Recruiting metrics are the quantitative measures that show how well your talent acquisition function is performing. The most critical metrics for TA leaders are time-to-fill (industry average 36-42 days), cost-per-hire (average $4,700), quality of hire (the hardest to measure but most valuable), and source of hire (which channels deliver the best candidates). Tracking these metrics enables data-driven decisions about where to invest recruiting resources.
- The 15 most important recruiting metrics every TA leader should track
- Industry benchmarks for time-to-fill, cost-per-hire, and other key KPIs
- How to calculate each metric with formulas and examples
- Which metrics matter most at different company stages
- How to build a recruiting analytics dashboard from scratch
- How to present recruiting metrics to executive leadership
- Common mistakes TA teams make when measuring recruiting performance
Quick Answers
What is the average time-to-fill for most companies?
The average time-to-fill across industries is 36-42 days. However, this varies significantly by role — engineering positions average 45-60 days, while entry-level roles can be filled in 20-30 days.
What is the average cost-per-hire?
The average cost-per-hire is approximately $4,700 according to SHRM. For executive roles, this can exceed $14,000. Cost-per-hire includes advertising, recruiter time, assessments, background checks, and onboarding.
How do you measure quality of hire?
Quality of hire is typically measured through a combination of: new hire performance ratings (after 6-12 months), hiring manager satisfaction scores, new hire retention at 1 year, and time-to-productivity. Weight each factor based on your organization's priorities.
What's the difference between time-to-fill and time-to-hire?
Time-to-fill measures total days from job opening to accepted offer. Time-to-hire measures days from when a candidate applies to accepted offer. Time-to-fill is an operational metric (how long does hiring take?), while time-to-hire reflects candidate experience and process efficiency.
Data-driven recruiters get promoted. Those who can't measure their impact can't prove their value — and in an era of budget scrutiny and AI disruption, proving value is essential.
Yet most TA teams struggle with recruiting metrics. They track too many things (or too few), use inconsistent definitions, and fail to connect recruiting data to business outcomes. This guide fixes that.
Careery is an AI-driven career acceleration service that helps professionals land high-paying jobs and get promoted faster through job search automation, personal branding, and real-world hiring psychology.
Learn how Careery can help youWhy Recruiting Metrics Matter
Recruiting metrics aren't just for reports — they're decision-making tools that answer critical questions:
- Where should we invest? Which sourcing channels deliver the best candidates at the lowest cost?
- Are we fast enough? How does our hiring speed compare to competitors for the same talent?
- Is our process working? Where are candidates dropping out, and why?
- What's the quality? Are new hires performing and staying?
- Can we prove ROI? What's the business impact of faster, better hiring?
The Business Case for Metrics
Metrics transform recruiting from a cost center to a strategic function. Without data, TA leaders can't make resource decisions, identify bottlenecks, or prove ROI to executives.
Sourcing Metrics
Sourcing metrics answer: Where do our best candidates come from?
1. Source of Hire
- Source of Hire
The channel or platform where a hired candidate first entered your recruiting pipeline. This metric shows which sourcing investments produce actual hires, not just applications.
How to calculate:
Source of Hire = Hires from Source / Total Hires × 100
Benchmark breakdown by source:
Distinguish between where candidates apply vs. where they were sourced. A candidate might apply through your career site but was originally sourced on LinkedIn. Track both for accurate channel ROI.
2. Sourcing Channel ROI
How to calculate:
Channel ROI = (Value of Hires from Channel - Channel Cost) / Channel Cost × 100
To calculate this, you need:
- Total spend per channel (job postings, recruiter time, tools)
- Number of hires from each channel
- Estimated value per hire (salary × tenure × productivity factor)
3. Pipeline Size and Quality
Source of hire is one of the most actionable metrics. If referrals deliver 35% of hires at 50% lower cost, that's a clear signal to invest more in referral programs.
Speed Metrics
Speed metrics answer: How fast are we hiring?
