3 Practical Metrics for a Successful Recruiter
Jolene Pilgrim
As a professional in an HR field, recruiters often face difficulties gauging their personal successes. The assignment based nature of the role and continuous juggling act as you look to fill multiple positions across companies and even industries can make tracking your progress and growth all but impossible. There is, after all, a reason that people don’t compare apples to oranges.
Even with all these disparities among individual job fills and distinct tasks, there are still certain commonalities that you can use to independently judge performance, ensuring you remain at the top of the recruitment game. Here we break down the practical milestones, or metrics, that show progress and help track truly successful recruiters.
1. Time to Fill
When it comes to being a successful recruiter, the measure of time to fill for any open position may be the gold standard by which to judge success. The last thing clients looking for new employees need is to have a vacant position sit stagnant for an extended period of time. Reduced staffing typically brings extra costs in terms of overtime, reduced response times and lower customer satisfaction. Having a low time to fill metric means that you can help your hiring clients reduce costs and button up uncertainties to maintain business continuity.
Time to fill metrics can be higher than optimal for a variety of reasons that are out of a recruiter’s control. If your candidate resumes are rejected frequently by the employer, consider setting up an initial phone or in person interview with the person in charge of hiring decisions with the client in order to obtain a better idea of the type of candidate they may be looking for. Scheduling interviews closely together and consistently follow up for feedback from the interview are also key factors for narrowing the time it takes to close the hiring deal.
2. Cost Per Hire
Whether it’s your weekly grocery bill, that next auto purchase or filling a job vacancy, keeping costs low is always a desirable outcome. The cost per hire metric is important as it effects your client’s bottom line and is one of the most immediate ways hiring managers will use to judge a recruiter’s success when deciding whether to go back to a particular agency or placement agent.
When aiming to keep your cost per hire metric down, consider a number of different steps and be sure to factor in actual money output as well as the value of time spent. For example, advertising job opening on for pay sites or a recruiter’s own placement fee are immediately apparent to hiring managers. The value of time spent in the hiring process may not be immediately apparent on a balance sheet but will be felt and questioned by sophisticated managers and HR professionals. Ensure that your candidates show up to interviews on time and utilize scheduling, follow up and precise candidate targeting to minimize the time a client will be left with a vacant, non-productive opening. All of these actions will help reduce your cost per hire metric and have you looking like a recruiter super star.
3. Time to Productivity (AKA the Onboarding Process)
As an internal manager, hiring professional or recruiting lead you know that getting the candidate in the door is only one-half of the hiring process. Once you’ve found and hired your new employee there will be time and resources needed in order to get them up and running in a productive manner. This onboarding process is critical for both long and short term employee success and makes a valuable metric by which to judge the proficiency of any hiring professional.
Starting out with quality candidates will certainly set the stage for a smooth onboarding. In addition, encourage first day and week training in company technology, procedures, and culture that will help avoid any unnecessary hiccups in administrative tasks right out of the gate. Next, ensure that the company or department has in place a well-developed training schedule for the individual position. This schedule should focus on the key skills needed in the job description as well as a plan for thoughtful instruction in their areas that builds off of the previously learned skills. Each of these approaches will help create an efficient, smooth and quick onboarding process that benefits the employee and company.
Article Updated from the Original on August 28, 2017
