11 recruiting KPIs and how to measure them for hiring success

Top talent moves fast, competition is fierce, and every misstep in your hiring process costs time, money, and reputation.

So, how do high-performing talent teams stay ahead?

They track what matters.

Recruiting KPIs are the pulse of your hiring function. When chosen and measured correctly, these data points reveal what’s working, what’s not, and where you can move faster without sacrificing quality.

However, recruiting KPIs aren’t one-size-fits-all, and companies must be strategic while selecting them. That said, some key KPIs remain important across industries. 

In this blog, we’ll break down 11 critical recruiting KPIs every talent leader should know— and how to measure them for real hiring success.

What are recruiting KPIs?

Recruiting KPIs show you what’s working, and what’s not. They help you control hiring costs, fix process gaps, and focus on the channels bringing in the best talent. Without them, you’re making decisions in the dark.

Every company tracks the basics: time-to-fill, cost-per-hire, offer acceptance rates. But senior talent leaders go beyond that. The real question is: Are you measuring what actually drives business impact?

In tech? Time-to-productivity is critical because speed matters. Engineering hires need to ramp up quickly. If it takes months for them to contribute, you’re slowing down product development and burning runway. A drawn-out onboarding process can also lead to early turnover, costing both time and money.

In healthcare? Retention and credentialing speed directly impact patient care. If hiring lags, hospitals and clinics operate understaffed, leading to burnout and poor patient outcomes. High turnover means constant retraining, which disrupts operations and increases hiring costs.

For enterprise hiring? The quality of passive talent sourced shapes long-term business growth. Senior, specialized roles aren’t filled through job boards— they require strategic sourcing. If you’re not measuring the effectiveness of your outbound efforts, you’re missing out on top performers who could drive innovation and revenue.

What is the difference between recruiting KPIs and metrics?

Both recruiting KPIs and metrics help track hiring success, but they serve different purposes.

Recruiting KPIs are data points that measure bigger hiring goals and show the overall progress. They tell you how fast you hire or about your candidates' experience, helping companies make targeted improvements for better results.

Recruiting metrics, on the other hand, are data points that give insights into specific parts of the hiring process, and you can not analyze your overall hiring efficiency with them. Hiring metrics include counting how many people applied or how many interviews happened.

For instance, while the number of applications per job doesn’t directly indicate hiring success, the application completion rate KPI highlights how many candidates successfully finish the application process— reflecting the effectiveness of your job postings.

📌 Quick summary:
- You need recruiting metrics for calculating recruiting KPIs
- Recruiting metrics are low-level indicators
- All KPIs are metrics, but not all metrics are KPIs

The significance of recruiting KPIs for companies

1. Enhanced hiring efficiency and reduced hiring costs

Tracking recruiting KPIs helps you spot inefficiencies, shorten hiring cycles, and prevent costly missteps. If time-to-hire is too long, it’s a signal to refine job descriptions, optimize sourcing channels, or leverage automation for faster screening and scheduling.

A slow process doesn’t just frustrate candidates, it costs you top talent. High performers won’t wait around, and every delay increases the risk of losing them to competitors. A well-optimized hiring process ensures you’re making the right hires, faster, while keeping costs under control.

2. Improve candidate quality

In a study conducted by ManpowerGroup, 71% of U.S. employers say they are struggling to find the skilled talent they need. This is not just talent shortage, but how companies approach hiring as well.

Recruiting KPIs help identify where the process is falling short.

Are low offer acceptance rates a sign of weak employer branding? Are long application processes driving top candidates away? Are assessment methods filtering out strong talent instead of weak ones? Tracking the right metrics ensures you’re hiring the best people.

3. Strengthening employer brand

A strong employer brand is a must to attract top talent, and recruiting KPIs play a crucial role in maintaining and improving it.

KPIs like candidate experience, application completion rate, and offer acceptance rates, help companies understand how they are perceived by job seekers. If candidates are dropping off mid-process, it’s a sign to refine job descriptions, improve career pages, or fix pain points in your hiring experience.

A strong employer brand also lowers hiring costs. When people want to work for your company, you spend less time and money convincing them to say yes.

What are the most important recruiting KPIs?

Here are the top 11 recruiting KPIs you should know and start tracking:

1. Candidate experience 

A bad hiring experience costs you top talent. 26% of candidates reject offers because of it. If your application process is clunky, communication is slow, or interviews are disorganized, you’re losing great hires before they even start.

