Managing by the numbers
Recruitment on gut feeling is gambling with your growth. We manage every partnership on measurable KPIs, from the first click to the signature. And you watch along.
Which KPIs should you use to manage recruitment?
The most important recruitment KPIs follow the funnel: reach and clicks, application conversion, the share of qualified candidates, interview ratio, cost per hire and time to hire. Together they show where things run well and where they stall, so you can adjust with precision instead of shouting louder on the same channels.
See our measurement methodologyThese are the KPIs we keep sharp
Every KPI answers one question about your funnel. Together they tell the whole story.
- Reach and clicks
- Are the right people seeing your campaigns, and are they interesting enough to click on?
- Application conversion
- How many visitors complete the funnel? This is the true gauge of your proposition and funnel.
- Qualified candidates
- Applicants are nice, candidates who fit are better. We measure the difference explicitly.
- Interview ratio
- How many recommended candidates make it to an interview? This shows the quality of the screening.
- Cost per hire
- What does an actual hire cost, all expenses included? The most honest steering metric there is.
- Time to hire
- How long does it take from intake to accepted offer? Every week shaved off saves lost revenue.
- Candidate experience
- How do candidates look back on the process? Even those who don't get the job stay ambassadors of your brand.
How does the reporting work?
Every month you get an overview of the full funnel: what was spent, what it delivered and what we're adjusting as a result. Not a pile of screenshots, but a story with the numbers to back it up: this worked, this didn't, this is what we'll do differently. And because we work under your name, all those insights stay available to your organisation.
No black box
We get the distrust: many agencies mainly report what went well. We deliberately also show what didn't work. A channel that gets too expensive is dropped, and you see that right there in the overview. How we define and calculate each KPI is published in our measurement methodology, so you can verify every number.
From numbers to decisions
Reporting isn't a goal, it's fuel for the recruitment mix. If conversion drops, we look at funnel and proposition. If qualified candidates fail to show up, budget shifts from campaigns to sourcing. That way every euro is spent a little smarter every month, and you ultimately see that back in your business case.
An application only counts once the form has been filled in completely and submitted, and we count it in the form itself; these are form submissions and not unique people. See our measurement methodology.
A low cost per application is no measure of quality. Across 77 of our campaigns, started from August 2024, we found no link between the cost per application and the odds that an applicant reaches the first phone conversation. That's why we report on conversations alongside cost. The evidence is on our figures page.
The final measure of quality is whether someone stays. Why a new employee still leaves within the first year, and which part of that was already caused during recruitment, is explained in Why do new employees leave within the first year?.
You see what we see
FULL VISIBILITY
No quarterly report with a bow on it, but continuous insight into the same data we manage by. So internally you can always show what recruitment delivers, with numbers that add up.
See how we substantiate resultsFurther reading
Measurement methodology
How each KPI is defined and calculated.
Measurement methodologyThe business case for RPO
From steering metrics to a financial story for management and finance.
The business case for RPOHow RPO works at SocialFind
The complete funnel these KPIs come from.
How RPO works at SocialFindData and optimisation
How we adjust weekly based on the numbers from the funnel.
Data and optimisationReducing time-to-hire
Where time leaks away between first contact and hire, and what to do about it.
Reducing time-to-hireReducing recruitment costs
How to bring your cost-per-hire down structurally.
Reducing recruitment costs
Want to know where your funnel leaks?
Tell us who you need. We'll show you where your recruitment is stalling and what it should cost.
Frequently asked questions about recruitment KPIs
Yes, especially that. An honest picture of what is not working is exactly what lets you course-correct. Underperforming channels, funnels with drop-off, and propositions that do not land are named explicitly, including what we are changing about them. Reporting only successes is marketing, not steering.
An applicant is anyone who completes the funnel. A qualified candidate additionally meets the agreed criteria for the role, such as experience, availability, and commute, and has been screened by phone. Measuring this distinction prevents a campaign from looking successful while the quality disappoints.
KPI stands for key performance indicator: a measurable number that shows whether you are on track for a goal. In recruitment, examples are time-to-hire, cost-per-hire and the conversion per funnel step. The difference from an ordinary statistic is that a KPI is tied to a decision: if the number deviates, you know what to adjust.
The five that cover the whole funnel: time-to-hire (how fast), cost-per-hire (how expensive), quality of hire (how good), applications per channel (where from) and conversion per funnel step (where the drop-off is). Which one matters most depends on your problem: with open vacancies time-to-hire weighs heavily, with high turnover quality of hire. Start with the KPI that measures your biggest pain.
Define what you measure, how you calculate it, over which period and which decision depends on it. So not "hire faster" but "time-to-hire for technicians, measured from first contact to accepted offer, per month, and if it rises we first look at follow-up speed". Choose a benchmark from your own history, not from a random industry figure, because those are rarely comparable with your roles and region.