Understanding Sourcing Channel Metrics: Cost, Efficiency, and Quality

Attracting new candidates depends on your employee branding, candidate experience, and your company reputation. Making the candidate aware of your job role is the first stage of the employee lifecycle.

Recruiters make use of various channels to source the candidates. The company invests across multiple job boards, advertisements, and social networks to find candidates to join its recruitment pipeline. It is crucial to understand the various metrics to keep track of your sourcing channel and the candidates they bring.

There are channels that work best for specific candidates with abundant sourcing channels, and there are channels that bring in more qualified candidates. Spending resources on the proper channels based on your requirements would require that you have an understanding of the channels.

To get an overall idea of the sourcing channel, there are three main factors to consider. The cost, efficiency, and quality of the channel. Gathering this data for a specific channel will help you understand the workings of that channel. Tracking these factors will give insights on the hiring trend of your organisation and an idea of the sourcing platform that gives the best candidates.

Sourcing Channel Cost

The cost of the sourcing channel can give you an idea of the money spent on the channel. Spending money on a channel without having a return on your investment is counterproductive. It is good practice to track the cost of the sourcing channel based on how they perform.

To calculate the sourcing channel cost, take the amount of money spent on a platform and divide it by the number of successful applicants from the same platform.

Sourcing Channel Quantity

The quantity of the sourcing channel gives you an idea of which channel brings in more candidates. The sourcing channel that brings more candidates means that more candidates prefer that specific channel. Recruiters should prioritise such channels for upcoming job postings.

To calculate the sourcing channel efficiency, take a time frame of your choice and determine the number of candidates who applied for your job from a specific channel. Compare the data with all the channels you used for the same time frame to get the most efficient channel.

An alternative method would be to take the total number of candidates and divide them by the number of candidates obtained through a specific channel to find out their quantity.

Sourcing Channel Quality

Measuring the quantity of the channel is essential. But, the skillset of the candidate should also be relevant to the job they are applying for. A sourcing channel can only work if it brings in candidates suitable for the job. A quality candidate is a flexible term that a recruiter can change based on the organisation that tracks the metrics.

To calculate the source channel quality, take the number of qualified candidates from a source channel and divide it by the total number of candidates from the same channel.

Points to Remember while Tracking the Sourcing Channel Metrics

• Not all sourcing channel metrics are applicable for your recruitment strategy. Make sure that you choose the channels that suit your hiring strategy.
• It is crucial to pick out a specific time frame to measure when calculating the metrics. The formulas should be used by applying variables obtained at a particular time. Not following a standard for the time can give you skewed data.
• The candidate might have known about the job from various sourcing channels. It is not always visible to the recruiter. It is better to ask the candidate about the sourcing channel in such cases during the recruitment process.
• A sourcing channel that brings more candidates with only a small fraction of them being relevant to your job posting shows that there is a misunderstanding with the job description.
• The returns of the money you spent on the job boards and advertisements should not be restricted to the number of candidates a sourcing channel brings. It should include the suitable candidates for your job postings.

Conclusion

Analysing various sourcing channels to find the best one that suits your recruitment needs is mandatory to ensure that your job postings attract suitable candidates. Knowing more about each sourcing channel can help you consider various factors while reducing the sourcing channel for your use.

LogicMelon

Award-winning recruitment software that will find, attract, hire and analyse the way you want to work. At LogicMelon, we have experienced software recruitment marketing specialists to help you build effective recruitment solutions supported by the best customer service you’ll find anywhere!

Email: sales@logicmelon.com or call LogicMelon (UK) +44 (0) 203 553 3667 (USA) +1 860 269 3089