebox’s AI resume screening tool to identify top job applications in your ATS using AI. |
11. Recruitment Marketing Spend
This tracks your budget to promote your company and job openings. This includes everything you spend to showcase your company to potential talent — job ads, your careers page, hiring events, and building your brand as a great place to work.
Formula: Recruitment Marketing Spend = Total spending on job ads & branding
Why track it?
To know the balanced spend. Tracking this helps you spend smarter and get better candidates. Plus, your finance team will love you for knowing exactly where every recruitment dollar goes.
12. Training Cost per New Hire
This shows how much you spend on training new employees, from materials to instructor time. It helps you figure out how much it costs to get someone ready for their new role.
Formula: Training Cost per New Hire = Total training expenses / Number of new hires
Why track it?
It helps you spot where you might be overspending (like paying for unused training subscriptions) or underspending (skimping on essential skills development). It’s your gauge for building cost-effective training that actually works.
13. Revenue per Employee
Revenue per employee measures how much money your company generates per staff member. It gives you a quick look at how well each employee contributes to your company’s revenue.
Formula: Revenue per Employee = Total revenue / Total number of employees
Why track it?
It tells you how efficiently your team turns its work into money for the company. Low numbers might mean you’re overstaffed or need to boost productivity. High numbers could mean your team’s crushing it—or maybe they’re overworked, and you need to hire more people.
Source-based Recruitment Metrics
These recruitment metrics focus on where your best candidates come from, helping you pinpoint the most effective recruitment channels.
14. Percentage of Open Positions
The percentage of open positions shows the number of job openings available compared to the total number of positions in a company. It reflects your company’s growth, turnover, and recruitment success. Tracking this helps you understand staffing needs and whether it’s time to ramp up hiring efforts or rethink workforce planning.
Formula: Percentage of open positions = (Total no. of positions / No. of open positions) x 100.
Why track it?
A high percentage means high demand, low labor supply, or retention challenges. Tracking it helps you stay ahead of the curve.
15. Source of Hire
The source of hire metric reveals the channels—like job boards, referrals, social media, or agencies—that lead to successful hires.
Formula: Source of hire = (Hires from a source ÷ Total hires) × 100
Why track it?
Pinpoints the most effective hiring channels. Knowing what works lets you focus your resources, fine-tune strategies, and attract the best candidates for your roles.
16. Sourcing Channel Cost
Sourcing channel cost’ tells you the price of finding candidates through platforms like job boards or social media ads.
Formula: Sourcing channel cost = Costs per ad in a platform / No. of successful applicants per platform
Why track it?
This number reveals the true cost of each hire by channel, helping you invest wisely. Say LinkedIn costs $30 per hire and has a 50% success rate, while Facebook costs $10 and only a 10% success rate. Spending more on LinkedIn could bring better candidates for your investment.
17. Qualified Candidate Rate Per Sourcing Channel
The ‘qualified candidate rate’ shows the percentage of applicants who meet the job’s requirements.
Formula: Qualified candidates = (No. of candidates passing the initial screening stage in a sourcing channel ÷ Total applicants per source) × 100
Why track it?
This number shows which channels bring candidates who fit your needs, not just lots of resumes. If 100 job board applicants give two qualified candidates, but free social media ads bring 8 out of 20, it’s clear where your money works harder. Small tweaks—like improving job descriptions or choosing better platforms can make a big difference.
18. Referral Rate
The referral rate tracks the percentage of new hires coming from employee referrals, showing the strength of your internal engagement program.
Formula: Referral rate = (No. of hires from referrals ÷ Total hires) × 100
Why track it?
Referred hires from top talents are 3x more likely to have above-average new hires and lower your recruitment costs. High referral rates reflect employee satisfaction and a strong workplace culture, while low rates might highlight issues with branding or incentives.
19. Screening to Interview Ratio
This ratio shows how many candidates you screen versus how many get the interview invite. It helps you know if you’re being selective enough in the early stages.
