Lauren Ryan is the Director of Talent Acquisition at Greenhouse. She leads recruiting strategy, tracks the company’s recruiting KPIs, and oversees process improvements. She’s thrilled that she’s found a company that’s as passionate about the intersection of people and data as she is!
This is the fifth post in a series about the 5 key performance indicators (KPIs) we use at Greenhouse to measure our recruiting team’s success. Learn the methodology behind our KPIs in the introductory post and find the description of the first KPI here, the second KPI here, and the third KPI here.
In previous posts, we’ve looked at the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will help you measure what’s happening at the top of the recruiting funnel, what type of candidate experience you’re offering, and how quickly candidates are moving through the application process. This week, we’ll be taking a look at the KPI that will help you measure your team’s overall effectiveness: offer acceptance rate.
Read on to learn which KPI helps you determine your team’s effectiveness (particularly in the later stages of your process) and how can you make sure you’re not cheating yourself out of good data when you track it.
How to Accept a Job Offer: All You Need to Know Before Taking a New Job
Are you tracking the right metrics?
Working closely with HR professionals over the last decade has shown me that most HR teams aren’t measuring the right recruitment metrics, and as a result aren’t seeing the full story. When they get turned down by candidates, they can’t answer why.
Tracking your offer acceptance rate will help you understand what’s going on and how you can improve. Your offer acceptance rate is the percentage of candidates that have accepted a formal job offer. This metric matters because recruiting is expensive: the average cost to hire is more than $4,000 per person, so each candidate that turns down a job offer costs your organization money. Tracking and improving offer acceptance rates can not only save you money, but also save you considerable time, increase hiring manager engagement, improve the candidate experience and help strengthen your employer brand.
What does a good offer acceptance rate look like? PageUp research shows that high-performing organizations average a 99% offer-acceptance rate year-in, year-out, with an average of 94% across all industries. I recently worked with a number of organizations to understand how their offer acceptance rates measured up. The results were illuminating. One organization had no idea that they had been turned down by over 100 candidates that year, while another thought they were performing fantastically – but weren’t getting the full story.
What is the offer acceptance rate metric?
Offer acceptance rate (OAR) shows what percentage of candidates accepted your job offer. This metric indicates how attractive and competitive your job offers are. If your OAR starts declining, then your team won’t hire the candidates they want. A low OAR could lead you to rethink your jobs salary ranges or try new ways of communicating with candidates.
Do I screen candidates correctly?
To answer this question, you may have to rethink your entire screening process. It’s important not to spend time interviewing or extending offers to candidates who aren’t really interested or available. Adding effective screening calls to your process can help. Also, it’d be a good idea to ask interview questions about how much candidates know about your company and the position they’re interviewing for. Their answers can tell you whether they’re serious about your job. You can also encourage candidates to share any concerns or questions during interviews. What they share can indicate what matters to them and whether they’re really considering working at your company.
FAQ
What is the average time to accept a job offer?
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