Here are a few tips to improve candidate experience:
- Create a user-friendly job application with limited questions
- Provide clearer and more accurate information about the job and responsibilities
- Automate proactive communications such as responses and rejection emails using an all-in-one ATS tool

2. Time to fill & time to hire 

Leaving roles open for too long slows down the business. The longer it takes, the more you risk losing top candidates.

• Time to fill measures how long it takes to close a role from the moment it's opened.
• Time to hire tracks how quickly you move from identifying the right candidate to making an offer.

Both impact productivity and hiring costs. Slow hiring strains teams, delays projects, and forces companies into rushed, bad hires.

Below are some proven tips for reducing time to fill:

- Build a talent pipeline: Keep a pool of pre-vetted candidates ready.
- Plan ahead: Define hiring stages before peak recruiting seasons.
- Leverage recruiting analytics: Pinpoint bottlenecks and optimize each stage.‍

💡Happy note: With Kula Analytics, you get detailed reports and visual breakdowns to fine-tune your hiring speed.

3. Quality of hire 

Quality of hire tells you if you’re bringing in the right talent, not just filling seats.

It’s one of the hardest KPIs to measure because it goes beyond hiring. The real impact shows up months later in performance, retention, and cultural fit.

How do you measure it?
- Performance reviews— Are new hires hitting goals within the first 6-12 months?
- Retention rates— Are they sticking around, or leaving within a year?
- Hiring manager satisfaction— Would they rehire the same person?

If these numbers are low, something’s off. Maybe you’re optimizing too much for speed, not enough for fit. Maybe your job descriptions aren’t aligned with actual role needs.

How to improve quality of hire:
- Refine your sourcing: Go beyond job boards. Use outbound strategies to target high-quality candidates.
- Improve assessments: Make sure your interview process actually predicts job success.
- Set clear expectations: If new hires leave fast, the role might not be what they expected.

4. Cost per hire 

CPH shows how much you’re spending to fill a role, factoring in everything from recruiter salaries to job ads, sourcing tools, and candidate assessments.

If this number is too high, you’re either:

• Overspending on ineffective channels (e.g., job boards that bring in low-quality applicants).
• Dragging out the hiring process, increasing recruiter hours and interview costs.
• Making bad hires, leading to costly replacements.

How to lower cost per hire (without sacrificing quality):

• Double down on what works. Use data to see which sourcing channels bring the best candidates. Cut the rest.
• Build a talent pipeline. Having pre-vetted candidates reduces sourcing costs and speeds up hiring.
• Automate where possible. Use AI and automation for resume screening, interview scheduling, and follow-ups.

For instance, the AI scoring feature in Kula All-In-One helps you set the standards for screening candidates automatically and also lets recruiters auto-reject applications based on the set standards.

5. Source of hire 

Not all hiring channels deliver the same results. Source of hire tracks where your best candidates are coming from— whether it’s referrals, job boards, social media, or direct sourcing. Understanding this helps you invest in the right channels and cut unnecessary spending.

If LinkedIn consistently brings in high-quality candidates, it makes sense to streamline passive sourcing. ATSs these days lets recruiters add candidates directly from LinkedIn into their ATS, reducing manual effort and improving sourcing efficiency.

How to track and optimize source of hire:‍

- Create surveys asking relevant questions about how applicants found your job offer

- Gather data from members of your recruiting team who have candidate records

- Use Kula’s Conversational Analytics to generate a performance comparison among all the source channels

A data-driven approach ensures you’re not just filling roles but doing so efficiently by focusing on the channels that deliver the best talent.

6. Offer acceptance rate 

‍Offer acceptance rate involves measuring the percentage of candidates who accept your job offer so you understand why candidates turn you down.

Here are some hacks to help you boost your offer acceptance rate:

• Avoid long application processes that discourage potential candidates
• Respect people’s time and reduce interview rounds by using Kula’s Interview Intelligence features to analyze recordings and transcripts
• Give job seekers constructive feedback after interviews and encourage them to apply for open roles in the future
• Follow up on your candidates in different application stages to remain top of mind
• Enhance the employer brand by showcasing unique company culture, benefits packages, and value systems

7. Retention rate

Hiring the right people is only half the battle. Keeping them is what drives long-term success. Retention rate measures how well your company holds onto talent, and it’s directly tied to hiring quality, company culture, and leadership effectiveness.

