When recruiting for Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC) positions was a seller’s market and recruiters had applicants banging down their doors, recruiting metrics may not have been as important as they are today in shaping the landscape of what recruiters do on a daily basis. But in today’s world where there is not enough talent for the amount of national security openings, it’s a different story.
ClearanceJobs was joined by Casey Talley, a Sr. Talent Acquisition Lead with Mount Indie to talk about cleared recruiting metrics that actually matter and how they can help inform your recruiting teams on what is working and what needs to change within your workflows. Time to hire, cost to fill, candidate pipelines, and ultimately what metrics will help you be successful in a cleared recruiting environment are some to take note of.
RECRUITING METRICS
Recruiting cleared candidates presents unique challenges in comparison to other industries. Verifying clearance status, military separation timelines and technicalities, and an incredibly tight talent pool makes cleared recruiting one of the toughest verticals in the hiring business. Talley says that at Mount Indie, they strive to submit three candidates per opening, which they have found successful in a client accepting a candidate, securing an offer, and getting a start date on the calendar.
Recruiting metrics are everything and measuring data is key. They help recruiters make better informed decisions on where they spend their time and where they can improve their processes to better attract cleared candidates.
Metrics are also a great way to advocate for yourself to your supervisor or hiring manager; like noting that you have filled x number of positions in a certain timeframe.
TIME TO HIRE
Time is money for government contractors with job openings. It takes time to track down the right candidate, schedule interviews, and get client approval. And if a candidate turns down the offer or the client is not impressed, the process starts at square one. While measuring time to hire can be an important insight to be aware of, Talley notes that measuring your workflows in time can be a better way to find what step in the process is becoming a hurdle for candidates starting in a role. Mount Indie notes the time to submit, time to acceptance, time to secure offer, and time to get a candidate in the door.
Each year ClearanceJobs surveys the site’s recruiters to create the Cleared Recruiting Guide with these important metrics, because while SHRM numbers are great, the clearance world is just a different industry.
Last year’s report noted that cleared positions usually take 21-40 days to fill, with IT positions creating more challenges trending at 41-60 days.
CANDIDATE PIPELINES
Candidate pipelines have become increasingly important in keeping passive talent warm, touching base to know that your company still exists and letting them know that their talent is highly sought out. Ensuring you have VIP lists set on your end and a recruitment marketing tool in place to engage those candidates is of the utmost importance.
To create these pipelines, you also need a good number of candidate sources. And you should be keeping track of what candidates convert to employees and where they come from. Investing in recruiting tool are big business decisions, and Talley believes the average number a recruiter uses today is 2-4, but knowing how to use them well and making sure you are getting your return on investment is critical.
Tune in to this episode of the Security Clearance Careers podcast to learn about low application completion rates, what this could say about your organization’s application process, candidates per hire and what this metric might say about your hiring manager or government customer, recruiter fill rates to see who is pulling their weight on your recruiting team, and more.
