The Hiring Metrics
Part of The PIRATE Way — Stories about scaling up engineering teams.
Understanding Key Hiring Metrics: A Guide for Engineering Teams
For any company preparing to scale up, having a reliable talent management system is fundamental. Notable examples include platforms like Workday, Greenhouse, and Personio. Even if their reporting functionalities leave much to be desired, these systems can provide essential insights for hiring.
Sometimes, you may need to create custom solutions, integrate those systems with your BI, or even rely on a simple spreadsheet. In any case, the crucial point is to track and understand key hiring metrics.
Let’s dive into three significant areas I typically analyze for hiring metrics: Scorecard Distribution, Volumes and Conversion, and Timing.
1. Scorecard Distribution
Evaluating the performance of those members involved in the hiring process — from talent acquisition to engineering — can provide invaluable insights. By examining the distribution of scorecards in the system, you can derive essential metrics:
- Pass Rate: This is the percentage of candidates who got a thumbs-up versus the total number of candidates interviewed. A very high pass rate may indicate a lenient selection process.
- Offer Rate: This refers to the percentage of candidates who received an offer, regardless of whether they accepted it, against the total number of candidates interviewed. You don’t want this to be very high like the pass rate.
- Volumes: This indicates the number of interviews conducted by each interviewer. After a certain threshold, a moderate pass rate and a high offer rate are desirable.
Note: Beware of individuals with high pass rates and low offer rates. They may need retraining, especially if they are conducting preliminary interviews. Conversely, those with moderate pass rates and high offer rates are valuable assets that should be recognized and nurtured.
2. Volumes and Conversion
During your weekly meetings with the talent acquisition team, you’ll want to assess the health of your hiring pipelines. Maintaining a balanced distribution of candidates throughout the process is essential, with particular attention to a robust top-of-the-funnel stage.
Pay particular attention to drops at the top of the funnel, especially for recurrent roles (e.g., Software Engineers), and the inability to reach enough final stages each week, which could jeopardize hiring targets.
3. Timing
- Time to Hire: In a highly competitive market, reducing the hiring time is essential. Ideally, this should be no more than 2–3 weeks. Any longer and you risk losing candidates’ interest and momentum.
- Time to Fill: While this metric may be less relevant for roles filled regularly, it’s critical for one-off or less frequent roles. If a position remains open for too long, it’s time to scrutinize the process and identify any potential issues, from the job description to the compensation package.
- Days to Offer: This metric can reveal issues in the offer approval process. It should typically be under control, and the talent acquisition team should promptly escalate any delays.
By tracking and understanding these key metrics, you can streamline and optimize your hiring process, ensuring your engineering team's smooth and efficient scaling-up.
Other Key Metrics
In addition to the central metrics of scorecard distribution, volumes and conversion, and timing, there are a few other key performance indicators that you should consider to gain a holistic view of your hiring process.
Candidate Experience
Ensuring an excellent candidate experience throughout the hiring process is critical. A positive experience can boost acceptance rates, foster positive word-of-mouth, and enhance your company’s reputation. You can measure this by distributing feedback surveys after each interview. These insights will help you understand what’s working, what isn’t, and how to improve the overall experience for future candidates.
Quality of Hire
While it might seem more long-term than other metrics, the quality of hire is a vital indicator of the effectiveness of your hiring process. This metric considers elements such as the new hire’s performance, cultural fit within the company, and retention rate. Monitoring the quality of hire can help you refine your hiring strategies and ensure you are bringing in talent that will positively contribute to your organization in the long run.
Diversity Metrics
In our increasingly global and connected world, fostering diversity in the workplace is more important than ever. Monitoring diversity metrics across all stages of your recruitment funnel can ensure that your hiring process promotes inclusion and equality. Track the demographic details of candidates at each step of the hiring process to identify any potential bias and ensure that your process gives every candidate a fair chance, regardless of their background.
By monitoring these additional metrics, you can make more informed decisions, enhance your hiring process, and ultimately build a team set up for success.
Remember: This is a blog post from the series “The PIRATE Way”.
