In my years as a recruiter, I’ve realized that the heart of successful hiring lies in a carefully crafted sourcing strategy.
Along with a well-thought-out plan for candidate sourcing, nothing gives me a clearer picture of hiring than leveraging the right data points.
Understanding your sourcing metrics not only fine-tunes your approach but also unveils market trends that are sometimes not apparent to the naked eye.
And I have seen how it revolutionizes the rapport between a company and potential hires right from the initial stages of hiring.
So, if you’re one of the many folks in this industry with a gold mine of recruiting metrics and data but are unsure how to reap its benefits, join me as I share some tips for your team.
Trust me, by the end of this, you’ll be equipped to redefine your strategy, aligning it perfectly with the dynamic market currents, all from the lens of a seasoned recruiter.
Are you measuring the efficacy of sourcing channels?
Have you heard of sourcing channel effectiveness?
This metric serves as a barometer for assessing the impact
of various sourcing channels, like social media, LinkedIn, virtual job fairs, and others, in augmenting the candidate pool.
Through my years of navigating the recruitment maze, I believe it’s imperative to hone your sourcing strategies by understanding where the cream of the crop comes from without breaking the bank.
But how do you gauge this?
Through this simple calculation:
[Number of applications from a specific channel] / [Number of hires from that channel]
Venturing deeper into this metric allows recruiters to uncover other vital details, including:
- Channel comparison for optimum candidate influx
- Measuring the return on investment (ROI)
- Predicting the best times to approach top talent through different channels
How to fine-tune your outreach conversions?
Now that you have a better idea of how effective your candidate sourcing channels are for your recruitment team, it’s essential to understand if your outreach methods are working.
Every message sent to prospective candidates falls under this category.
Based on my experience, these metrics are invaluable in conveying insights on marketing dynamics and brand awareness to stakeholders, facilitating informed future decisions.
Here are some key metrics that can be a game-changer for how you carry out your candidate outreach:
- Response rate: [Number of outreach initiatives] / [Number of responses]
- Conversion rate: [Number of positive outreaches] / [Total responses]
- Rejection rate: This is more qualitative, where you analyze the rejection percentage and reasons based on the total rejected outreaches.
Digging deeper into these metrics unveils facets like brand awareness, candidate response tendencies across different companies, and patterns that help fine-tune your outreach strategies.
Trust me, keeping an eye on these nuances can sometimes be more exciting than a detective series!
Other key sourcing metrics to keep an eye on
Monitoring the journey of sourced candidates through each phase and gathering feedback is akin to assembling a jigsaw puzzle.
Each piece of information helps build a coherent picture of who progresses and who might need a little nudge.
If you want to map out your candidate’s journey effectively, then you should consider measuring your conversion rate through this simple method:
[Number of interviewed candidates] / [Number of sourced candidates]
Remember that the number of sourced candidates needs to be observed closely at each stage while maintaining proper feedback.
This gives recruiters a firm overview of which candidates can pass successfully and who needs more preparation.
With these numbers, you can also delve deeper into other metrics, including:
- Offer acceptance rate: Calculate this metric as: [Number of accepted sourced offers] / [Total number of offers]. This ratio, my fellow recruiters, is your golden ticket to understanding candidates’ preferences.
- Referral rate: Trust me, this is a metric you’d want to keep a close eye on.
- Diversity metrics: These include conversion rates, offer acceptance rates, and rejection stage rates. It’s the 21st century, folks, and diversity is not just a buzzword; it’s a necessity!
The importance of measuring sourcing productivity
By now, you might ask, “Diana, how do we keep track of all these activities?”
Well, I’m glad you asked!
Sourcing productivity helps you monitor your efforts and their outcomes meticulously.
You need to closely monitor activities such as meetings, candidate reach-outs, screenings completed (including conversion and rejection details), and email campaigns.
These metrics are vital indicators for workforce management within the sourcing and recruitment team.
Imagine this: a sourcer reaches out to 50 potential candidates but only receives ten replies, indicating a 20% response rate.
Now, after tweaking your outreach email templates with a personal touch, if the response rate shoots up to 40%, voila! You’ve just boosted your sourcing productivity by a whopping 20%!
Don’t get lulled into a false sense of accomplishment just yet.
It’s crucial to remember that not all sourcing metrics will apply to your recruitment strategy uniformly on a weekly or monthly basis.
But if you take the time to step back and evaluate your sourcing strategy periodically, you can pave a pathway to refined and efficient recruitment for your team.
Happy recruiting!
