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6 Strategic Sourcing KPIs Recruitment Teams Must Track

Are your candidate sourcing efforts paying off? Discover 6 strategic sourcing KPIs to measure for your sourcing and outbound recruitment.
Last update
May 27, 2024
6 Strategic Sourcing KPIs Recruitment Teams Must Track
André Farah
6 Strategic Sourcing KPIs Recruitment Teams Must Track
Content

If you're in the thick of sourcing talent, whether as part of an in-house Talent Acquisition manager or a staffing agency, you know the drill. It's not just about filling positions; it's about measuring and understanding the effectiveness of your efforts. With outbound recruitment processes becoming more intricate, it's easy to feel like you're shooting in the dark. That's where the right strategic sourcing KPIs come into the picture. They're not just numbers; they're the insights you need to fine-tune your recruiting approach, ensuring you're not just busy, but effective.

While many talk about recruitment KPIs in a broad sense, few delve into the nitty-gritty of sourcing and outbound recruitment – the real playground for performance measurement. In this article, we're not just scratching the surface; we're diving deep into what makes your sourcing tick and how Leonar's analytics will elevate your recruitment game.

TL;DR: quick snapshot of what's inside!

  • 🎯 Sourcing Productivity: How to really connect with the right people.
  • 📈 Sourcing Efficiency: Making every response count.
  • 💰 Cost Control: Smart spending in recruitment tools.
  • ⏱️ Time to Hire:  Speeding up from 'hello' to 'hired'.
  • 📨 Channel & Message: Finding out where the best talent hangs out. 
  • 🤝 Candidate Experience: Ensuring every candidate journey is top-notch.

KPI 1 - Sourcing Productivity

In talent recruiting, success hinges on making every outreach effort count. Here's the deal with sourcing productivity: you’re looking to spark conversations that matter with the right candidates, not just playing a numbers game.

When focusing on sourcing productivity, here are the key KPIs to track and act upon:

  • Number of candidates contacted: This helps to source effectively how many individuals you reach out to for a given position or a given company. It gives you a baseline for measuring engagement and effectiveness.
  • Response rate: Monitor how many candidates respond to your outreach. This helps gauge the effectiveness of your messaging.
  • Quality of responses: Assess the nature of responses. Are candidates just acknowledging your message? Are they showing genuine interest for the role or for the company? Are they ready for an application? Be specific. 
  • Conversion rate: Measure the percentage of contacted candidates who move to the next stage in the recruitment process. This indicates the effectiveness of your sourcing in finding suitable applicants and enhances candidate experience.
  • Engagement over time: This data-driven approach refines engagement strategies. Track how candidates' engagement evolves through follow-ups. Are subsequent messages maintaining or increasing interest?

By focusing on these KPIs, you're not just collecting data; you're gaining insights that will refine your recruiting and sourcing strategies, making them more efficient and effective. So, if blasting out loads of messages isn't cutting it, think about who you're reaching out to and how. In sourcing, being smart and targeted trumps sheer volume every time. It’s all about experience!

KPI 2 - Sourcing Efficiency

For recruiters, sourcing efficiency is about making the most of your recruitment efforts. It's about understanding and improving the effectiveness of each step in your sourcing process. Here are the key KPIs to consider:

  • Response and positive response rate: This measures not only how many candidates respond to your outreach but also how many show a genuine interest or fit for the position. 
  • Interview initiation rate: Track the ratio of candidates who move from initial contact to the interview stage. This KPI helps evaluate the effectiveness of your sourcing in identifying qualified candidates.
  • Ratio of proposed vs. contacted candidates (for agencies): Particularly important for a recruitment company, this KPI measures the success rate in proposing candidates that are accepted and validated by clients, providing insight into the alignment of sourcing with client needs and improving their satisfaction.

Whether you are an in-house recruiter or an agency,  closely monitoring these KPIs, you can pinpoint areas for improvement in your sourcing process, ensuring that your efforts yield the best possible results in terms of candidate quality and fit.

👉 Discover highly effective tips and templates for how to message a candidate on LinkedIn.

KPI 3 - Costs

In business recruitment, keeping an eye on costs is as crucial as any other metric. Understanding and managing your sourcing expenses can significantly impact your overall recruitment strategy. Here are the key hiring cost-related KPIs:

  • Costs of sourcing tools: This includes expenses for LinkedIn recruiter licenses, CRM systems, email and contact finders like Lusha and Kaspr, and access to job boards and CV databases. Tracking these helps in evaluating the ROI of each tool.
  • Outsourcing costs: They are significant for the organization's financial planning. If you're leveraging RPOs (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) or recruitment agencies, it's vital to monitor these costs against the value and quality of candidates they provide.
  • Per-hire costs: This KPI is vital for hiring managers. Break down your total sourcing costs by the number of hires made. This helps in understanding the cost-effectiveness of your sourcing strategies.
  • Costs of sourcing channels: Analyze which channels (like LinkedIn, emails, WhatsApp, phone calls) are most cost-effective in terms of successful hires. This could help in reallocating resources to more productive channels and managing employee-related expenses.

