In the world of recruiting, it’s a buyer’s market. Well-qualified applicants often have multiple interviews and offers on the table. Many job seekers now get leads from recruiters on social media. And you don’t even have to be job searching actively to land a new position; according to Harvard Business Review, most people who accepted a new job in 2018 weren’t even looking.

But how do you know if you’re making a good hire, especially on college campuses where applicants have limited experience? Only about one-third of U.S. companies monitor whether their recruiting methods lead to satisfactory hires. Even fewer track their cost per hire or time to hire.

By measuring metrics like the source of hire, acceptance rate, and qualified candidates per opening, you can actionably calculate the success of your recruiting program. The more successful your strategy is, the more profitable your business will be, directly contributing to your recruiting process return on investment (ROI).

Let’s delve into how to measure campus recruiting metrics, helping you outline your path to hiring success.

Guide to Campus Recruiting KPIs

Measuring your recruiting metrics not only improves your hiring decisions while increasing your profitability, but it also helps you identify areas of improvement and maximize your recruiting operations efforts. By analyzing your key performance indicators (KPIs), you can determine how to use your resources more efficiently and refine your recruiting strategy — all the way from sourcing candidates on campus to extending an offer and kicking off the onboarding process.

Not sure what metrics to track? Think about your organization’s hiring goals. To examine your recruiting methods on college campuses holistically, you should establish KPIs that are specific to your organization. A KPI measures your business goals against quantifiable, objective results, giving you a snapshot overview of your business.

Match Your Recruiting Goals to Your Metrics

For example, you can measure how long each step of the hiring process takes, determining where you can add efficiencies. You could measure the candidate experience by measuring responsiveness to your email, text and social recruiting outreach. And by implementing recruiting technology, you could significantly cut down on administrative tasks like interview scheduling and resume collection at career fairs.

Download your own campus recruitment KPIs tracker

Your metrics may indicate where qualified candidates are falling out of the recruiting process. Are they abandoning the online application? Are they hitting a speed bump on scheduling interviews?  These may be areas where you heighten automation, not only increasing efficiencies but improving the candidate experience.

You can also measure vacancy rate, or the percentage of open jobs versus the total number of company positions. Vacancy rate helps you recognize trends in the marketplace as well as your company’s growth trajectory. For example, a high number of vacant positions can indicate a revolving-door culture, directly impacting your retention rate and profitability.

Choosing random metrics won’t improve your hiring practices. No matter the metrics or measurements you choose, be sure to tailor it to your company.

How to Track and Measure Campus Recruiting Metrics

Coming up with KPIs is helpful, but what do you do once you identify them? To gather pertinent insight from your campus recruiting metrics, you need to establish a process to track and measure your findings:

• • Report early and often. Pulling your campus recruiting metrics once or twice a year just won’t cut it. To continuously improve and evolve your recruiting strategy, your team should review KPIs at least once a month, if not more frequently.
  • Use campus recruitment technology. Gone are the days of spreadsheets and manual data entry. Use technology that automates the reporting process and makes it easier for anyone to access the data they need.
  • Make your KPI reports accessible. Everyone on your team should have easy access to your KPI reports, so they can review what’s going well and where they can improve.
  • Keep your team members accountable. Use KPIs to guide each individual recruiter on what they’re doing well and where they can improve their efforts.
  • Make your metrics actionable. Each time you review KPIs as a team, align on a shared list of next steps based on the data. Keeping everyone on the same page will help ensure your metrics improve over time.

Download your own campus recruitment KPIs tracker

How to Improve Campus Recruiting Metrics

You can develop an unlimited number of recruiting process KPIs, potentially leaving you swimming in metric possibilities. You should use your KPIs wisely and strategically. After all, focusing on and calculating one hundred different metrics is not a day well spent.

Choose a handful of metrics to get started. You can always add more later. Identify the areas that you want to improve and identify KPIs around that topic. Use your statistics to evaluate where you are now and your progress as you move forward. By choosing the right metrics (and continually analyzing them over time), you can improve your hiring process, adjusting as you go.

Recruiting is no different than the rest of your business—you’ve got to know your numbers. Measuring your campus recruiting results will not only help you refine your hiring processes, but it will improve your ROI — the better the hire, the happier the bottom line.

By teaming up with a talent acquisition software provider, like Yello, you can build your on-campus brand, engage students before the competition, and measure your hiring results objectively with Yello’s complete campus recruitment platform.