What (Definition)
During an organization’s recruitment period, several applications are received. In that number of applications, only specific candidates progress. The HR department counts the number of applications that have successfully passed the hiring stage and sent offer letters. This is one of the recruiting metrics that businesses measure to analyze hiring strategies and help in decision-making.
Why (Benefits)
Counting the number of offers sent to progressed applicants can help organizations analyze several facts.
- By watching the number of offer letters sent, the HR department can analyze how well the hiring process is performing.
- Less number of offers sent means that the number of qualified candidates who applied for the vacancy is low. Therefore the organization can come up with different strategies such as posting job availability in other sources where they can find successful candidates.
- Allocating resources for a source becomes easier when an organization counts the number of offers sent to different sources and analyzes the offer acceptance rate. For example, a company sends out a high number of offers to applicants who apply through job sites but the acceptance rate is low. Whereas offers sent to candidates who apply through LinkedIn are accepted at a higher rate. Now the company will allocate more resources to LinkedIn.
How (Calculation?)
We can calculate the number of offers given out to candidates during recruitment by following a couple of steps.
- The use of an Application Tracking System (ATS) or software such as spreadsheets can make life easier to keep the records of offers sent.
- All records should be updated with details such as the applicant’s name, position applied, acceptance, pending or denial of the offer, etc.
- An example of an organization’s recorded data regarding the offers sent is provided below.
The general formula for calculating the number of offers is given:
Number of offers sent = Number of offers accepted + Number of offers pending + Number of offers declined
OR
Number of offers sent = Number of applications reaching the OFFER stage (that is the final stage of hiring) successfully
From the example above we can see that a total of 6 offers have been sent to various candidates.