What (Definition)

During a business’s recruiting period, it is important to measure certain metrics. Measuring these metrics can be highly advantageous to the organization as the company can study how successful the recruitment was. Organizations receive various amounts of applications depending on the vacancy and sources where they announce it. Counting the number of applications received during the hiring duration is one of the recruiting metrics that can help the business analyze the hiring process. 

Why (Benefits)

Organizations measure the number of applications for several beneficial reasons. Observing the application count can help businesses understand the demand for a particular job role and the number of job openings applicants are seeking. The high number of applicants means that the organization is popular in the industry which will require multiple resources to control the huge number of applications. Companies should aim at different strategies if a low number of applications are received during the recruiting process.

Applications can come from various sources (e.g. Agency, LinkedIn, Indeed, References through internal contacts, Official websites, other Job Sites, Advertisements, etc.). Counting the number of applications from each source can help an organization decide which sources have been the most effective. Also, businesses will be able to analyze the number of highly qualified applicants from a particular source. The company can then move forward with that source to target job seekers. Predicting the hiring cost is an added advantage of counting the applications, because knowing the number of applications received can help the HR department analyze the cost of conducting interviews, background checking of the applicants, etc.

How (Calculation?)

Initially, the organization should count the number of applications received in the recruiting duration. Calculations of this metric can be done by both humans and computers. Businesses should gather several data for the calculation.

• Application period (Start Date and End Date)

• Records of applications from social media, job sites, etc.

Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a software used by organizations that manage the recruiting process. The system organizes the applications in a manner that makes the hiring process easier for the recruiting team. Recruiters can count the applications manually by going through each application one by one or uploading data sources to the ATS software to get the sum of applications automatically.

Organizations should be cautious about duplicate applications as an individual may send multiple applications by mistake or for other reasons. Eliminate the duplicate ones and count. Make sure to include applications from all sources to get accurate results.

General equation to count the applications: 

Number of Applications = Number of Unique Applications Received

An analysis of an organization’s application count is provided below. Using this data recruiters can now assess how successful the recruitment was.

From the above visual, we can see that the applications sourced through the Agency is less compared to others. A decision can be taken to not source from them and can channel the costs to other performing sources like the Website.

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Now it’s your turn.

Do you measure the number of applications during the hiring period in your company? Please share your thoughts on how you do it below. We would like to hear from your experience.

To learn more about other recruiting metrics please visit HR reporting tools.