The 5 Staffing Agency Metrics To Measure Success
Ideally, recruitment is as easy as posting a job, interviewing a candidate, and then hiring them. Unfortunately, the process is much more complicated than that. Determining if you’re successfully hiring requires more than just answering, “Is this position filled or not?”
Because recruiting and hiring take a significant amount of time, many companies use outside staffing agencies or recruiters to help with the process. As you evaluate your staffing success, here are five staffing agency metrics to use to determine if your agency is successfully recruiting and hiring qualified candidates for your company’s needs.
KEY STAFFING AGENCY METRICS
By tracking these staffing agency performance metrics, companies can analyze how well their staffing agency is improving hiring efficiency, reducing costs, and attracting top talent.
Hires to goal
Hires to goal is the number of hires needed to meet a predetermined goal within a certain time period. This metric gives your team a clear-cut indicator of how many hires they need to gain before they reach their target. This staffing agency metric is the number one measurement to focus on because it informs all of the other metrics.
Qualified candidates per opening (applicants per hire)
Qualified candidates per opening is how many candidates make it past the first stage of the hiring process. This staffing agency metric tells you how many candidates are worth talking to out of the ones who apply. This level of detail is necessary when you want to adjust the funnel of candidates you are interviewing.
The applicants per hire measurement can also help you cut unnecessary interviews and unqualified candidates. Once you know how many qualified candidates you receive for an opening, you and your staffing agency can set goals for future recruitment.
Days-to-hire
Days to hire is a staffing agency metric based on the length of time a specific applicant is in the funnel between when they first apply to when they accept an offer. Using this metric is beneficial because it takes a closer look at the candidate’s experience in the hiring process.
- Time to first contact: When the company first receives the applicant’s resume
- Time to set up the first interview: How long it takes to set up the interview with the company, and how many days that candidate has to wait
- Time to hear back after the interview: How long it takes for the candidate to receive feedback or an offer after their interview
By gathering and evaluating this data, you and your staffing partner can improve your procedures and cut these time intervals to be as short as possible. This will keep the company, staffing agency and the candidate from wasting time and help you efficiently find the best recruit possible.
Offer acceptance rate
The offer acceptance rate is the number of candidates who accept the job offer divided by the number of candidates who are sent an offer. This metric is used to determine the overall effectiveness of staffing agencies’ recruitment strategies. By evaluating this metric, you can investigate other indexes, such as the quality of applicants, the quality of offers and applicant satisfaction.
To improve your acceptance rate, ask candidates to fill out a survey after they decline an offer. The survey should include questions that help you understand why they declined, such as: Was their benefits package lacking? Was the compensation not up to industry standards? Did they just not fit in with the company culture?
Retention rate
Measuring retention is one of the most important staffing agency metrics and can be done company-wide or for a specific role. The recommended time for measurable retention is often a year or longer.
Replacing employees can be expensive and range anywhere from 50% to 60% of their salary. Companies want high retention rates to save costs and show that people enjoy working at their company. The more employees like working for the company and feel that the job supports their career goals, the longer they will stay.
USE STAFFING AGENCY METRICS TO STREAMLINE YOUR PROCESS
Evaluating your staffing agency is the best way to assess how your time and money are being spent to find candidates that will be well-suited for the job. By measuring the success of your staffing partner, you can continue to hire stronger candidates, which will positively affect the overall profitability and productivity of the company.
At TSP, we specialize in IT workforce and recruitment solutions that help you streamline hiring, reduce costs, and secure top-tier talent for long-term success. Let us help you optimize your hiring process with a proven strategy backed by data-driven staffing agency metrics.

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