4. Time-to-Fill
- Time-to-Fill
The number of calendar days from when a job requisition is opened to when a candidate accepts an offer. This is an operational metric that measures how long the full hiring process takes.
How to calculate:
Time-to-Fill = Date Offer Accepted - Date Req Opened
Industry benchmarks:
Average Time-to-Fill by Role Type
Days from requisition open to offer acceptance
5. Time-to-Hire
- Time-to-Hire
The number of days from when a candidate applies or is sourced to when they accept an offer. This measures candidate experience and process efficiency from the candidate's perspective.
How to calculate:
Time-to-Hire = Date Offer Accepted - Date Candidate Applied/Sourced
6. Stage Duration
Break down time-to-fill by hiring stage to identify bottlenecks:
Faster isn't always better. Rushing hiring decisions leads to bad hires. Track time-to-fill alongside quality of hire to find the optimal balance.
Time-to-fill is a lagging indicator — by the time you see a problem, it's already impacted hiring. Stage duration metrics help you identify bottlenecks in real-time.
Cost Metrics
Cost metrics answer: How much are we spending to hire?
7. Cost-per-Hire
- Cost-per-Hire
The total cost of filling a position, including internal costs (recruiter salaries, tools, overhead) and external costs (job postings, agencies, assessments, background checks).
How to calculate (SHRM/ANSI standard):
Cost-per-Hire = (Internal Costs + External Costs) / Total Hires
Internal costs include:
- Recruiter salaries and benefits (prorated)
- Recruiting technology (ATS, sourcing tools)
- Employee referral bonuses
- Hiring manager time (often estimated)
External costs include:
- Job board postings and advertising
- Staffing agency fees
- Background checks and assessments
- Travel for candidates and interviews
- Relocation assistance
Benchmarks by company size:
8. Cost of Vacancy
- Cost of Vacancy
The business impact of leaving a position unfilled. This includes lost productivity, revenue impact, overtime for existing team, and opportunity cost.
How to calculate:
Daily Cost of Vacancy = Annual Revenue per Employee / 365 × Productivity Factor
For a role generating $200,000 in value annually with 80% productivity impact:
Daily Cost = $200,000 / 365 × 0.8 = $438/day
A 45-day vacancy = $19,710 in lost productivity.
9. Agency Spend Ratio
How to calculate:
Agency Ratio = Agency Spend / Total Recruiting Spend × 100
Benchmark: Most companies target 15-25% agency spend. Higher than 30% indicates over-reliance on external sourcing.
Cost-per-hire alone is misleading. A role that costs $8,000 to fill but saves $438/day in vacancy cost pays for itself in 18 days. Always consider cost-per-hire alongside time-to-fill and quality.
Quality Metrics
Quality metrics answer: Are we hiring the right people?
10. Quality of Hire
- Quality of Hire
A composite metric measuring how well new hires perform and contribute to the organization. It's the most important recruiting metric — but also the hardest to measure consistently.
Common formula:
Quality of Hire = (Performance Score + Hiring Manager Satisfaction + 1-Year Retention) / 3
Component metrics:
You can't know quality of hire until months after someone starts. This is why leading indicators (candidate quality scores, interview performance) are also valuable — they predict future quality.
11. Hiring Manager Satisfaction
How to measure: Send a brief survey to hiring managers at key milestones:
- 30 days: "How satisfied are you with the candidate slate quality?"
- 90 days: "How satisfied are you with the new hire's performance?"
- 180 days: "Would you use this recruiter again?"
Scale: 1-5 or NPS (-100 to +100)
Benchmark: Target 4.0+ average satisfaction or +30 NPS.
12. New Hire Turnover
How to calculate:
New Hire Turnover = New Hires Who Left Within 1 Year / Total New Hires × 100
Benchmarks:
- First 90 days turnover: Should be under 10%
- First year turnover: Industry average is 20-25%; high performers are under 15%
High early turnover indicates hiring mismatches, poor onboarding, or unrealistic job previews.
