The First Recruitment Metrics You Should Track (And How to Choose Them)

If you are not tracking recruitment metrics, you are basically hiring with the lights off.

You might get the right person eventually, but you will waste time and effort in the process and you will have no idea why something worked or did not.

That does not mean you need a giant spreadsheet of every hiring metric you have ever seen in a LinkedIn infographic.

Start with the ones that will actually help you make better decisions now.

Here is how.

Step 1: Work out your recruitment profile

Before you choose what to track, you need to know what kind of hiring game you are playing.

Think about:

• Company stage and size
• If you have a recruitment team and how many people are in it
• The industry you are in and how competitive it is for talent
• Your hiring budget
• If you are hiring locally, nationally or globally
• The seniority and specialisation of the roles
• How well known your employer brand is
• Your current turnover rate
  

This combination is your recruitment profile.

A five person startup with no recruiter and a small budget will have different priorities from a 200 person company with a talent team and a name that carries weight in the market.

Step 2: Decide what you are actually trying to achieve

Metrics are pointless without clear goals.

Ask yourself:

• Do you need to hire fast to scale up?
• Are you focusing on making one great hire on a tight budget?
• Do you want better candidate quality even if it takes longer?
• Is reducing turnover your main target?
• Are you trying to strengthen your employer brand so hiring becomes easier in future?
• Is lowering cost per hire the top priority?
  

Pick your goals first. Then pick the metrics that will tell you if you are getting closer to them.

And yes, your goals will change over time. That is fine. Just update your metrics when they do.

Step 3: Do not start with everything

A common mistake is tracking too much too soon.

If you are still hiring mostly from your own network, you do not need to measure quality of hire yet. You probably do not even need retention rates.

Your first job is to learn how to attract candidates beyond your immediate contacts and then see how well you convert them into interviews.

Think of it like this:

1. Build a sourcing list
2. Send outreach messages
3. Measure how many people respond
4. Track how many of those responses turn into interviews
   

That is your first data set.
When you have that working, you can add more complexity.

Step 4: The metrics worth tracking

Not every metric matters from day one.
Start with the ones that give you a clear picture quickly, then add more as your process matures.

Mandatory for day one – the bare minimum you cannot skip

These tell you if your hiring process is actually working and where it is breaking.

Conversion per stage

From sourcing, to outreach, to interview, to offer, to acceptance. This is your main metric for spotting where candidates drop off.

Time to fill

From the moment the job opens to the moment an offer is accepted. Crucial for resource and project planning.

Source of hire

Identifies which channels actually lead to hires so you can focus your efforts on what works.

Pipeline management efficiency

Shows whether candidates are moving forward without being left idle for long periods.

Mandatory once your process is stable – refining speed, cost and accuracy

Add these once you have a consistent hiring flow and want to improve results.

Cost per hire

The total cost of filling a role including ads, recruiter time, tools and agency fees.

Applicant to interview ratio

Shows whether your sourcing and screening are balanced.

Time to hire

From when a candidate enters the pipeline to when they accept the offer. Measures how efficient your process is after identifying someone.

Offer acceptance rate

Low rates point to issues with pay, role expectations or candidate experience.

Nice to have – for long term quality and strategy

These matter more when you have been hiring steadily for some time.

Quality of hire

Measured a few months after joining based on performance, productivity or retention.

Diversity hiring metrics

Tracks inclusivity in your recruitment process. Only meaningful if you have enough hiring volume.

Retention and attrition rates

Shows how long your hires stay and when they tend to leave.

Application completion rate

For high volume online applications, measures how many people start but do not finish. Low completion can indicate that your process is too long or complicated.

Step 5: Keep it simple at the start

You do not need expensive software to track these.

A spreadsheet will do. The important part is to record things the same way every time and update them regularly.

Once you have a few months of clean data, you will start seeing patterns. Maybe your outreach gets a lot of responses but very few interviews. Or maybe your interviews lead to offers but your offer acceptance rate is poor.

That is when you can start fixing things with evidence instead of guesses.

Recap:

1. Know your recruitment profile
2. Set clear hiring goals
3. Start with a small set of metrics
4. Keep the tracking simple
5. Expand as you grow
   

In my next piece, I will share a straightforward system for collecting these metrics without adding unnecessary complexity.