The business world is a complex and competitive place. To stay ahead of the pack, you need to attract top talent, the people who will impact your organization in the long term. And take it to the next level.
This is where talent acquisition comes in. It’s a process of ensuring you attract the right applicants with the right skills.
With employee turnover costing US businesses a staggering trillion dollars annually, it pays to invest in talent acquisition and retention. So, to further enhance your talent acquisition strategy, we’ve put together a list of the top talent acquisition metrics not to miss.
These talent acquisition metrics will help you to streamline your recruitment and hiring processes, and improve the quality of your workforce.
Is Talent Acquisition The Same As Recruiting?
While they may seem to be identical on the surface, there is a distinct difference between talent acquisition and recruiting.
Recruiting is a short-term solution that meets the immediate staffing needs of your business, whereas talent acquisition is a longer-term strategy. Talent acquisition aims to improve your future recruiting and hiring process by making your business more attractive to top talent.
Thus recruiting is reactive, and temporary. Talent acquisition is proactive and big-picture.
Top Talent Acquisition Metrics & Why They Matter
Talent acquisition metrics matter, because they can guide you in the right direction for the future hiring of top talent.
To ensure that you attract candidates that are the right fit for your organization, pay close attention to the following talent acquisition metrics.
1. Cost to Company Per Hire
Everything your recruitment team does has a financial implication for the company. Recruitment cost metrics cannot be overlooked.
Be sure to look at the total cost involved. The cost of hire includes all expenses in the recruiting process. This is in terms of advertising vacant positions, travel costs, recruitment agency fees (if you use one), and the relocation costs of staff you identify as the right fit for your business.
Add up all the costs involved in recruiting and hiring candidates for the year, and divide by the total number of new hires in that year. This will give you your cost-per-hire metric.
Why This Matters
If your team is using vast amounts of resources to fill only a few positions, this is not good for the company’s bottom line. When candidates don’t stick around, it is a further waste of resources, as the whole process has to start again.
Reducing recruitment costs in general will allow for more resources in the key areas of onboarding and engagement.
2. The Time the Recruiting Team Takes to Fill Positions
How long is it taking to fill positions in your company? This includes the time taken to identify potential candidates, and screen and interview them, all the way up to the hiring stage.
According to talent acquisition statistics, 36 days is average, although it can and often takes far longer.
Why This Matters
The time-to-fill metric will show you how much time it takes to find the right candidates. Reduce that time, and you’ll save money in the long run. Also, a lengthy hiring process can raise the cost per hire significantly. However, this process should be rushed.
3. Time Needed for the Hiring Process
Once your recruiting team has identified the best candidates, the onus is on them to complete the process. This can entail further candidate screening and interviews, as well as reference checking.
These last two processes are the foremost techniques used to assess middle-management candidates. How much time are your hiring managers taking to complete these tasks?
Why This Matters
Some of these candidates will have applied to multiple job postings. By reducing the time taken to move the best candidates through each step in the hiring process, you lower the risk of losing them to competitors.
4. Quality Of Hire
The quality of your newly hired candidates has far-reaching consequences for your organization. Have your most recent new hires performed as expected and met the requirements of the job description?
Have they added value to your organization? Assess manager satisfaction with their work and their unique contribution to the company.
Why This Matters
The quality of hire is important as it highlights whether or not your recruitment team is identifying the best talent. When new hires consistently don’t meet your expectations, consider adapting the criteria your talent acquisition team is basing its selections.
5. Diversity Rate
How diverse is your workforce, in terms of gender and racial equality? A diverse workforce is a major factor in attracting new candidates.
This was highlighted by research conducted by Glassdoor, which determined that up to three-quarters of job seekers consider a company’s diversity when applying.
Why This Matters
If your company is lacking in diversity it sends the wrong message to job seekers. The fault may lie in an outdated application process or the hiring bias of a hiring manager.
Or your recruitment techniques may be lacking inclusivity in their structure or terminology.
Failure to correct this means you could be losing out on top candidates. Perceived inclusivity is closely related to the overall candidate experience as well as a favorable net promoter score. Use this metric as motivation to become a diverse and inclusive organization with a strong employer brand.
6. Employee Retention
Check your employee retention metrics for the past year. Employee retention and turnover rates are the best indicators of how successful your talent acquisition efforts have been. Whether voluntary or involuntary, this turnover rate may be due to filling positions with people not up to the task.
Why This Matters
Improve your criteria for talent acquisition, and you’ll improve employee retention. This is critical, as high employee turnover leads to a higher need for recruitment. This costs time and money and creates the impression that your company is not an adequate place to work.
Conclusion
Every talent acquisition metric is a sign of where your recruitment efforts have succeeded or failed.
Recruiting metrics can help you streamline your recruitment process, saving the business time and money. Furthermore, they will guide you in your talent acquisition strategy moving forward, to attract and retain top talent.
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