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When presented with a vacancy to work on, what are the tools and channels that recruiters first reach for, and are choices driven by data to get the best results?
This insight looks at the measurement of candidate sourcing channels and the benefits and impact on performance.
Measuring and tracking performance
The UK Candidate Attraction Report 2021/22 asked how often recruiters measure the effectiveness of their channels. After all, “you can’t manage what you can’t measure.”
According to the report findings, the most measured sources of candidates are Agencies/PSL and Specialist Job Boards. Social Media is at the opposite end of the scale, where over half of recruitment teams cannot measure their performance. Interestingly, Careers Site/Website is also one of the least measured but most used channels by in-house recruiters (89%).
In general, in-house recruiters are finding the right numbers of suitable candidates with various sourcing channels. Still, as creatures of habit, we generally follow the same candidate sourcing activities without reviewing the most appropriate or successful channel for the type of vacancy.
We know that recruitment teams who regularly and occasionally monitor and measure candidate sourcing channels consistently report better results. So let’s look at this in a little more detail.
In the quadrant shown, the overall channel average usage for in-house recruitment teams is shown (as a circle) connected to a star, representing those companies who consistently measure their performance with the channel. In most cases, those in-house teams who regularly measure channel effectiveness report at least improved candidate quality and often increased numbers. There are, however, a couple of anomalies, users of Job Aggregators who measure their performance report slightly lower candidate quality. And users of Social Media who can measure its effectiveness report slightly lower candidate volumes sourced socially.
With the knowledge that measured channels deliver improved results, we must challenge ourselves to chart success and set targets that compare performance across channels to maximise recruitment marketing budgets.
As an example, (taken from the report) Social Media is used by 48% of in-house recruiters and ATS/CRM by 44%, yet Social Media ranks lowest for candidate quality and quantity. On the other hand, we know from the quadrant that Talent Pooling tech like ATS & CRM delivers an improved quality when measured. So why do in-house recruiters head straight to their website to advertise jobs on their careers site and look to their existing candidate database much later, possibly missing out on a wealth of easy-to-match candidates? See page 12 of the report for the Candidate Sourcing Workflow.
Could metrics and data be the missing piece of the puzzle?
Candidate source recruitment metrics (where the best quality and quantity of candidates come from) can help you maximise your return on marketing investment, track your performance, and optimise your process efficiency.
Using measures such as source of the people you hired and even the diversity of candidates will give a better picture of where you are finding the most suitable candidates. Understanding the candidate source of those who progress through specific stages of your process, for example, those who progressed beyond a first interview, gives a more granular view. 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.
Help is at hand
Here are some free resources to help you get started or refresh what you have in place to realise the benefits of data-driven decision-making.
Our free report download on Candidate Attraction has a handy section on careers site peak performing content so it’s easy to check how you compare (Page 30-33).
The UK Candidate Attraction Report 2021/22 | Recruitment Metrics Cookbook