Formula: Screening to Interview Ratio = Candidates screened / Interviews conducted
Why track it?
A high ratio might mean you’re too picky, and a low ratio could mean you’re not filtering enough. This helps you balance the two.
Candidate Experience Metrics
These metrics assess how candidates feel about your hiring process — better experience, better hires!
20. Candidate Satisfaction
This is one of the important hiring metrics that helps understand candidates’ experience in the recruitment process even if they aren’t hired. It is basically a feedback metric asking them to rate from 1-10 or any other survey to know how satisfied they are with your hiring teams and processes.
Formula: Candidate satisfaction = No.of applicants satisfied with the recruitment process / Total no. of surveys filled out) x100.
Why track it?
Helps identify process gaps and improve employer brand. Happy candidates strengthen your employer’s brand and bring in more talent. Low scores? They are a nudge to improve your hiring process.
21. Candidate Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Candidate NPS shows how likely candidates are to recommend your company after their hiring experience. You can measure it by asking, ‘On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend us?’ This will give you an idea of how the external candidates feel about the hiring experience.
Formula: Candidate NPS = Percentage of promoters – Percentage of detractors
Why track it?
Predicts your future recruiting success. Strong NPS indicates both good candidate experience and a potential referral pipeline.
22. Interview Satisfaction Score
This measures how candidates feel about their interview experience. It’s like getting feedback on how smooth, welcoming, and professional your process is.
Formula: Interview Satisfaction Score = (Total satisfaction rating / Number of interviews) × 100
Why track it?
This metric reveals interviewer effectiveness and process consistency and helps standardize interview quality across teams. A high score means candidates felt positive about the process, while a low score could point to areas you need to work on, like communication or the candidate experience.
23. Diversity Hires
This tracks the percentage of diverse candidates you hire. It’s about making sure your team is inclusive and reflects a variety of backgrounds.
Formula: Diversity Hires (%) = (Number of diverse hires / Total hires) × 100
Why track it?
Diversity hires identify potential bias in hiring stages and help build representative teams. A higher diversity hire percentage means you’re on the right track to creating a welcoming, diverse workplace. A lower number could mean it’s time to rework your hiring process.
| 👉 Want to better track your employee diversity split? Utilize Peoplebox’s people analytics software to make future-focused company decisions. |
24. Application Drop-off Rate
The application drop-off rate is the percentage of candidates who start but don’t finish the application process. It typically takes 30 minutes to finish an application form. Long forms or poor mobile optimization could cause a high application drop-off rate.
Formula: Application Drop-Off Ratio = No. of Applications started : No. of Applications completed
Why track it?
Improving this metric will improve the candidate experience and guarantee access to top talent. Simplified, mobile-friendly applications reduce drop-offs and attract high quality candidates.
25. Candidate withdrawal Rate
Candidate withdrawal reasons reveal why applicants bail on your hiring process, whether it’s low pay, long commutes, or a better offer elsewhere. Use a questionnaire, email, or hiring platform to learn the reasons for withdrawal.
Formula: Candidate withdrawal rate = (No. of candidates invited for the interview / No. of candidates withdrew) x 100.
Why track it?
Tracking why candidates opt out of the process helps you spot patterns (e.g., low salary offers, and long hiring timelines) and fine-tune your process. This allows you to keep top talent in the race and avoid losing them to the competition.
Recruitment Team Performance Metrics
These metrics track how well your recruiting team is doing, highlighting areas of strength and opportunities.
26. Recruiter Workload
This shows how many candidates a recruiter is handling at any given time. It’s about balancing workloads so your recruiters aren’t overwhelmed.
Formula: Recruiter Workload = Candidates managed/no of recruiters.
Why track it?
Identifies capacity issues before they impact hiring quality. A high workload means burnout, while a low workload might signal that recruiters aren’t fully utilized.
27. Time to Optimum Productivity
Time to optimum productivity measures how many days it takes for a new hire to become fully productive after being hired. It calculates the time from hire to full productivity, reflecting the success of your training and recruiting efforts.
