White Paper

10 Must-Track Metrics
in Talent Acquisition

© 2017 iCIMS Inc. All Rights Reserved.

White Paper | 10 Must-Track Metrics in Talent Acquisition

With research suggesting that HR has the highest impact on a company’s

bottom line, it’s HR that ensures companies have the right people in place to
build and foster excellence throughout the organization.
Yet, hiring initiatives tend to fall flat because companies fail to address the
revolution that is taking place in job seeking and recruiting.
For example, the disruptive force of technology has permanently changed the
way people apply for jobs and how employers hire, requiring talent acquisition
departments to take on a more analytical approach to hiring by tracking key recruiting
metrics. Tracking metrics manually in spreadsheets or folders is no longer a viable option.
Using technology to track the following set of metrics – from sourcing to recruiting to
onboarding – will directly improve your bottom line, budget, and productivity. In this white
paper, we’ll demonstrate how each metric provides key insights into the recruiting process,
provide industry standards for measurement, and offer helpful tips and tactics in order to
impress executives and hiring managers while facilitating positive change.

Best Sourcing Job Boards

Related Metric Corporate Career Site

1. Source of Hire Employee

Referrals

How to measure: Applicant tracking systems

(ATS) like iCIMS make it easy to track and report
source of hire. Every candidate that enters
iCIMS is tagged with a specific source of entry
like job boards, social networks, employee
referrals, or other candidate-supplied information.
Tracking source of hire over time will help to
modify your team’s work allocation based on
the effectiveness and cost to ensure the best
Then we asked these same recruiting professionals
which source brought in the BEST candidates.
Employee referrals ranked as the number
one source for the best candidates.
Employee Referrals

return-on-investment of recruitment dollars.

Job Boards
For example, in an iCIMS survey taken by
over 360 recruiting professionals, we asked Other
which source brings in the majority of candidates.
Unsurprisingly, job boards ranked the highest, Corporate
followed by corporate career sites and Career Site

employee referrals.

© 2016 iCIMS Inc. All Rights Reserved.

© 2017 iCIMS Inc. All Rights Reserved.
White Paper | 10 Must-Track Metrics in Talent Acquisition

Your company may also have similar success rates

with these sources. By tracking your source of hire,
recruiters have insight into which is the strongest
source and which is the weakest. If one source of hire
is weak, ask why. Are you speaking to the right people?
Is now the time to revamp (or even launch) your
employee referral program? Could you re-allocate
that part of the recruitment advertising budget
to another source that’s known to bring in quality
candidates? Answering these questions becomes
simpler when the data is at your fingertips.
Always keep in mind, however, that shortening
time to fill shouldn’t sacrifice the quality of the hire.
Best Recruiting Filling a seat for the sake of closing a requisition
Related Metrics could end up negatively impacting other metrics
like cost per hire, turnover, or satisfaction.

2. Time to Fill 3. Every Open Requisition: Total

How to measure: Industry standards suggests that Applied, Interviewed, Offers
time to fill represents the number of days from Extended, Offers Accepted
when the job requisition was opened until the
offer was accepted by the candidate.1 How to measure: Track important ratios such as
the number of candidates applied to interviewed,
Not only does knowing time to fill help HR interviewed to offered, and offered to accepted.
professionals gain insight into a realistic time to
hire new employees in the future, but it also helps Strategic recruiting requires understanding the
managers redistribute work more effectively while intricacies of each search and the ability to anticipate
the position is open. Once any high time to fill where the bottlenecks might be ahead of time. For
challenges are uncovered, you’ll have the example, iCIMS recently took a look at how much time
opportunity to make recommendations to the a resume spends in each status of the hiring process.
hiring manager that demonstrate how simple
changes can improve their time-to-fill.
2%
For example, iCIMS customer Cumming Corporation
15%
uses iCIMS reporting abilities to identify and mitigate 23% Hiring Manager Review
bottlenecks during the recruiting process, thus HR Screening
helping to shorten the company’s time to fill overall. Interviewing
23%
Applied
Explained Scott Weaver, director of talent acquisition 37%
and development: Hired
* Average time-to-fill of 34 days

1. SHRM

© 2016 iCIMS Inc. All Rights Reserved.

© 2017 iCIMS Inc. All Rights Reserved.
White Paper | 10 Must-Track Metrics in Talent Acquisition

