Recruiting pipeline
- Applicants needed per hire
- 50
- Applicant to screen, percent
- 20
- Screen to interview, percent
- 40
- Interview to offer, percent
- 33
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs entered, by the method stated below it. Reqnix publishes no salary data, no benchmark time to hire, no conversion rate you should expect and no employment law: the days, the costs, the scores and the weights are yours, and the defaults are a worked example to replace with your own.
The figures above start from a worked example (50). Change any input and the answer updates as you type.
Download the Recruiting pipeline worked example (CSV)
A recruiting pipeline is five numbers and four ratios, and most desks have the numbers and have never worked the ratios. Enter applicants, screens, interviews, offers and hires for a period, and this sheet returns the conversion at each step, the applicants needed per hire, and how many applicants the next ten hires will take at the same rates. On the worked example, 300 applicants become 60 screens, 24 interviews, 8 offers and 6 hires: 20% of applicants are worth a screen, 40% of screens an interview, a third of interviews an offer, and three quarters of offers are accepted. That is 50 applicants per hire, and it means the next ten hires need 500 applicants. Once you have that number, "we need more applicants" stops being a feeling and becomes a quantity you can plan advertising around.
The applicants-per-hire figure is the planning number
50 applicants per hire is what turns a hiring plan into an advertising plan. Ten hires means 500 applicants, and if your channels do not produce 500, the plan is not a plan yet.
A low first ratio is usually a targeting problem
20% of applicants surviving to a screen is not inherently bad, but it is the ratio most affected by where the advert ran and how the role was described. It is also the cheapest one to change.
Offer acceptance is a different kind of signal
75% acceptance on the worked example means one offer in four is turned down. Unlike the earlier ratios, that one is usually about pay, timing or the experience of the process, and the sheet shows it separately for exactly that reason.
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Recruiting pipeline: common questions
What period should I use?
Long enough to contain several hires, so the ratios are not dominated by one unusual role. A quarter is usually right for a small desk; a month is too short unless you are hiring at volume.
What conversion rate should I expect?
This site publishes none. It varies enormously by role, seniority and channel, and a benchmark that averages a warehouse role and a staff engineer would mislead you about both. Your own rates are the only ones that predict your own pipeline.
My numbers do not fall neatly into stages.
Then simplify rather than abandon it: applicants, people you actually spoke to, people you interviewed properly, offers and hires. The ratios are still useful, and the applicants-per-hire figure barely moves.