• Main
• Blog
• Job Resume!

Home » HR Processes » Recruitment and Selection » External Recruitment » External Recruitment: Setting KPIs for the recruitment agency

External Recruitment: Setting KPIs for the recruitment agency

The recruitment agency and the HRM Function should agree on clear key performance indicators to measure the relationship between both sides. The recruitment agency has to know, what factors are important for the HRM Function to monitor.

The KPIs should be standardized for the recruitment agencies as they can be compared among themselves. The HR Recruiter should prepare a common report of the KPIs collected for the whole group and let the recruitment agencies know their own performance.

The role of KPIs for the recruitment agency is to make them focus on important aspects and to work on their consistent and constant improvement. The HRM Function has to define the set of KPIs and the target values, which have to reach by the recruitment agencies in defined time. The recruitment agency has a right to negotiate about the timing to get the final state, but it has to agree with the rules given by the HRM Function.

The most common KPIs defined for the recruitment agencies in the external recruitment are:

• Time
• Quality
• Cost

The time to deliver the job candidate is the most common measure for the recruitment agency. The recruitment agency has to be able to deliver the candidate within a given time frame as the HRM Function can make a promise to the hiring manager. The time KPI is also about the feedback and regular communication from the recruitment agency to the organization. The recruitment agency should provide the regular weekly update about the job candidates in the process and the development of all the vacant positions with the recruitment agency.

A quality KPIs is to set a balance to the time related KPIs for the recruitment agency. The quality KPIs sets the standards for the expected level of the job candidates for the position. The HRM Function has to be sure not to be overloaded with a high number of low quality job resumes. The HRM Function has to describe the expected level of job candidates and the expected number of job candidates per position. The recruitment agency usually agrees with this kind of the KPI when the positions are divided into different groups as the quality is very difficult to keep on the same level for all the positions.

The cost KPI usually defines the maximum cost per the position and it is a very important KPI to set the financial expectations of the HRM Function and the recruitment agency. With the external recruitment, it is very difficult to manage the cash flow of the recruitment agency and the recruitment agency cannot make a proper financial plan. With the financial KPIs the recruitment agency can plan its cash flow from the client and can make a proper resources planning, which can be a huge benefit for the client as well.