What is Cost Per Hire?

Cost per hire is a recruiting metric that measures the costs associated with the process of hiring new employees. These include expenses such as sourcing and recruitment advertising costs, onboarding, referral bonus program costs, etc. For example, if you hire 50 people for the year, and you spend an estimated $100,000 on the hiring process annually, that would mean that your cost per hire is $2,000. It’s a great way to measure if your recruitment process is optimized relative to your industry and roles.

Also, it is useful when comparing between departments across the quarter and annually to spot any significant trends.

Multiple factors impact your organization’s cost per hire.

SHRM developed an industry benchmark that you can review to understand if your cost per hire is at the industry average.