What is Source Of Hire?
Source** of Hire (SOH)** is a key recruitment metric that tracks the percentage of new hires coming from specific sourcing channels, such as job boards, employee referrals, career sites, or social media. By analyzing SOH, companies can optimize their hiring strategies and allocate recruitment budgets more effectively.
Why Source of Hire Matters
- Evaluates Recruiting Effectiveness: Helps measure the success of different hiring channels.
- Optimizes Resource Allocation: Ensures recruiting efforts focus on the most effective sources.
- Enhances Candidate Quality: Identifies channels that bring in top talent.
- Provides Data-Driven Insights: Supports informed decision-making in talent acquisition.
- Reduces Hiring Costs: Helps streamline recruitment expenses by focusing on cost-effective channels.
Limitations of Source of Hire
- Multi-Touch Candidate Journeys: Applicants often engage with multiple channels before applying, making it difficult to attribute a hire to just one source.
- Potential Overlook of Near-Hires: The metric only tracks successful hires, ignoring qualified candidates who almost made it.
- Budget Reallocation Challenges: Data may not always justify shifting resources to different sourcing channels.
Conclusion
While source of hire is a valuable metric for improving recruitment efficiency, it should be analyzed alongside other hiring metrics to get a complete picture of a company’s talent acquisition strategy.
How HR teams use this term
HR teams usually use Source Of Hire when they write policies, explain employee communication, review payroll or leave records, or keep employee data clean in an HRMS.