When searching for the perfect candidate, it’s important that you cast your net wide and then carefully narrow your options down until you have found the right person. The idea of this can be visualised as a recruitment funnel, starting with everyone who views your vacancy and resulting in a hire. When it comes to hiring a new employee, you will go through several stages before you make your final hiring decision.
The stages of the recruitment funnel are as follows:
- Applicants enter the funnel: At this stage they become aware of the job opening, either from a job ad, a referral or even through a recruiter.
- The candidate applies for the role: They’ve learnt more about the the role and have shown interest in it. Recruiters can then identify potential candidates from the talent pool, by targeting skill sets.
- Screening: Prospects have been identified them, so it’s time to screen them to ensure they are right for the role. This is when interviews will be held, either in person or via video and unsuitable candidates can be ruled out of the running.
- An offer is made: A suitable candidate has been selected from the shortlist and an offer is issued.
- Someone is hired: Once the offer has been accepted and terms of employment have been agreed on, the hiring process is finalised.
In order to create an efficient hiring process and to hire the top talent available, it’s important that your talent funnel is running smoothly. So how can you measure the performance of your recruitment funnel?
Jobvite analysed their database of 50 million job seekers and 10 million applications in order to aggregate the most common metrics that recruiters around the world use to assess their performance. How do yours compare?
Recruiting Benchmarks
Website visitor to applicants: 11%
- If your conversion rate is more than 11%, you’ve got to be doing something right! Creating an enticing employer brand and a great careers website are key factors.
- If your conversion rate is less than 11%, you are below the industry benchmark, so you spend more time working on improving your employer brand and ensuring that your career site is easy to navigate and allows users to apply simply and quickly.
Average number of applications per impression: 59
- If your number is above 59 and you get good quality candidates, you’re doing a good job of enticing candidates with the use of job ads, etc.
- Falling below 59 doesn’t necessarily mean that you are doing something wrong. A smaller company size or niche area could impact this figure.
Application to Interview: 12%
- This figure can help you to assess whether or not you are reaching the right kind of candidates when initially advertising the role.
- If you have a high number of applicants, but a low percentage of them are making it to the interview stage you may want to reconsider how you are marketing the role.
Interview to offer conversion: 17%
- This figure can give you an idea of the quality of candidates making it through to the interview stage.
Offers accepted conversion: 89%
- You’ve found the ideal person for the role, but do they want to work for you? The interview can be a two way process and a low conversion rate could suggest you are selling the company short in interviews.
Average time it takes to hire: 43 Days
- Over a month sounds like a long time, but we must bear in mind that this is measured from the first application to employment contract signed.
