An overall “1 hire per 30 applications” figure tells you almost nothing about where your process is actually leaking candidates. This calculator breaks the funnel into its stage-to-stage conversion rates so you can see whether the real problem is screening, interviewing, or getting candidates to accept your offer.
A low overall yield can come from very different root causes that need completely different fixes. A weak screening rate usually points to a job description that is attracting the wrong applicants, or sourcing channels that are not targeted enough. A weak interview-to-offer rate more often points to the interview process itself, unclear evaluation criteria, too many rounds, or panel disagreement that stalls decisions. A weak acceptance rate, once you have already extended an offer, is usually about compensation, counter-offers, or how long your process took relative to competing offers the candidate is juggling.
Track this per role or per hiring manager if volumes allow. A blended, company-wide funnel can hide a specific team’s process problem behind an otherwise healthy overall number.
Whichever one is lowest relative to your own historical baseline for that role, there is no single universal healthy number since it varies heavily by role seniority and market. If your acceptance rate specifically is the weak point, that often means your process is too slow; check our Time-to-Hire Calculator to see if cycle time is the underlying driver.
A weak conversion rate at any stage means you need more volume earlier in the funnel to land the same number of hires, which directly raises your cost per hire. Our Cost Per Hire Calculator uses the standard SHRM formula to quantify that cost.
Yes, include everything that came in, since a flood of unqualified applications is itself useful information about your job posting or sourcing channel, and excluding them would make your screening rate look artificially strong.
Once you know your typical conversion rates, our Recruitment Cost Calculator and our applicant tracking system comparison can help you plan the sourcing volume and tooling needed to hit a specific hiring target.