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The 5 Recruiting Metrics Every Business Should Measure

July 15, 2022 by Lacey Walters

Hiring is one of the most important business decisions any company can make. However, many companies are unsure where to start when it comes to talent acquisition and often overlook key recruiting metrics. Hiring blindly can lead to poor candidate support, turnover, and lost recruiting dollars. In 2021, a bad hire was estimated to cost a business anywhere between $17K to $240K.  

While hiring based on instinct can sometimes yield some lucky results, it isn’t a great strategy for long-term growth. In order to make the most informed hiring decisions now and in the future, businesses should measure and monitor these 5 essential recruiting metrics.  

 

#1 – Time to Fill/Hire  

When you have a position open up, it’s important to know your timeline. Of all recruiting metrics, this should be evaluated first. Setting timeline expectations can help internal stakeholders like teams and managers allocate proper resources to cover in the interim. The average time to fill a position is 42 days. Use this as a benchmark to ensure your business is able to hold out on operation of that role for at least that long. If not, that indicates that you will either need to reprioritize hiring, or come up with a short-term solution until you get the right person on board.  

After you’ve set an estimated timeline, get ahead of the urgency by identifying funnels and streamlining your hiring process. As you go through the motions, watch to see what steps in the process take up the most time. Look for ways to speed them along, or remove them altogether. Regardless, it’s important to address common mistakes that could slow down the hiring process. After all, this could be the make or break of the candidate’s experience.  

A study by Cronofy found that 43% of candidates have dropped out of a hiring process due to scheduling delays. That means that you could lose nearly half of your qualified applicants simply because it takes too long to process them. Assess your hiring bottlenecks early and often so you don’t miss out on top candidates due to poor task allocation and time management.  

 

#2 – Attrition/Turnover  

Next, it’s pertinent to know your company’s recruiting metrics surrounding attrition. By looking at the turnover rate of a candidate’s first 12 months on the job, you can determine the effectiveness of your recruiting and onboarding processes.  

For instance, if you find that you have a rather high turnover rate for new hires, you might want to assess whether or not the job postings are accurately setting the expectations of the role. Are you being transparent throughout the interview process about what it will look like? Is your onboarding training setting these candidates up for success? Or does it need to be reevaluated?  

Regardless of the cause, high turnover signifies a lack of communication somewhere in the process leading to costly falloffs. Research by Brandon Hall found that great employee onboarding can improve retention by 82% and productivity by 70%. Essentially, it pays to be conscious of the candidate experience!  

 

#3 – Cost Per Hire  

Speaking of payoffs, it’s important to prioritize cost per hire among your core recruiting metrics. This should include job board fees, time spent by hiring managers in interviews and screening resumes, ATS system subscriptions, and any agency fees. Divide that grand total by the total number of hires you’ve made to determine your cost per hire!  

This metric is critical. It would be impossible to know whether your optimized recruiting efforts from any of these other steps are having effective ROI/cost savings if you don’t measure cost per hire. Not to mention, it will be important to know how much money you spend on recruitment annually when you begin planning and budgeting. Whether you’re scaling your business, planning for retirements, or getting ready to reorganize, it’s good to know your cost per hire.  

Recruiting Metrics Blog Cost Per Hire

#4 – Quality of Hire  

Similarly, it’s important to track the quality of the candidates you hire. Although less data-driven, this step falls high among recruiting metrics because it can help you determine whether or not your recruiting process is yielding the results you want. To accomplish this, you’ll want to monitor the performance of each new hire’s first year on the job. Track things like time to onboard, assimilation into company culture, and their impacts on the business.  

For example, how much revenue did a salesperson help produce in their first year compared to what you’d expect from someone in their position? Or, think about a marketing hire – did they contribute innovative ideas to the team resulting in audience growth?  

If you discover that the quality of your hires does not match what you need from them for the roles you are recruiting for, this is a good indication to adjust your tactics and target a new talent pool. By measuring this success rate, you will also be able to forecast the impacts on the business you need to get to the next level - i.e. if you want to hit $10M in sales next year, you’ll need to know how many new salespeople you will need to hire to get there. Nailing down this recruiting metric can help you plan ahead.  

 

#5 – Diversity of Candidates  

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) benchmarks are becoming more prominent in sourcing goals for companies across the nation – especially as studies continue to show that the more diverse the team, the better they perform and innovate. Therefore, DEI is here to stay among the top recruiting metrics to measure.  

To reach your own DEI goals, you’ll need to ensure your candidate pipeline is bringing in a diverse pool of applicants. Leverage Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) dashboards, candidate surveys, and hiring feedback to gauge where you stand today. Then, adjust your approach to meet the diverse candidates where they are online and in person. Most importantly, leverage resources – whether remote or in person – to foster the best environment for DEI within your existing team. As your candidate pool becomes more diverse, so will your company – and that will result in increased revenue, employee engagement, and more.  

