A job board delivers applications. A placement follows. Before deciding where to spend next, check what connects those two events in your records.
Use cost per hire alongside the work and outcomes behind it. For an agency reviewing candidate sources, agree what counts as a placement, which costs belong in the calculation and which group of candidates you are following. The checks below are a suggested review framework.
Define what “source” means
Keep the candidate's original source distinct from the route that brought them into the current job's shortlist.
For example, a candidate might first register through a job advert and later be found through a database search. That is an illustrative journey, not a customer result. Decide which question your report answers: initial acquisition or sourcing for the current vacancy.
Ask the team to record unknown sources explicitly. Give someone responsibility for checking missing or inconsistent values before comparing channels.
Follow the same group through the process
Choose a group of applications and follow its outcomes. Record the period in which applications arrived and the date you checked their progress.
Compare like roles and desk types where the data allows. Keep permanent placements and repeat temp bookings separate unless you have agreed a meaningful common definition.
Show the counts behind a rate, including work still in progress. A recently opened role has had a different opportunity to reach placement from a completed search. Make that difference visible before drawing a conclusion about the source.
Agree the costs you are comparing
For a source-level cost-per-placement measure, define the attributable costs and divide them by the completed placements in your agreed group. Document how shared subscriptions, advertising and team effort are allocated.
Use the same cost rules for each source. Where allocation is uncertain, show the assumption. Where the placement count is zero, report the spend and unresolved work separately rather than presenting a meaningful average cost per placement.
Ask your finance colleague to check the cost definitions. Keep placement fees, refunds and margin calculations separate unless the report explicitly includes and reconciles them.
Add outcomes your records can support
Alongside cost, inspect progression from application to shortlist, interview, offer and placement where those stages apply. State the denominator whenever you present a conversion rate.
If you measure time to fill, agree the start and finish events. If you examine offer acceptance, define how withdrawn or outstanding offers are treated. If you track post-placement outcomes, state the follow-up period and show missing information.
Treat differences as prompts to investigate. Ask whether the brief, candidate expectations, follow-up or recording practices help explain the result. A channel ranking on its own does not establish the cause.
Check the records before changing the plan
Open the records behind an unexpected number and trace the source, dates and outcome. Agree who will correct the data or test a change in sourcing, then set a review date.
Talisman's Dashman reporting supports reusable reports, date and team filters, and views into supporting records. Confirm that the fields and definitions needed for your source analysis are available in your setup before commissioning the report.
Use our recruitment KPI guide for broader dashboard definitions, and the database-first sourcing guide for the practical search process. Keep the measurement and the action connected.