Year-end recruitment review: The key metrics every HR team should analyse in December

December is one of the most revealing months for HR teams looking to understand how well their hiring strategies performed throughout the year. While the focus often shifts to holiday schedules and year-end deadlines, smart organisations use this period to take stock of their recruitment performance.

Whether you manage hiring internally or rely on the support of a trusted recruitment agency, understanding what your December data is telling you is one of the most valuable steps you can take toward improving talent outcomes. This blog explores the key metrics to review, why they matter and how they can help you build a more strategic, data-driven approach to recruitment in the year ahead.

Understanding the importance of year-end recruitment evaluation

December may feel like a winding-down period for most businesses, but in recruitment, it’s one of the most strategic months of the year. As operations slow and hiring demands shift, HR teams finally gain the breathing room needed to step back, analyse performance and assess the true impact of their recruitment efforts over the past 12 months.

A structured year-end recruitment evaluation is essential because it highlights what worked, what fell short and where untapped opportunities lie. Instead of rolling old habits into a new year, HR leaders can use December’s data to make informed decisions that strengthen talent pipelines, refine hiring processes and align workforce planning with upcoming business goals.

Simply put, evaluating recruitment in December ensures that organisations don’t just carry their hiring strategy into the new year, they elevate it.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) to track when evaluating year-end recruitment performance

A successful year-end recruitment evaluation isn’t just about gathering numbers. It’s about understanding what those numbers mean, how they impact business performance and how they can be used to build a stronger hiring strategy for the upcoming year.

Below are the most important annual recruitment KPIs HR teams should track, along with practical steps on how to analyse and apply each one for continuous improvement.

1. Time-to-hire: Measuring overall hiring efficiency

Time-to-hire measures the number of days between when a job is opened and when a candidate accepts the offer.

A long time-to-hire often signals internal delays, slow decision-making or a shortage of qualified candidates. A short time-to-hire usually indicates an efficient recruitment process and strong talent pipelines.

How to use it effectively:

• Identify slow stages: Break your hiring timeline into steps (approval → sourcing → screening → interviews → offer). Identify which stages consistently take the longest.
• Compare by department: Some teams naturally hire faster than others. Benchmark each team to understand where support is needed.
• Use it to forecast future hiring: If marketing roles took 45 days on average to fill this year, expect similar timelines next year, unless improvements are made.
• Partner smarter: A long time-to-hire may reveal the need for external support from recruitment specialists like MASA, especially for hard-to-fill or high-volume roles.

2. Cost-per-Hire: Understanding the true financial impact of annual recruitment

Cost-per-hire measures how much your company spends to recruit and onboard each new employee.

This Includes costs like:

• Job advertising
• Recruitment software and tools
• Recruiter salaries
• Referral bonuses
• Onboarding and training
• Agency fees (if applicable)

Total recruitment costs ÷ Number of hires

It helps HR understand the financial efficiency of recruitment and whether the hiring strategy is sustainable.

How to use it effectively:

• Identify high-cost roles: Some roles require more resources. Knowing this helps you plan budgets realistically.
• Analyse ROI by hiring channel: Review which recruitment sources delivered the strongest return in terms of both hire quality and hiring efficiency. If one channel consistently produces more successful, long-term employees than others, it becomes clear where to focus future investment and where to scale back.
• Set cost targets for next year: Use historical data to negotiate budgets, improve resource allocation and invest in channels that offer maximum return.
• Spot inefficiencies early: High costs may indicate poor job ad visibility, outdated sourcing strategies or excessive time spent screening candidates manually.

3. Quality-of-hire: Measuring performance and long-term value

Quality-of-hire reflects how well a new employee performs, integrates and contributes to the organisation over time. This is usually measured after 6–12 months.

Use a combination of:

• Performance scores
• Manager feedback
• Cultural fit assessments
• Retention and turnover data
• Productivity benchmarks

You can hire fast and cheaply, but if the people hired do not perform or stay long, the entire recruitment process becomes costly and ineffective.

How to use it effectively:

• Identify high-performing sourcing channels: Track which sources produced your top talent and invest more in them.
• Examine the job description: If many poor-quality hires come from one role, the job description may be inaccurate or incomplete.
• Improve interview questions: Use insights to create more competency-based assessments for next year.
• Link recruitment and performance management: Align hiring criteria with actual job outcomes to reduce future mismatches.

4. Offer acceptance rate: Gauging candidate interest and competitiveness

This measures how many candidates accept your job offer versus how many decline it.

How to calculate it:

Accepted offers ÷ Total offers made × 100

A low acceptance rate signals deeper issues around salary, benefits, workplace culture, job clarity, or employer branding.

How to use it effectively:

• Track the reasons candidates reject offers: If compensation is the most common reason, review your salary benchmarking.
• Shorten decision-making steps: Candidates often accept a competing offer because your process took too long.
• Improve communication: Clearer expectations and faster updates help candidates feel engaged.
• Strengthen your value proposition: Use feedback to refine benefits, remote-work options, or growth opportunities offered.

Use December insights to strengthen next year’s hiring strategy

A year-end recruitment review gives HR teams a clear picture of their strengths and weaknesses over the past 12 months. December’s unique window of slowed operations and consolidated hiring data makes it the ideal time to uncover where your recruitment process is thriving and where gaps may be holding your organisation back.

If your KPIs reveal issues such as long time-to-hire, rising recruitment costs, inconsistent candidate quality or low acceptance rates, it’s a strong indication that your current approach may need to evolve. These challenges often point to broader structural or resource limitations that internal teams can struggle to overcome alone.

This is where partnering with a trusted recruitment agency like Greys Recruitment can make all the difference. With industry expertise, advanced sourcing tools, and established talent networks, Greys helps businesses resolve KPI weaknesses, optimise hiring efficiency and build a more resilient recruitment strategy for the year ahead.

If your December metrics highlight room for improvement, now is the perfect time to take action. Contact Greys Recruitment today for a tailored consultation and begin the new year with a stronger, more effective hiring approach.