 

Let’s Review – Your Recruiting Metrics 

Hiring should be a top priority for all companies, because when you have the right team, you will garner the best results. Whether your goal is to increase revenue, scale to handle new projects, or expand your service offerings – it all starts with the right hire. By tracking the right recruiting metrics, you will be able to address areas of improvement in your process and ultimately make better hiring decisions.  

Recruiting Metrics Blog Review

All companies need help when it comes to hiring – and the best resource can be found within their industry. Leveraging a recruiter in your industry saves money, time, and results in better hires and a greater impact on the business. For hiring help within telecom, wireless, manufacturing, healthcare, emerging technology, IoT, accounting and finance, human resources, lighting, cloud and managed services, cybersecurity, information technology, logistics and supply chain, plastics and packaging, food and agriculture, and medical industries – contact a Blue Signal recruiter to get you on the right path.  

Filed Under: Blog Posts, Recruiter Tips Tagged With: attrition, candidates, cost per hire, DEI, Diversity, hiring, metrics, quality of hire, recruiters, recruiting, recruiting metrics, results, strategy, Talent Acquisition, time to fill, time to hire, turnover

Key Recruiting Strategies for the 2020’s: 5 Takeaways from NAPS

November 10, 2021 by Lacey Walters

Blue Signal recently attended the NAPS conference to gain insight on new recruiting strategies, learn tips from the most tenured in the industry, and connect with fellow recruiting professionals. The NAPS (National Association of Personnel Services) 2021 Conference is “the premier education opportunity representing the search, recruiting & staffing industry.” The conference was held September 26-28th at the Green Valley Ranch Resort, outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, with over 300 attendees from the recruiting and staffing industry.

The mission of the NAPS conference is for attendees to learn best practices, recruiting strategies, and understand how to improve their business through case studies, while expanding their professional network. Overall, the NAPS conference provided a wealth of knowledge to those in the recruiting industry. Here were some of our Blue Signalers’ favorite takeaways.

Key Recruiting Strategies - Group Photo
Matt Walsh with Danny Cahill
PAC in front of NAPS sign

Matt Walsh – Counteroffers/Ghosting, New Tech, Working and Hiring Virtually: How to Recruit and Thrive during the NEW Roaring 20’s

Matt Walsh is the CEO and Founder of Blue Signal, a nationwide executive search firm. Matt founded Blue Signal in 2012 after noticing pain points in the recruiting industry, and has since grown the company to a multimillion-dollar search firm with over 40 employees across the country. With over a decade of recruiting experience, Matt’s expertise spans across various industries, from telecommunications to wireless, IoT, and more. As an awarded Pinnacle Society member, he is a highly sought after and well-respected leader in the industry.

Matt’s session explored ways to stay at the forefront of recruiter’s changing virtual landscape and how to get one step ahead of your competition. In the session, Matt dove into best tactics and recruiting strategies to build stronger relationships, win more business, and make more placements. As a result, attendees learned techniques to handle many new challenges facing recruiters today – including ghosting, counteroffers, and emerging technology.

Blue Signal’s Takeaway

Thriving in the new “Roaring 20’s” is going to take deliberate effort from recruiters and clients alike. Blue Signal’s recruiters are constantly learning new technologies, counteroffer techniques, and recruiting strategies to best support our clients in navigating these challenges. As the digital landscape of recruiting continues to evolve, Blue Signal strives to address these changes through direct partnership with our clients.

Key Recruiting Strategies - Matt Speaking

Rudy Ruettiger – Keynote Speaker

Rudy Ruettiger is an Emmy Award-winning motivational keynote speaker, producer, and author with over 25 years of experience speaking to corporations, universities, sports teams, and at special events. Rudy is best known for his underdog-to-hero performance in the 1975 Notre Dame football game against Georgia Tech. Despite being 5’6”, Rudy sacked Georgia Tech quarterback Rudy Allen in the last 27 seconds of the game – becoming the first Fighting Irish player to do so. His story of hard work, fierce dedication, and self-motivation inspired many. Today Rudy uses his platform to share his experiences of adversity and triumph, while encouraging others to “Never Quit.”

Blue Signal’s Takeaway

Once a one-man-shop, Blue Signal has its own underdog-to-hero story. Through hard work and perseverance, our CEO & Founder Matt Walsh grew Blue Signal into a nationwide recruiting firm with over 40 employees. Fierce dedication and self-motivation are in the blood of every recruiter at Blue Signal, especially when facing rejection comes with the job. Thus, Rudy’s mantra of “Never Quit” resonated with many Blue Signalers. As we continue to fight the war for talent, Blue Signal is dedicated to finding top talent through diligence, perseverance, and innovative recruiting strategies.