Our research showed that resumes spend the longest

time under hiring manager review during the hiring
Best Practice Example
process. Identifying potential bottlenecks like this
What are the best ways to engage
makes it easier to build a business case for positive hiring managers? We asked and
changes in the screening process, hiring manager identified four best practices:
communications, and much more.
−79% meet to talk on the phone to
discuss job requirements.
4. Hiring Manager Satisfaction −67% prepare screening questions and/or
interview questions together.
How to measure: Hiring manager satisfaction is
best tracked through surveys via electronic forms. −63% collaborate on ways to find the best
candidates (e.g. best keywords to search in
iCIMS allows users to send and receive electronic
resume database, which social media sites to
forms through the system, and makes all answers use for searching, which competitors have
searchable and reportable. the best staff to target, etc.).
−55% review resumes together and
Hiring managers and recruiters are uniquely positioned
continuously “tweak” the criteria.
to notice different problems in the hiring process.
According to iCIMS Hiring Insights research, 80% of
recruiters think they have a “high”
to “very high” understanding of the jobs for which 5. Candidate Satisfaction
they recruit. But 61% of hiring managers say
How to measure: Similar to hiring manager
that recruiters have, at best, a “low” to “moderate
satisfaction, candidate satisfaction is best tracked
understanding” for the jobs for which they recruit.
through surveys via electronic forms. iCIMS
Receiving feedback on a regular basis allows you allows users to send and receive electronic forms
to see what worked, what didn’t, and what internal through the system, and makes all answers
improvements can be made for the next search. searchable and reportable.

Additionally, talent acquisition technology provides a Create a standardized survey that measures candidates’
wide array of tools to support better communication experience based on their impression of the selection
between stakeholders. Even hiring managers—who process. Just a few negative candidate reviews can
don’t typically “live” in the world of talent acquisition dissuade top talent from applying to your company.
systems—benefit from strong talent acquisition
For example, 46% percent of candidates rate their
technology! When hiring managers can easily
candidate experience applying for jobs as poor to very
approve jobs, candidates, and offers from their mobile
poor. And worse, 64% said that they share information
devices, or interact with recruiters via email with all
about their candidate experience via social media. With
communications automatically tracked within the
this in mind, you definitely want your company to be
system, everything becomes simpler for all parties
perceived as candidate-friendly.2
involved. When hiring managers are able to sign into
the system to easily view all candidates for their jobs, As technology has expanded, many companies have
as well as each candidate’s stage in the hiring process, abandoned the personal aspects of hiring. However,
they begin to have access to the “bigger picture” they companies like Enterprise Holdings make it a priority
need to help resolve hiring bottlenecks. to keep the “human” within human resources.
2. https://www.icims.com/hiring-insights/for-employers/ebook-the-candidate-experience-playbook

© 2016 iCIMS Inc. All Rights Reserved.

© 2017 iCIMS Inc. All Rights Reserved.
White Paper | 10 Must-Track Metrics in Talent Acquisition
Marie Artim, VP of talent acquisition, explains:
Best Practice Example
Enterprise Holdings has a 5 business day follow up rule to
follow up with every candidate that submits an application.
Collecting feedback on the current stats of your
hiring process will help to improve future candidate
experiences, which is key in recruiting for all
applicants whether selected or not.
6. Cost per Hire
How to measure: Cost per hire typically includes
advertising fees, agency fees, employee referral
payouts, travel expenses, relocation expenses, and
internal recruiter costs including time spent screening,
and dividing it by the total number of hires.
Cost per hire is a metric that should be seen in context
with other recruiting metrics, as it can vary greatly from
one position to another. For example, cost per hire for
a senior executive position will be drastically different
from a non-exempt position. It is also important to
understand what is causing a high cost per hire (such
as high time to fill).
Although cost per hire is valuable, it does not take into
account the length of time it takes to fill a position
and quality of hire.
© 2016 iCIMS Inc. All Rights Reserved.
© 2017 iCIMS Inc. All Rights Reserved.
7. Compliance
How to measure: Applicant tracking systems like
iCIMS offer robust tracking, reporting, and audit
features that make it easy to collect and store
voluntary EEO information.
Dashboard widgets help companies avoid missed
filings and submissions that can create further delays,
inefficiencies, and risks throughout the recruiting
process. HR technology like iCIMS makes it easy to
identify next steps, know when a deadline is coming
up, and understand your audit risk exposure.
Best Onboarding
Related Metrics
Exmple of a dashboard widget
Quality of Hire
How to measure: Similar to hiring manager
satisfaction, quality of hire is best tracked through
surveys via electronic forms during a specified
interval. iCIMS allows users to send and receive
electronic forms through the system, and makes
all answers searchable and reportable.
It’s essential to keep track of candidate success once
they are on board. In order to document and track
quality of hire, send surveys out to hiring managers
periodically during the first year, or at a preferred
White Paper | 10 Must-Track Metrics in Talent Acquisition

interval. Tracking this feedback can help the policies and procedures, benefits information,
recruiter get to know the hiring manager’s and tasks to complete is centralized in one
preferences and ultimately fine tune recruiting location via this portal.
and screening processes over time.
As a result of these best-in-class onboarding tactics,
9. New Hire Turnover Rate a new hire feels more welcomed and prepared for
his or her new job faster, and is able to contribute
How to measure: The new hire turnover rate is
calculated by dividing the number of employees
that separate from the company (including by firing,
voluntarily leaving, retirement, etc.) by the total
number of employees during that time period. This can
be calculated in any set interval (i.e. month, year, etc.).

