Recruiting Metrics on a Free Spreadsheet

“How do I track recruiting metrics without buying analytics software?” is mostly a vocabulary problem. The 4 metrics that actually drive hiring decisions all fit in a single Google Sheet, can be updated in 10 minutes a week, and tell you more than the dashboards built into paid ATSes.

This guide is the spreadsheet template + the formulas + which numbers matter for a small team. Plus a candidate-database structure that doubles as a CRM, all on free Google Sheets.

The 4 metrics that matter

Recruiting analytics tools surface 30+ metrics. For a 5-to-20-req team only four drive decisions:

1. Source quality (applicants → hires by source): tells you which boards or referral channels to double down on. Most companies waste hours posting on platforms that produce zero hires for years.
2. Stage conversion rates: phone-to-onsite %, onsite-to-offer %, offer-accept %. A drop in any one tells you where your process is broken.
3. Days-in-stage: the diagnostic for “why are candidates ghosting?” Usually because someone sat on them for 9 days mid-pipeline.
4. Time-to-hire (sourced → offer accepted): the only top-line metric that matters. SHRM 2024 median: 44 days. If you’re above 60, something is broken.

That’s it. Cost-per-hire, applicant volume, candidate satisfaction scores — noise unless you’re a 50+ person team.

The spreadsheet template

Build it yourself in Google Sheets in 30 minutes. Two tabs:

Tab 1: Candidates

Columns:

• Name
• Role
• Source (LinkedIn, referral, Indeed, etc.)
• Sourced date
• Current stage (Sourced / Phone / Onsite / Offer / Hired / Rejected)
• Stage entered date
• Days in stage (formula: =TODAY() - F2)
• Outcome (Hired / Rejected / Withdrew / Active)
• Notes

The export from our recruiting pipeline tracker matches this exactly — paste the CSV in and you’re live.

Tab 2: Metrics dashboard

Formulas (assuming the Candidates tab is named “Candidates”):

Source quality (per source):
  =COUNTIFS(Candidates!C:C, "LinkedIn", Candidates!H:H, "Hired") /
   COUNTIF(Candidates!C:C, "LinkedIn")

Phone-to-onsite conversion:
  =COUNTIFS(Candidates!E:E, "Onsite") /
   (COUNTIFS(Candidates!E:E, "Onsite") + COUNTIFS(Candidates!E:E, "Phone"))

Average days-in-stage by stage:
  =AVERAGEIFS(Candidates!G:G, Candidates!E:E, "Phone")

Time-to-hire (avg):
  Add a "Hired date" column, then =AVERAGE(Hired_date - Sourced_date)

Update once a week. Keeps you honest about which sources work and where the funnel leaks.

Candidate database — the free CRM-lite

Building a candidate database is just adding more columns to the candidates tab and using filters. Recommended additions:

• Skills tags (comma-separated; filter with regex)
• Years of experience
• Salary expectation
• Available date
• Last contact date
• Reach-out cadence (every 60 days, 90 days, etc.)

For 100–500 candidates this is fine. Above that, search performance degrades and you’ll want a real database (Notion, Airtable, or eventually a CRM). Most small teams never get there.

Cheap automation

Free things that save 30 minutes per week:

• Google Forms → Sheets: application form auto-populates the Candidates tab.
• Conditional formatting: highlight rows where days-in-stage > 7, so stale candidates jump out visually.
• Apps Script for follow-ups: a 20-line script that sends a candidate-status email when stage changes. Runs free on Google Workspace personal.
• Slack webhook for new applications: Forms → Apps Script → webhook → posts to a #hiring channel.

Weekly review checklist (10 minutes)

Run every Monday morning:

1. Sort by “Days in stage” descending. Anything >7 days needs an action.
2. Phone-to-onsite conversion this week vs last. Big drop → screening calls aren't filtering well.
3. Source breakdown of new candidates. Two sources hot? Lean in. None? Refresh job postings.
4. Time-to-hire average for last 5 closed reqs. Above 50 days → review where the friction is.