Throughout our talk of career site, talent communities, and hiring funnels, we are always using the phrase “Conversion Rate.”  While this concept is intuitive to many, we do get a lot of questions about what it actually means.

Conversion Rate is simply the percentage of people who take an action.  So, if 100 people come to our careers site, and 15 of them take the action of applying for a job, we have a 15% conversion rate.

Conversion rates are important to track because they allow us to quickly diagnose where in our hiring funnel there is weakness.  Maybe we have a low conversion rate of offer to acceptance, or of application to interview.

When we know our conversion rates, we can hone in on that part of the funnel, and start to identify the problems that are lowering these rates.  For example, if we have a low offer acceptance rate, we may need to look at compensation or the candidate experience throughout the hiring process.

Of course, conversion rates apply to other aspects of life.  Here’s an overview that uses dating to explain conversion rates:

The post Explaining Conversion Rates in HR – What They Are and Why They Matter appeared first on NextWave Hire Blog.