Regardless of their level of performance, a new

hire can hardly be considered a success if they
voluntarily quit within the first few months.

Fortunately, technology that allows companies to

automate many parts of the onboarding process
can be directly linked to decreased turnover and
improving retention. to the company’s overall success sooner.

Carolyn Lewis, recruiting manager at iCIMS client

Gables Residential, reported that a key element of
their new onboarding process involves the ability
to personalize the new hire onboarding experience:
Gables Residential utilizes iCIMS’ new hire onboarding
portal to fully showcase its employment brand and
company culture. Communication of important

Best Practice Example

If a business with 120 employees loses 18

employees in a year due to retirement, changing
employers and firing, this business has 15%
turnover rate (18/120 = 0.15).

© 2016 iCIMS Inc. All Rights Reserved.

© 2017 iCIMS Inc. All Rights Reserved.
White Paper | 10 Must-Track Metrics in Talent Acquisition

Best Practice Example 10. Task Completion

How to measure: iCIMS makes it easy to track
Additional information to include in an electronic
a new hire’s onboarding progress with a
onboarding portal:
convenient status bar.
− Welcome message from the CEO
− Company vision, values and mission statements
− Meet your co-workers page
− Videos or pictures that expose the new hire
to the company culture
− Benefits enrollment, direct deposit,
401K and tax forms
Example of new hire task status bars within iCIMS Onboard.
− Candidate experience surveys
− Organizational policies, vacation calendar,
During the onboarding process, measure key
expense and travel guidelines
performance indicators (KPIs) on tasks for internal
− Internal and external training schedules
and external stakeholders to ensure important
paperwork doesn’t get missed, and identify areas
that may benefit from process improvement.

Bonus Metric According to Lewis, Gables Residential’s former

paper-based onboarding processes caused significant
Time-to-Full-Productivity: This metric measures loss of productivity for hiring managers and new hires.
how long it takes for a new hire to become fully
productive in his or her new role. This can also be
tracked via surveys sent to the hiring manager.
This metric provides insights into the
effectiveness of the recruitment process, training
and onboarding process, and helps identify any
bottlenecks or impediments to productivity.

About 73 percent of organizations revamp their

onboarding to improve employee retention - ERE
Media

© 2016 iCIMS Inc. All Rights Reserved.

© 2017 iCIMS Inc. All Rights Reserved.
White Paper | 10 Must-Track Metrics in Talent Acquisition
Best-in-Class Onboarding 62%
Substandard
Onboarding 17%
Know Which Metrics Are
Most Relevant for You
Deciding which metrics to track differs from company
to company and from department to department. For
example, the goals or objectives of your department
might differ depending on who you report to. Typically,
HR departments report into the CFO or the CEO.
Depending on exactly who, the metrics you would
want to track could be different.
Ultimately, identifying the right recruiting metrics
for your business should boil down to two steps:
Step 1: Choose right metrics that make sense to
your organizational goals and business strategy.
Step 2: Ensure alignment and that the team
understands the meaning and purpose of each specific
metric and how to measure for standardization.
© 2016 iCIMS Inc. All Rights Reserved.
© 2017 iCIMS Inc. All Rights Reserved.
It’s important to remember that metrics cannot
have any power by themselves. As previously
mentioned, most metrics should be looked in
context of one another in order to tell the most
accurate story. Being able to tell a story with
metrics is now more critical than ever.
Why? Talent acquisition continues to be one of
the most urgent issues for companies, and the
pressure to hire the right people has created an
intensely competitive recruiting environment.
The reality: job seeking and recruiting have changed
forever, and companies must rethink their current
processes and technology strategies in order to align
with corporate objectives. This “new normal” in talent
acquisition requires a fresh outlook on how companies
approach and invest in finding the right people.
If you want to improve your metrics and impress
your company by delivering tangible results, look
to technology that can make your life simpler and
your hiring processes faster and more effective.
With the right talent acquisition technology, you
can easily analyze your own process and identify
the specific bottlenecks that most need change.
White Paper | 10 Must-Track Metrics in Talent Acquisition

How iCIMS Can Help

iCIMS is the leading provider of talent acquisition solutions that help businesses win the war for top talent. iCIMS
empowers companies to manage their entire hiring process within the industry’s most robust Platform-as-a-Service
(PaaS). Built on the foundation of a best-to-market talent acquisition software suite, iCIMS’ PaaS framework, UNIFi,
allows employers to expand the capabilities of their core talent acquisition technology by integrating with the largest
partner ecosystem in talent acquisition to help them attract, find, screen, and manage candidates. Offering scalable,
easy-to-use solutions that are backed by award-winning customer service, iCIMS supports more than 3,500 contracted
customers and is one of the largest and fastest-growing talent acquisition solution providers.

For more resources visit icims.com/hiring-insights

Connect with iCIMS on social media!

© 2016 iCIMS Inc. All Rights Reserved.

© 2017 iCIMS Inc. All Rights Reserved.