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When asked how often they measure the effectiveness of their candidate sourcing channels, the responses to the UK Candidate Attraction Survey were a mixed bag.
In this insight, we look at the impact of increasing measurement and getting a better return on recruitment advertising investment.
What gets measured…
Research carried out by Eploy in association with HR Grapevine* found that, on average, around a third of in-house recruiters regularly measure each sourcing channel. The most measured sources of candidates are Agencies / PSL and Online / PPC Advertising.
At the opposite end of the scale are Social Media and Print Advertising that are measured the least. Interestingly, Careers Site / Website is one of the channels least measured, which is noteworthy as it is also the most-used channel by in-house recruiters (92%).
We see the best results reported are by those recruiters who actively monitor and measure their sourcing channels for virtually all channels.
As the chart shows us, only around a third of recruitment teams consistently measure and monitor their performance - and this is something that hasn’t changed much since the survey began four years ago.
Over 34% of in-house recruitment teams struggle with a lack of recruitment marketing budget* - meaning it is vital that they maximise their return on advertising investment.
The results are clear - to maximise your channel effectiveness, recruiters need easy access to analytics to improve the performance of each sourcing channel.
If we look at a couple of examples of measurement by channel (ATS & General Job Boards), we can see the marked improvements seen by in-house recruiters.
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| Channel - ATS | Channel - General Job Boards |
Using Analytics
Having easy access to analytics to improve the performance of each sourcing channel is a must.
Unless your recruitment and hiring goals are measurable insights that you review continuously, they are unlikely to support achieving your recruitment goals.
For example; source of hire can help you identify the best places to advertise to find the right candidates for your jobs so that you can maximise your return on recruitment marketing investment. However, if we dig a little deeper and look at measuring source of quality candidates, those candidates who progress through specific stages of your process, for example, those who progressed beyond a first interview, we then get a clearer picture of where to focus your recruitment marketing activity.
As with most recruitment metrics, you will want to drill down into your data to analyse by criteria such as role, location and job type. Provided you have built up a decent amount of data - the more you drill down, the more you are likely to get real insights - helping you to identify, for example, the best job boards to advertise a specific role.
Free e-books to get ahead
You can read more of the research around the measurement of channel effectiveness and sourcing quadrants by sector in this free UK Candidate Attraction 2019 report.
If Recruitment Metrics are your thing and you want to develop or review your standard set of measurements used to manage and improve the process of hiring candidates into an organisation, then this free downloadable Recruitment Metrics cookbook is for you.
*Source: UK Candidate Attraction Report 2019
