Applicants Per Hire

What Is Applicant Per Hire?

A recruiting statistic known as "Applicants Per Hire" is used to calculate how many candidates are required in the hiring pipeline in order to make a successful hire.

This assessment helps you understand how you're doing and streamlines the hiring process. Your ability to anticipate the number of applicants per Hire will improve over time as you hire more people in the same job.

The ratio of applicants to hires can vary significantly based on the job's advertising, the attractiveness of the employer brand to candidates, the amount of pay, the state of the labor market as a whole, and other factors. Online job advertisements frequently generate a sizable application pool with a high applicant-to-hire ratio.

The applicant-to-hire ratio is an effective hiring statistic because it influences the employer's expectations for how rigorous the hiring process will be. Companies with consistently high application-to-hire ratios frequently use applicant tracking systems (ATS) for recruitment management, or they introduce extra recruiting criteria to weed out prospects, including pre-employment testing.

Using tests and other data-driven selection criteria at the beginning of the recruiting process might help organizations save time and money by allowing them to concentrate on the most qualified individuals when applicant-to-hire ratios are extraordinarily high (greater than 100 to 1).

What Factors Affect The Applicant-To-Hire Ratio?

Your application-to-hire ratio may be impacted by how broadly you publicize a vacancy. Other factors that may have an impact on your applicant-to-hire ratio include the following:

Level: Entry-level positions could draw more applications than more specialized positions with more stringent requirements for qualifications and expertise.

Brand: People may be more familiar with and seek you out if you work for a well-known brand.

Compensation: The higher your compensation package is, the more individuals may apply for it, especially if it is more than the average for that job in the market.

Market: If unemployment is high, there may be more applicants available than there otherwise would be.

Medium: If you publish a job online, you could attract more applicants since doing so makes the application process simpler and allows you to reach a larger audience.

Why Is It Important To Calculate The Applicant-To-Hire Ratio?

You may use this measure to help your hiring processes for the following reasons:

• Sets Standards

With managers and hiring teams, you may establish expectations for how intensive the hiring process might be using your data from prior job posts. You may better describe the length of the application process and the amount of effort you put into finding the best applicants for the vacant positions by sharing your applicant-to-hire ratio. For instance, if you work for a business where the applicant-to-hire ratio is typically high, you may utilize that knowledge to create a plan to:

• Schedule time to go through application materials
• Advocate for additional team members to assist in the hiring process
• Set a realistic timeline for interviewing and vetting candidates
• Analyze Procedures

Finding out your applicant-to-hire ratio may also help you figure out whether your recruiting procedures are making it easier for you to find quality applicants and save time. A high applicant-to-hire ratio indicates that you are contacting many possible candidates, which might be advantageous. However, it may also imply that you're receiving applications from potential applicants who aren't qualified. To make the recruiting process simpler for HR, you might assess if you need to make changes to your procedures, such as updating the job description or utilizing applicant tracking systems.

• Track Changes

Your applicant-to-hire ratio can be used as a statistic to determine whether adjustments to your application process were successful. Your application procedure should make an effort to target applicants who have the appropriate qualifications and work in the relevant industry. The lower your applicant-to-hire ratio, the more focused your posts and advertising are. Calculate your applicant-to-hire ratio at the conclusion of each recruitment cycle to see whether there has been a change and how that change may impact your recruiting processes going forward.

Conclusion

Once you've determined that you need to recruit a new employee, the number of applicants per hire will inform you of how many days you need to fill a job.

Therefore, using this statistic to plan your staffing requirements is quite helpful.

Once you have a pipeline of qualified candidates, the number of applicants per hire will show you how quickly you can choose the best candidate.

As a result, this statistic is excellent for confirming the effectiveness of your selection process.