Hire Insights: Benchmarking

The Hire Benchmarking dashboard is a one-page dashboard page made up of three unique slides that spotlight stories related to hiring trends, pipeline KPIs, and operational efficiencies compared to other companies within an industry or company-size peer group.

Are you looking for an overview of Hire Insights?  Click here!

What is Benchmarking?

Benchmarking is a process where you measure your company's success against competitors to discover how to improve your overall performance.

Today’s talent landscape is dynamic and competitive. Our ability to see our hiring practices in light of competitors and industry standards is more important than ever. 

Gauge Your Team's Success

The Hire Benchmark dashboard gives a clear overview of candidates and hiring trends, pipeline health metrics, and operational efficiency toward timely talent acquisition within an organization.

Accessing the Dashboard

Super Admins can access the Insights dashboard via the Insights section on the left navigation bar.

Once you are viewing the Insights Dashboard, click on the Hire Benchmarking tab to access the Benchmarking Dashboard.

Dashboard Overview

Intended Use Cases

• As an HR Leader, I need to understand how our hiring practices are changing in a dynamic and competitive landscape. This includes seeing some data at a monthly level and making some comparisons over time by a quarter.
• As an HR Leader, I need to know how our hiring practices compare to other organizations in our industry and other organizations of similar size to ours.
• As an HR Leader, I need to be aware of trends with remote work over time and be able to compare our trends against peer comparison groups.
• As an HR Leader, I need to understand the movement in my organization’s hiring pipeline. This includes seeing stages where my organization might vary from industry standards.
• As an HR Leader, I need to understand how long my organization spends facilitating different stages of the hiring process. This includes being able to compare my organization’s average times to comparison peer groups.

Exporting Data

Filtering Data

Selected Month Filter

The Selected Month filter in the top right of the dashboard allows the selection of the last month from the past desired to display in the analysis. For instance, it is possible to exclude the most recent months and focus only on patterns from previous years.

Filter Actions

The Hire Benchmarking dashboard does not feature dynamic filter actions when interacting with visual chart elements. 

Dashboard Objects

The Hiring Landscape

What does this tell me, and why does it matter?

• As an HR Leader, I need to understand how our current job postings, candidate levels, and hires vary from historical averages.  
• As an HR Leader, I need to understand what is happening in the movement towards remote vs. on-site work and how this compares to other companies within our industry and companies of similar size. Are we moving toward a more remote-based workforce while competitors are moving toward on-site (or vice versa)?
• As an HR Leader, I need to understand how my organization’s offers stand out in a competitive job market and how our offer acceptance rate compares to competitors.
• As an HR Leader, I need to see how these trends compare to other companies within our industry and other companies of similar size. Are we seeing a more significant uptick or drop in openings than our peers? Is an uptick or drop in candidates attracted to our openings compared to our competitors? Are we seeing more or fewer hires made than usual, and are competitors experiencing similar trends?

1. The Hiring Landscape bar chart on the left side of the slide displays the organization’s percent change comparing the selected month to the prior 12-month average in Openings, Candidates, and Hires and compares each to comparison groups by industry and companies of similar size.
2. The % of Remote or Hybrid Published Openings on the right side of the slide shows the company’s % of openings that are either Remote or Hybrid for the last four quarters compared to their industry and companies of similar size.
3. The Offer Acceptance Rate for Selected Month on the right side of the slide shows the acceptance rate of offers made for the month selected at the top. These metrics are also being compared to their industry and companies of similar size.

Calculations

Openings - Percent Change Comparing the Selected Month to the Prior 12-Month Average: (Total Openings Created for Current Month - Average Monthly Openings Created for 12 Month Before Selected Month)/ Average Monthly Openings Created for 12 Month Period Before Selected Month.

• An average is first calculated for the 12 months before the selected month and then used for the comparison. If an organization has less than 12 months of data available before the selected month, an average is calculated using the maximum number of months of data available.

Candidates - Percent Change Comparing the Selected Month to the Prior 12-Month Average: (Total Candidates for Current Month - Average Monthly Candidates for 12 Month Before Selected Month)/ Average Monthly Openings Created for 12 Month Period Before Selected Month.

• An average is first calculated for the 12 months before the selected month and then used for the comparison. If an organization has less than 12 months of data available before the selected month, an average is calculated using the maximum number of months of data available.

Hires Made - Percent Change Comparing the Selected Month to the Prior 12-Month Average: (Total Hires Made for Current Month - Average Monthly Hires Made for 12 Month Period Before Selected Month)/ Average Monthly Openings Created for 12 Month Period Before Selected Month

• An average is first calculated for the 12 months before the selected month and then used for the comparison. If an organization has less than 12 months of data available before the selected month, an average is calculated using the maximum number of months of data available.

