Recruiting today is more data-driven than ever. Recruiting KPIs (key performance indicators in recruiting) help you to make the effectiveness and efficiency of your recruitment measurable and to make well-founded decisions.
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Why are recruiting KPIs crucial?
Recruiting KPIs give you valuable insights into the success of your recruiting measures. They answer key questions such as:
- How efficient is your recruiting process?
- Where are optimizations possible?
- How do recruiting KPIs vary between industries and positions?
Through continuous measurement and analysis, you can eliminate specific weaknesses and optimize your recruiting strategy.
To the point: What are the 7 most important recruiting KPIs?
So here are the 7 most important KPIs that we have identified as key success factors for the recruiting process over the last 10 years as an agency:
1. time-to-hire
The time-to-hire measures the duration from the job advertisement to the signing of the contract.
Industry average: 40 days; tech companies often reach 30 days or less.
Optimization tips: Use automated applicant management systems like Workable or Recruitee to speed up the process.
2. cost-per-hire
The cost-per-hire indicates how much you invest on average to fill a position.
Industry average: around €4,000 per hire in Germany.
Optimization tips: Use efficient recruiting channels such as employee referrals and active sourcing.
3. quality of hire
The quality of the employees hired shows how well new employees perform in the company in the long term.
Optimization tips: Create precise requirement profiles and use structured interview methods.
4. offer acceptance rate
This recruiting KPI measures how many candidates accept an offer.
Optimization tips: Ensure attractive compensation packages and an outstanding candidate experience.
5. channel effectiveness
This key figure shows the efficiency of individual recruiting channels.
Optimization tips: Regularly analyze the performance of different channels and focus on the most effective ones.
6. candidate experience
This recruiting KPI can be recorded by an automated survey during or after the application process (e.g. with tools such as SurveyMonkey or LamaPoll as an NPS score and provides information about the applicant’s satisfaction with the recruiting process. However, some good ATSs already offer this as well.
Optimization tips: Transparent communication, quick feedback and personal contact throughout the entire process.
7. retention rate
Proportion of employees who are still with the company after a defined period of time.
Optimization tips: Improve onboarding processes and hold regular feedback meetings.
How the consideration of recruiting KPIs helps in practice – Best Practices & Case Studies by Kooku
Some of our selected projects show how important it is to monitor and track KPIs:
Aedifion: Increased efficiency through targeted recruiting KPIs
Aedifion quickly needed qualified employees in the sales area. Using targeted KPIs such as time-to-hire, cost-per-hire and offer acceptance rate, we were able to optimize the process:
Time-to-hire was reduced from 45 to 28 days.
Cost-per-hire fell by 20 % thanks to the targeted use of successful channels.
Offer acceptance rate rose to an impressive 85%.
arztkonsultation: Long-term recruiting strategy with KPI focus
For arztkonsultation, we developed a long-term strategy with continuous KPI analysis:
Retention rate increased to 90 % thanks to improved onboarding.
Quality of Hire was 95% after six months, as measured by performance reviews.
Channel effectiveness showed a 30% higher quality of applicants thanks to targeted channel selection.
askDANTE: Successful social recruiting with KPIs
askDANTE relied on social recruiting and was able to achieve clear success through KPIs:
Response rate rose to 40 %.
Conversion rate increased to 25 %.
Candidate Engagement noticeably improved the candidate experience.
GASAG Group: Interim Recruiting efficiently organized
By focusing on KPIs, the GASAG Group was able to act quickly and efficiently:
Time-to-hire was only 25 days.
Cost-per-hire was reduced by 15 %.
Candidate experience improved by 30%, resulting in higher applicant satisfaction.
LIfBi: Targeting and recruiting specialists
The Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) was faced with the challenge of filling complex IT roles:
Time-to-hire was reduced to 35 days despite high requirements.
Quality of Hire ensures long-term employee retention.
Offer acceptance rate reached an impressive 90 % thanks to targeted individual approach.
Bonus: Our 3 most important recruiting KPIs for active sourcing
Active sourcing usually requires more specific, more operational KPIs that can be monitored directly in order to quickly optimize the approach process, e.g. the approach or the interview process.
Response rate: Proportion of candidates who respond to your approach. A strong response rate is over 30%.
Conversion rate: Proportion of candidates who actually proceed to the recruitment process after the first contact.
Candidate engagement: Intensity of interactions and quality of relationships during active sourcing.
For specific optimization strategies, we recommend downloading our Active Sourcing Bible (click here to download for free) with practical tips and tricks from our day-to-day agency work.
Tools and technologies in recruiting KPI management
Our Kooku Recruiting Dashboard enables the precise tracking of operational KPIs in real time so that we can fine-tune projects optimally. It offers:
- Weekly KPI reports
- Early identification of optimization potential
- Transparent, data-based collaboration
As an ATS we use Workable (good for agencies), but Recruitee / Tellent we can always recommend to our clients due to its easy setup and excellent clarity. For an initial consultation on the candidate management system, we recommend our completely free mini-workshop“Recruiting Health Check”
Recruiting KPIs in an industry comparison
Recruiting KPIs vary greatly between industries such as tech, sales, marketing, finance and engineering. Tech companies often focus on speed and candidate engagement, while finance positions are particularly focused on sustainable employee retention.
If you would like to know how your open positions are rated, take the free online applicant market check here.
Conclusion & recommendations for action
Recruiting KPIs are the key to effective and sustainable recruiting. Use these KPIs consistently to eliminate weaknesses and continuously improve processes.
Would you like to find out more? Contact us for a free and individual Recruiting Health Check or deepen your knowledge with our blog articles.
Zum Service: Recruiting Beratung von Kooku
Mit unseren Best Practices können Sie sich und Ihrem Recruiting-Team mittel- und langfristig bis zu 60 % administrativen Aufwand sparen und somit vollen Fokus auf das Wesentliche legen: Die nachhaltige Rekrutierung von Fach- und Führungskräften.
Hier klicken für mehr InfosFAQ: Frequently asked questions about recruiting KPIs
Here are a few quick answers to questions you may have about getting started with KPI-driven recruiting:
When getting started with data-driven recruitment, time-to-hire, cost-per-hire and channel effectiveness are particularly important. These recruiting KPIs provide the first clear insights into the efficiency of your processes and help you prioritize measures.
Recruiting efficiency can be improved by regularly analyzing KPIs such as time-to-hire, response rate and candidate engagement. This allows you to identify where processes are faltering and to implement targeted automation or optimized communication steps.
The optimum number of KPIs for recruiting is around 5-7 key figures. Too many values lead to a lack of transparency, while a focused selection – e.g. of time-to-hire, quality-of-hire and offer acceptance rate – provides a clear overview of your recruiting efficiency. It is important to select good tools that can also monitor these KPIs.
For tech roles, the response rate in the direct approach is often critical, while in the sales sector the focus is on the no-show rate in interviews and the cultural fit. Recruiting KPIs must therefore be interpreted and weighted in a sector-specific manner.
Candidate engagement is an underestimated but central recruiting KPI – especially in active sourcing. It shows how intensively candidates interact with your process and how well you have understood the candidate persona.
To collect and evaluate your recruiting KPIs, you should definitely use a suitable ATS for your company such as Recruitee (simple and clear), Workable (comprehensive and proven) or individual dashboards such as the one developed by Kooku, which is specially tailored to operational KPIs.
Recruiting KPIs should be reviewed at least monthly, but ideally weekly, and included in the management process – especially in the direct approach. This allows you to react quickly to changes, identify bottlenecks and continuously improve recruiting efficiency.
