Dive Brief:

• A 2016 study by Lever, a recruiting software firm, found that small and midsize businesses go through 86 job candidates, 15 resumes, 4.7 onsite interviews and 1.5 job offers on average to get one hire. Lever reviewed sourcing and hiring data from 600 companies with up to 200 employees for one year.
• The study also showed that 17% of candidates are invited by the hiring company for an initial conversation. Among applicants, only 13% are invited to these first screenings. Referrals get invited 57% of the time, while that same rate for recruiting agency candidates is 59%. “Passive” or sourced candidates are invited to initial screenings 21% of the time.
• About 31% of candidates turn down job offers. Among the candidates with the highest decline rates are engineers (59%), product managers (63%) and business developers (63%). Customer service candidates have the highest acceptance rate (78%), followed by design (76%) and sales (74%).

Dive Insight:

With 31% of job candidates turning down job offers, it’s reasonable for employers to cite in studies that recruiting and hiring talent is their number one concern for 2017.   

One surprising result from the study is that small to midsize companies recruit and hire more efficiently than large companies. Recruiting and hiring are expensive processes, yet small organizations on tight budgets manage to do so with greater success than large employers. The hiring ratio for companies of all sizes in one Lever survey was 1-in-100.

Referrals and recruiting agency candidates are more likely to get an initial screening than applicants. This doesn’t mean applicants are the least qualified of all candidates. It likely means that candidates with someone to vouch for them early in the recruitment process have the greatest chance of getting hired.