Key Recruiting Strategies - Kevin with Rudy Ruettiger
Key Recruiting Strategies - Jess and Barb

Barb Bruno – High-Tech High Touch Recruiting

Barbara Bruno is a recognized expert in the staffing and recruiting space, with over 30 years of experience. As an expert trainer, Barb has developed over 15 LinkedIn recruiting courses taken by millions around the world. She is currently the CEO of Good As Gold Training, a web-based training service for recruiting and staffing professionals, and the President of H & R Search.

In a world dominated by technology, it’s crucial that recruiting and staffing professionals use it for beneficial touchpoints with candidates. Barb’s session discussed how to implement changes to “combine high-tech with a high-touch approach to business.” Topics addressed in the session included how communication has changed, why we need to stop writing skill-based job descriptions, why we need to interview to eliminate emotion or bias, and how to place candidates who become engaged and retained.

Blue Signal’s Takeaway

Our team loved the way Barb took recruiting back to the basics to exemplify what we all work for – changing lives. Barb described recruiting as being “all about relationships,” and we couldn’t agree more. As a relationship-based recruiting firm, Blue Signal focuses on recruiting strategies that build long-term partnerships with both our clients and candidates. As a result, our recruiters are able to thoroughly understand the needs of our clients’ businesses and fill their talent gaps, while working with candidates throughout their professional career. We plan on continuing to strengthen our relationship-based recruiting strategies in the 2020’s and building powerful partnerships along the way.

People and Culture team with Kelsey
Brian Jordan Ryan and Joanna at dinner

Jeremy Sisemore - A Fresh and Unique Approach to Metrics That Really Matter

Jeremy Sisemore is a prominent IT recruiter with over 18 years in the industry. In 2006, he founded ASAP Talent Services, a firm offering direct-placement, executive-retained, and contract staffing. Throughout his career, Jeremy has over $12M in personal production (billings) and has placed SAP talent at all levels up to CIO with over 75 Fortune 500 clients throughout North America. Today, Jeremy serves as a Billing Manager for ASAP Talent Services.

In A Fresh and Unique Approach to Metrics That Really Matter, Jeremy covered how he measures his team, predicts success and failure, prevents slow periods, and limits the valleys in his business. Jeremy discussed the metrics used in the 90’s and 2000’s for search firms, and how those metrics have evolved for the 2020’s.

Blue Signal’s Takeaway

A key takeaway our team took from Jeremy’s session was one of his recruiting strategies, called the “5 Alive and 10 In Process.” This is how Jeremy’s team keeps track of their pipeline. At any point, his recruiters should have five “Alive” candidates actively interviewing with a client, and ten candidates somewhere “In Process” – that could be submitted, in scheduling, at the offer stage, etc. While traditional recruiting metrics focus on submittals, send outs, and placements, we find this process a more beneficial way to measure the pipeline. Finding metrics that really matter will improve our recruiting strategies and strengthen our recruiters’ processes – which will ultimately help us make more placements.

Key Recruiting Strategies - Brian Ryan Andrew
Matt Kevin Jordan at NAPS

Jordan Rayboy – Mental Health – The Struggle is Real

Jordan Rayboy is a NAPS conference veteran, giving numerous presentations over the years. He is the founder of Rayboy Insider Search and a member of the Pinnacle Society. Jordan has over 20 years of recruiting experience, and he specializes in the storage, data management, and cybersecurity marketplace.

Stress caused by the pandemic has taken a major toll on the recruiting industry, and on us as recruiting professionals. In The Struggle is Real, Jordan shared the challenges he’s faced in the last year and a half, and what helped him in addressing his mental health.

Blue Signal’s Takeaway

The pandemic has affected each of our lives in unique, but unifying, ways. It’s caused us to pivot recruiting strategies, take on new challenges, and of course, face unprecedented times. A major takeaway from Jordan’s session was how imperative mental health is to our success – as a business, as recruiters, and as individuals. In such a stress-inducing industry, prioritizing mental health is crucial. Blue Signal strives to prioritize mental health and wellness by providing resources to our employees, clients, and candidates.

"Jordan’s [session] brought me back to the real reason that I love working in recruiting – to change lives and further a company that truly cares about its employees, candidates, and clients alike."

— Jessica Walsh, Blue Signal’s General Counsel

From metrics to mental health, the information we learned at NAPS was invaluable. The sessions gave us some key recruiting strategies to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to trends and technology in the 2020’s. Between the knowledge gained and the relationships made, NAPS was an unforgettable event for those in the recruiting and staffing industry. For many Blue Signalers, the event reignited their original passion for what they do. We look forward to implementing these recruiting strategies into our practice, and can’t wait to see you all at NAPS 2022!

Key Recruiting Strategies - Group Cheers

Filed Under: Blog Posts, Our Company Tagged With: ghosting, Las Vegas, Mental Health, metrics, NAPS, National Association of Personnel Services, recruiter, recruiting, recruiting & staffing, recruiting conference, recruiting strategies, staffing, technology, virtual hiring

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