Formula: Time to Optimum Productivity = Days to recruit + Onboarding days + Training days
Why track it?
Tracking this metric helps you sharpen your onboarding and training. If the time varies wildly, it’s a red flag for inefficiencies. But a smooth, speedy process is the shortcut to a productive team.
28. Submittals per Recruiter
Submittals per recruiter count the number of candidates a recruiter sends to clients each month. It’s a key way to measure recruiter hustle and spot where things might be slowing down in the hiring process.
Formula: Submittals per Recruiter = Total number of candidates submitted / Number of recruiters
Why track it?
It helps you understand your productivity and improve the time taken to fill a position.
Hiring Funnel Metrics
These metrics track how smoothly candidates move through the hiring process from application to offer.
29. Application to Interview Ratio
This ratio shows how many applicants move from the application stage to an interview. It mainly depends on your initial screening’s efficiency.
Formula: Application to Interview Ratio = Applications / Interviews conducted
Why track it?
This number reveals if your job posts attract the right people. If this ratio is too high, it could mean you’re not screening carefully enough. Too low, and you might be too selective, missing out on great candidates.
30. Interview-to-Hire Ratio
The interview-to-hire ratio is your efficiency scorecard, revealing how many interviews are required to seal the deal with a successful hire.
Formula: Interview to Hire Ratio = Total number of interviews / Total number of hires
Why track it?
A solid ratio, like 3:1, means your sourcing and screening are on point. If you’re stuck in an interview marathon, it might be time to fast-track with tools like video screening or sharper candidate filters.
31. Interview-to-Offer Ratio
The interview-to-offer ratio tracks how many interviews it takes before extending a job offer, showing your recruitment process alignment.
Formula: Interview to Hire Ratio = Total number of interviews / Total number of offers made
Why track it?
If hiring managers conduct endless interviews per role, it might be time to revisit your screening methods. A streamlined interview-to-offer ratio keeps your hiring focused and resource-efficient.
Also read: Candidate Relationship Management: A Complete Guide
32. Offer Acceptance Rate
The offer acceptance rate shows the number of candidates who accept your job offer. It tells how well your company resonates with potential hires.
Formula: Offer acceptance % = (No. of accepted offers / Number of offers made) x 100.
Why track it?
Because finding the right person is only half the battle — they need to choose you too. A high rate means candidates see value in joining your organization, while a low rate suggests something might be missing.
Summing Up
Recruitment metrics simplify your hiring process and help you make smart decisions. From time to fill to offer acceptance rate, using the right recruitment metrics makes sure your offers are competitive and the hiring process aligns with the organization’s goals.
Peoplebox takes the recruitment metrics a step further. Here’s how we help you track and optimize recruitment metrics:
✅ OKR Management: Aligns recruitment goals with overall business objectives, ensuring that everyone involved in hiring is clear on what to prioritize.
✅ People Analytics: Provides key insights into your recruitment data, so you can make smarter decisions on where to focus your efforts and improve efficiency.
✅ Integrations: Syncs with your existing recruitment tools, ensuring smooth data flow and better reporting to track your recruiting performance.
✅ Performance Reviews: Streamlines the process for evaluating how well your hiring strategies are working, helping you track recruiter performance and hiring outcomes.
✅ Engagement Surveys: Assess candidate experience throughout the hiring process, giving you insights into areas that need improvement.
When you sign in with Peoplebox, you just don’t make your process streamlined but also meet your business goals. Want to know more about how we help you make the recruitment process much easier and more effective? Schedule a demo call with us now!
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is a recruitment metric?
A company can improve its hiring process and monitor its hiring success with the use of recruiting metrics. When applied properly, these indicators provide light on how well a company is able to find and hire new employees.
2. How to measure recruitment effectiveness?
For an idea of how effective the hiring process is, you can look at a number of indicators, such as:
- Time to fill
- Time to hire
- Open positions
- Application completion rate
- Candidate /new employee experience
- Cost to hire
- Quality of hire and more