By keeping these costs in check and understanding their impact on your hiring efforts, you will make more informed decisions and optimize your sourcing budget for better results.

👉 Ever wonder if you're spending too much on LinkedIn licenses or job boards? Leonar breaks down those costs for you, making budgeting a whole lot simpler.

KPI 4 - Time to Hire

Time to hire is a top indicator in recruitment sourcing, measuring the speed and efficiency of your hiring process. It reflects how quickly you can move a candidate from the first contact to an accepted job offer within the company. Here's what to track:

  • Average time per stage: Specifically break down the hiring process and measure the time spent in each stage, from initial contact to interview scheduling and final offer.
  • Overall time to hire: This is the total duration from reaching out to a candidate to when they accept the job offer. It's a broad measure of your recruiting efficiency.
  • Comparison with industry benchmarks: Compare your time to hire with industry standards to gauge your team's efficiency relative to the market.

Optimizing time to hire is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge in talent acquisition. By tracking and analyzing these aspects, you can identify bottlenecks and streamline your talent acquisition process.

KPI 5 - Channel & Message Analysis

In sourcing and hiring, not all channels and messages are created equal. Analyzing which ones work best is key to understanding where the best applicants are likely to come from. Here’s what to focus on:

  • Efficiency by channel: Source and evaluate which channels (LinkedIn, emails, WhatsApp, phone calls) are most effective in reaching and engaging candidates.
  • Message type analysis: This is driven by the effectiveness of communication. Assess the impact of different types of messages, such as initial outreach versus follow-ups, to see which are more effective in eliciting responses from candidates.
  • Benchmarking performance: Compare the success rates of different channels and message types to understand which combinations work best for different companies and roles. 

👉 Not sure if LinkedIn beats emails for your candidate search? Leonar sorts that out, showing you which channels are hitting the mark. With its multi-channel outreach, you will craft impactful message sequences that blend LinkedIn messages, InMails, and emails. 

KPI 6 - Candidate Experience

Just as crucial as any other aspect of recruitment is the candidate experience. This KPI focuses on how candidates feel and react to your recruitment process, a vital component often reflecting your organization's image in the talent market. 

Here are the key metrics to monitor:

  • Communication quality: How clear and engaging is your interaction with candidates?
  • Feedback timeliness: Are you providing timely responses and updates to candidates throughout the process?
  • Overall candidate perception: How do candidates view their journey from application to potential hire? What’s their overall satisfaction?

Enhancing candidate experience can significantly attract top talent and improve your brand as an employer. By tracking these aspects, you not only refine your recruitment process but also boost your company's appeal in the competitive talent market.

Other KPIs

Besides the primary KPIs we discussed, there are additional metrics worth considering to gain a comprehensive view of your recruiting and sourcing effectiveness:

  • Candidate engagement level: Measure how engaged candidates are throughout the sourcing process. This can be tracked through their interactions and responsiveness.
  • Offer acceptance rate: This metric indicates how many of the offers made to candidates are accepted, reflecting the effectiveness of your sourcing and recruitment approach.
  • Quality of hire: Assess the performance and fit of new employees over time, which can be a testament to the effectiveness of your sourcing strategies. Plus, quality of hire influences long-term employee performance.
  • Sourcing's contribution to overall recruitment: Evaluate how sourcing and outbound recruiting integrate with and impact broader recruitment metrics, highlighting the role of these strategies within the total recruitment framework.

By keeping an eye on these additional KPIs, you can further refine your sourcing tactics and improve the overall recruitment process.

5 strategic sourcing KPIs: wrapping up! 

In wrapping up, we've explored five essential strategic sourcing KPIs that can dramatically enhance your recruitment team's performance. From the productivity of your sourcing efforts to the efficiency of your recruiting methods, managing costs effectively, the crucial time-to-hire metric, and the insightful channel and message analysis, each KPI offers a unique lens to view and improve your recruitment process.

By focusing on these KPIs, you're equipped to make more informed decisions, streamline your sourcing strategies, and ultimately, find the right candidates more efficiently and effectively.

As you continue to refine your recruitment approach, consider exploring deeper into advanced analytics and predictive modeling. This could be your next step in elevating your recruitment strategies to new heights and aligning with broader business goals!

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