At Avenir, we believe that recruiting is more science than an art.  Like any good sales process, by identifying the key stages of the recruiting funnel and benchmarking it against our internal data sets, we are able to systematically identify where a campaign is under and over performing, and make adjustments to course correct quickly.  Ultimately, by applying a systematic methodology and consistent metrics, we are able to track performance, refine strategies, and ultimately, help our clients attract the best talent.

Channel Metrics

There are multiple sourcing and outreach channels to consider when recruiting.  Sourcing options range from professional network platforms (e.g. Linkedin/Indeed), job boards, school and industry networks, slack channels, etc. Understanding the efficacy of each by type of seniority of role will help to identify the best candidates. We track the performance of each channel through the sourcing to hire process. When conducting outreach, inmails, emails, cold calling are amongst the strategies we employ.  There is of course more nuance than just reaching out - an attention grabbing title, a degree of personalization, optimal time of day are all factors that can increase the response rate. The Avenir team is consistently A/B testing all these variables to optimize the efficacy of our messaging.

Open and Response Rates

Message open rates are a critical indicator of how effective our outreach is. If our open rates are lower than expected, it could indicate we need to improve the message title or details, the role title or description, misaligned candidate pool or range of other issues. We track two types of response rates - overall response rate (whether positive or negative) and positive response rate.  The metrics give us different insight into message effectiveness and role positioning.  We generally target a 20% response rate, though this can vary significantly across channels and roles (e.g. remote roles tend to receive much higher response rates).

Conversion Rates

As any good salesperson will know, conversion rate across each stage of the funnel can tell us where the recruiting process may be ineffective. A high first screen to 2nd interview rate with a low hire rate may indicate that we’re not being discerning enough or perhaps there is a misalignment in expectations between the first and second interviewer.  Further benchmarking of stage by stage conversion rates across roles allows us to understand where and what we may need to iterate.  Finally, conversion rates helps us estimate total top of funnel requirements (e.g. if we know outreach to final hire is 0.5%, we know we need to reach out to approximately 200 candidates) and crosscheck this with total addressable market estimates (i.e. is the TAM large enough to support the estimated outreach numbers based on conversion rates?).  Typically, we like to see at least a TAM of 500 to ensure making a hire.

Conclusion

When things are going well in a recruitment cycle, it can be easy to overlook the underlying metrics.  However, having a strong handle of all searches, including those that go well allow us to benchmark and identify where we may need to iterate when searches don’t go according to plan.  Even if a search does go well, having an understanding of conversion rates can help frame the total addressable market of a role, allowing us to adjust other criteria (e.g. compensation, industry knowledge, etc.) to match.