Industry and Company Size comparisons are based on anonymized data from other Trakstar customers. Industry and Company Size definitions are derived from data about each company in the Trakstar data sets.

Visualization Assumptions

• The Hiring Landscape chart is a clustered bar chart where Openings, Candidates group bars, and Hires are Made. Consistent comparison groups (organization, industry, company size peer group) are color-coded per the legend.
  • Comparison groups can be compared to other groups for each metric.
• The % of Remote of Hybrid Published Openings chart is a clustered bar chart where bars are grouped by quarter, and consistent comparison groups (company, industry, company size peer group) are color-coded per the legend.
  • Change for each color group can be witnessed quarter over quarter.
  • Comparison groups can be compared to other groups for each quarter.
• The Offer Acceptance Rate for Selected Month chart is a bar chart where bars represent values for company, industry, and company size peer group per the legend.
  • Comparison groups can be compared to other groups.

Hiring Pipeline for Selected Months

What does this tell me, and why does it matter?

• As an HR Leader, I need to understand patterns in my organization’s hiring pipeline that help describe the recruiting process. It can be used as an indication of market reputation, candidate selectivity, hiring process intensity, and goodness of fit. I need to be able to see how these ratios change monthly.
• As an HR Leader, I need to be able to see how my pipeline ratios compare to others in my industry, and I need to be able to explore hiring pipeline trends happening in industries related to mine or industries I feel we may compete with for employees and see how metrics change quarterly over time.

1. The Hiring Pipeline ratio tiles on the left side of the slide display key recruiting funnel metrics compared to other companies within your industry. In many cases, it is more desirable to have higher ratios than the comparison industry, though some cases warrant lower ratios; ultimately, your company should settle on healthy goals for these items.
   • Candidates per Opening: Reflects your company's reputation within the talent market and the ease with which you find candidates for your open jobs. Generally, higher applications per opening are desirable.
   • Screened Candidates per Interview: Portrays the level of selectivity in forming healthy hiring slates. Generally, more candidate screenings per interview mean that your recruiting process evaluates a solid diversity of qualified candidates toward the next hiring process steps.
   • Candidates per Hire: Helps to shape expectations of how intensive the hiring process might be. Knowing your organization's candidates per hire ratio helps you forecast your hiring process, hit your headcount goals on time, and identify whether you're running an efficient pipeline.
   • Interviews per Hire: Reflects alignment to mission and fit where fewer interviews should be necessary after a thorough screening process.
2. The Hiring Pipeline Trends chart on the right side of the slide provides a flexible comparison of Hiring Pipeline metrics over time compared to your industry.

Visualization Assumptions

• The pipeline ratios are KPI indicators, with one column for the user’s organization and one for the industry comparison group. Commentary to the right of the KPIs will change based on how they compare to their peer industry. This text includes an explanation of the indicators or recommended articles for support.
• The Hiring Pipeline Trends chart shows how these ratios measure over time compared to your industry.
  • A filter above the chart allows the user to select different pipeline ratios for display.
  • Change for each ratio can be viewed for the past four quarters before the selected month runs left to right.

Efficiency in Hiring

What does this tell me, and why does it matter?

• As an HR Leader, I need to be aware of the time spent in each stage of the talent acquisition process and how my company’s level of recruiting efficiency compares to other companies. Efficiency in talent acquisition can impact the productivity and profitability of my company, but it can also impact our reputation among candidates and the talent marketplace in general. 

1. Average Time to Hire measures the time it takes for candidates to move through the hiring process and reflects the speed and ease of the process from the candidate's perspective. This is important as speed to hire has been linked to the performance and retention of employees as they form first impressions of your company and culture.
2. Average Time to Fill measures the time it takes your organization to fill open positions. It measures process efficiency and shared urgency of your hiring managers. Time to Fill is essential for shared accountability for recruiting and hiring teams. 
3. Average Time to Apply measures the time between the position publication date and the arrival of the first application to your openings. This is an essential reflection of the visibility and reputation of your company brand in the marketplace of job seekers and desirable new team members. High Time to Apply numbers could signal a need to review investment in marketing and channels for communicating new openings.

Calculations

Time To Hire: Hire Date - Application Date

• Measured and displayed in Days and reported based on Hire date.

Time To Fill: Hire Date - Publish Date

• Measured and displayed in Days and reported based on Hire Date

Time To Fill: First Application Date - Publish Date

• Measured and displayed in Days and reported based on Hire date. 

Visualization Assumptions

• The Average Time To Hire, Average Time To Fill, and Average Time To Apply charts are all line graphs that display the average metric value per month. Line colors correspond to Your Company, Industry Peer Group, and Company Size Peer Group in the same way as comparison groups are displayed throughout the benchmarking page. 

Want to learn more about Insights or have a question?  Reach out at hire@trakstar.com!