Quality of hire is the ultimate measure of recruiting effectiveness. But it requires alignment with HR (performance data) and patience (12+ months to measure). Start with hiring manager satisfaction as a leading indicator.
Candidate Experience Metrics
Candidate experience metrics answer: What do candidates think of our process?
13. Candidate Net Promoter Score (cNPS)
- Candidate NPS
A measure of how likely candidates are to recommend your company to other job seekers, based on their experience through the hiring process. Measured on a 0-10 scale.
How to calculate:
cNPS = % Promoters (9-10) - % Detractors (0-6)
When to measure: After final interview or offer decision (regardless of outcome).
Benchmarks:
- Below 0: Poor experience — candidates are actively discouraging others
- 0-30: Average — room for improvement
- 30-50: Good — positive candidate experience
- 50+: Excellent — candidates become employer brand ambassadors
14. Application Completion Rate
How to calculate:
Completion Rate = Completed Applications / Started Applications × 100
Benchmark: 80%+ completion rate. Below 70% indicates friction in your application process (too long, too many fields, technical issues).
15. Offer Acceptance Rate
How to calculate:
Offer Acceptance Rate = Accepted Offers / Total Offers Extended × 100
Benchmark: 85-95% acceptance rate. Below 80% indicates problems with:
- Compensation competitiveness
- Interview experience (candidates getting turned off)
- Competing offers / market conditions
- Misalignment between role expectations and reality
Candidate experience metrics are leading indicators of employer brand health. Rejected candidates talk — a bad experience creates negative word-of-mouth that affects future sourcing.
Diversity Metrics
Diversity metrics answer: Is our hiring process equitable?
Pipeline Diversity
Track representation at each stage:
Diversity Pass-Through Rate
Compare pass-through rates by demographic group at each stage. If diverse candidates advance at lower rates than non-diverse candidates at a specific stage, that's where bias may exist.
Pass-Through Rate = Candidates Advancing to Next Stage / Candidates in Current Stage × 100
Tracking diversity metrics is necessary but not sufficient. The goal is identifying and fixing disparities, not just reporting them. Link metrics to specific process improvements.
Industry Benchmarks
Use these benchmarks to contextualize your metrics. Remember: benchmarks vary by industry, company size, and role type.
Benchmarks by Industry
Building Your Recruiting Dashboard
A great recruiting dashboard tells a story, not just displays numbers. Here's how to build one:
Start With Your Top 5 Metrics
Don't try to track everything. Pick the 5 metrics that matter most to your business:
- Early-stage company: Time-to-fill, cost-per-hire, offer acceptance rate
- Scaling company: Quality of hire, source of hire, pipeline conversion
- Enterprise: Full funnel metrics, diversity, hiring manager satisfaction
Set Baselines and Targets
Before improving, you need to know your current state:
- Pull 6-12 months of historical data
- Calculate current performance for each metric
- Set realistic improvement targets (10-20% improvement per quarter)
Create Visualizations
Make data easy to consume:
- Trend lines for metrics over time
- Funnel charts for conversion rates
- Comparison tables for source of hire and cost analysis
- Heat maps for stage duration bottlenecks
Establish Review Cadence
- Weekly: Pipeline size, stage duration, urgent bottlenecks
- Monthly: Time-to-fill, cost-per-hire, source of hire
- Quarterly: Quality of hire, hiring manager satisfaction, diversity
- Time-to-fill tracked by role and department
- Cost-per-hire calculated with internal + external costs
- Source of hire mapped for all channels
- Quality of hire formula defined and measured
- Hiring manager satisfaction surveyed at 30/90/180 days
- Offer acceptance rate tracked with decline reasons
- Candidate NPS collected post-interview
- Pipeline diversity tracked at each stage
- Benchmarks established for comparison
- Dashboard reviewed weekly/monthly
Presenting Metrics to Leadership
Executives don't care about recruiting metrics — they care about business impact. Translate your data into their language.