Losing employees isn’t just disruptive...it’s expensive. Replacing a single employee costs anywhere from 50% to 200% of their annual salary when you factor in hiring, training, and lost productivity. And 52% of employees who leave say their company could have done more to retain them.

How to improve retention:
- Hire for long-term fit. Ensure candidates align with both role expectations and company culture.
- Invest in employee experience. Retention isn’t just about salary; factors like career growth, leadership support, and meaningful work play a major role.
- Track post-hire success. Measure how hiring decisions impact long-term retention, helping refine recruiting strategies over time.

A strong retention strategy starts with hiring. When you bring in the right people— and support them well— they stay.

8. Diversity, equity, and inclusion

Workplaces should reflect a mix of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. Tracking DEI metrics helps companies create fair hiring practices and ensure every candidate has an equal shot.

How to build a more inclusive hiring process:

• Include a diverse interview panel to reduce bias in hiring decisions.
• Be intentional in job descriptions by showcasing your company’s commitment to inclusion.
• Track career progression for underrepresented employees to spot gaps in promotions and leadership opportunities.
• Use data for accountability— Kula’s EEO report helps measure representation and identify areas for improvement.

9. Application completion rate

The application completion rate measures the actual number of candidates who complete and submit the job application. 

Although there are many reasons candidates may not complete the application, the primary factors are self-rejection or the complexity of the application process.

Here are some key ways to achieve a higher completion rate:

• Reduce the number of fields and questions to the essentials
• Adapt your job application to mobile
• Highlight company culture, benefits, and growth opportunities upfront

10. Time to productivity

Time to productivity measures how long it takes for a new hire to become fully effective in their new role. 

This period includes training, onboarding, and the time it takes for the employee to start contributing at a satisfactory level. Extended time to productivity means there are issues in the recruiting process.  

However, it is important to understand certain roles that require extensive technical expertise typically take longer for new employees to be completely productive. 

Hence, it is important to consider the nature of the role before analyzing this recruiting KPI. 

Here are some key ways to achieve a higher time to productivity:‍

- Set clear expectations of job responsibilities and performance benchmarks

- Provide a well-organized onboarding process that includes clear goals, training schedules, and team member introductions 

- Offer tailored training that focuses on the exact skills and knowledge needed for the job

11. Interviews to hire

This KPI tracks how many interviews it takes to make a hiring decision. Too many rounds? It’s a sign of unclear job expectations, weak screening, or slow decision-making.

A long interview process frustrates candidates and increases drop-off rates. The best talent won’t wait through endless rounds.

How to streamline interviews:

• Set clear job expectations upfront so candidates and hiring teams are aligned.
• Improve screening to ensure only the best-fit candidates reach the final rounds.
• Provide timely feedback to keep candidates engaged and prevent losing them to competitors.

How to set effective recruiting KPIs that move the needle?

1. Align KPIs with business priorities

Recruiting success isn’t measured in isolation. Every hiring decision impacts company growth, productivity, and retention. Before choosing KPIs, define what the business needs most right now:

• Scaling fast? Prioritize time-to-fill and diversity hiring to build strong teams quickly.
• Reducing turnover? Focus on quality of hire and employee retention to avoid costly rehires.
• Cutting hiring costs? Track cost-per-hire and source effectiveness to optimize spending.

Clear goals ensure recruiters and hiring managers are focused on the right outcomes— not just filling roles but making hires that move the business forward.

2. Set measurable, actionable KPIs

Vague hiring goals lead to inconsistent results. That’s why SMART KPIs (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) are essential. They provide clear targets and actionable insights, rather than just surface-level reporting.

✅ Example of a vague KPI: Improve hiring speed.
✅ SMART KPI: Reduce time-to-fill from 40 days to 30 days within six months.

Steps to define SMART recruiting KPIs:

1. Define the business objective (e.g., improve hiring efficiency, increase retention).
2. Pinpoint hiring bottlenecks (e.g., slow interview process, weak sourcing).
3. Set quantifiable KPIs that track progress in specific areas.

3. Automate KPI tracking & optimization

Manually tracking KPIs is time-consuming and error-prone. An all-in-one ATS eliminates the guesswork by automatically collecting and analyzing hiring data.

With Kula, you get:

• AI-powered analytics built right into the ATS. Also, lets recruiters save $90K+ on the BI stack and analyst overhead, and skip the time drain of messy sheets.
• Native AI to optimize job descriptions, applicant scoring, and interview scheduling.
• Seamless integration with your existing hiring tools, so all your recruiting data lives in one place.