A key metric for any recruiting organization is source of hire. Unfortunately, many companies have trouble accurately tracking source of hire, thus they never really understand where they should focus their recruiting efforts and resources. While source of hire has traditionally been a difficult metric to track, through the evolution of Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and automated source tracking functionality, we’re starting to see much more accurate and reliable data. HR technology company SilkRoad recently released a new study that offers some interesting new data on where the masses find their new hires. It’s important to note that this data reflects the results of a large sample of companies in a variety of industries and at different stages of growth. To accurately understand your individual company’s source of hire, an ATS with automated source tracking software and a process that verifies this data with new hires is necessary.
About the Study
SilkRoad, best known for its human resource information systems, collected and analyzed a full year of recruiting data from over 700 companies, 9.3 million applicants and more than 90,000 new hires. The 2011 report, Recruitment Marketing Effectiveness: Meaningful Metrics Straight From the Source, was based on 222,308 job postings and the results in the study were obtained from automated source tracking data pulled from the SilkRoad OpenHire Applicant Tracking System (ATS).
Some Thoughts by Scott Robarge
Applicant Tracking Systems will continue to evolve and more effectively track multiple sources of hire. Although, in my opinion, if you want to understand the true source of hire, nothing will replace a recruiting/hiring process that includes a conversation with applicants/candidates to verify how they came to know about the opportunity.