Data fluency is essential for TA leadership roles. If you're building toward Director or VP of Talent Acquisition, understanding metrics is table stakes. For salary expectations at each level, see our Recruiter Salary Guide.
What Executives Want to Know
Presentation Tips
- Lead with business impact, not recruiting metrics
- Use comparisons: vs. benchmark, vs. last quarter, vs. competitors
- Show trends, not just snapshots
- Connect to revenue: hiring faster = less vacancy cost = more productivity
- Propose actions: every metric presentation should end with "here's what we're doing about it"
The best TA leaders speak the language of business, not recruiting. Translate every metric into dollars, productivity, or competitive advantage.
Key Takeaways: Recruiting Metrics & KPIs
- 1Track 5 core metrics: time-to-fill, cost-per-hire, quality of hire, source of hire, offer acceptance rate
- 2Industry benchmarks: 36-42 days time-to-fill, $4,700 cost-per-hire, 85% offer acceptance
- 3Quality of hire is the most important metric — but requires 6-12 months to measure
- 4Source of hire drives ROI decisions — invest more in channels that deliver quality hires at lower cost
- 5Stage duration metrics identify bottlenecks in real-time, while time-to-fill is a lagging indicator
- 6Present metrics to leadership in business terms: revenue impact, competitive advantage, ROI
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the most important recruiting metrics to track?
The five essential recruiting metrics are: time-to-fill (how long hiring takes), cost-per-hire (total hiring spend), quality of hire (how well new hires perform), source of hire (which channels produce the best candidates), and offer acceptance rate (how often candidates accept). Start with these before adding more complexity.
How do you calculate cost-per-hire?
Cost-per-hire = (Internal Costs + External Costs) / Total Hires. Internal costs include recruiter salaries, tools, and referral bonuses. External costs include job postings, agency fees, assessments, and background checks. The industry average is approximately $4,700 per hire.
What is a good time-to-fill benchmark?
The industry average time-to-fill is 36-42 days. However, this varies by role: entry-level positions average 20-30 days, mid-level roles 35-45 days, and senior/executive positions 50-65+ days. Engineering and specialized technical roles typically take 45-60 days.
How do you measure quality of hire?
Quality of hire is typically calculated as the average of: new hire performance rating (at 6-12 months), hiring manager satisfaction score, and 1-year retention. Some organizations also include time-to-productivity and promotion rate. The challenge is that quality takes 6-12+ months to measure accurately.
What's the difference between recruiting metrics and recruiting KPIs?
All KPIs are metrics, but not all metrics are KPIs. Metrics are any measurable data points about recruiting. KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are the specific metrics that are most critical to your organization's goals and that you've set targets for. Choose 3-5 KPIs from your broader set of metrics.
How often should recruiting metrics be reviewed?
Review operational metrics (pipeline size, stage duration) weekly. Review performance metrics (time-to-fill, cost-per-hire, source of hire) monthly. Review outcome metrics (quality of hire, retention, diversity) quarterly. Adjust frequency based on hiring volume — high-volume teams may need daily operational reviews.
How do you present recruiting metrics to executives?
Translate metrics into business impact. Instead of 'time-to-fill is 42 days,' say 'each day of vacancy costs $500 in lost productivity — reducing time-to-fill by 10 days saves $200K annually.' Connect every metric to revenue, cost savings, or competitive advantage. Always end with actions you're taking.
Researching Job Market & Building AI Tools for careerists since December 2020
Sources & References
- Occupational Outlook Handbook: Human Resources Specialists — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025)
- iCIMS Workforce Report - January 2026 — iCIMS Insights (2026)
- Indeed Hiring Lab Research — Indeed Hiring Lab (2026)
- LinkedIn Talent Solutions Resources — LinkedIn (2026)
- SHRM Talent Acquisition Resources — Society for Human Resource Management (2026)