Organizations have more data at their disposal today than ever before, but that does not automatically mean they make better decisions based on it. In his work with companies, Bob often sees a lack of structure: what exactly are we measuring, why are we measuring it, and what are we trying to predict with it?

According to Bob, the real challenge lies in focusing on what is relevant. That may sound obvious, but in practice many HR teams still struggle with it. An important step in this process is making a clear distinction between metrics and KPIs.

During the webinar, Bob made a clear distinction:

1. Metrics

Everything you measure. Often operational and detailed. For example: number of applicants, number of views, time between process steps...

2. KPIs

A smaller, strategic selection of objectives that guide your HR strategy.

KPIs tell you whether you are on track. And when a KPI declines, you know where to start looking within the metrics to find the cause. Or put differently: metrics support your understanding of the KPIs.

This requires making choices. And above all, it requires alignment with the business strategy and HR strategy—the first criterion in Bob’s checklist for effective KPIs.

1. Align with business objectives

HR should not define KPIs in a vacuum. If the organization’s goal is to reduce costs, for example, you would not choose a KPI that encourages more hiring, but rather KPIs that measure efficiency.

2. Measure your own performance

HR teams should not only monitor their internal lead times, but also evaluate the performance of external partners. Are social media campaigns or job fairs delivering the expected results.

3. Measure quality, not volume

Bob pointed out that organizations often focus on numbers, while the real focus should increasingly be on quality.
How many of the candidates entering the funnel are actually relevant?
As a result, the screening quality ratio is becoming an increasingly important metric.

It is clear that recruitment dashboards should not become “retrospective toys.” To avoid this, you need forward-looking KPIs that do three things:

1. Predict the attractiveness of your employer brand

For example:

• trends in unsolicited applications
• ratio of relevant applicants
• quality of candidate conversion by channel

“Even unsolicited applications provide signals about your employer brand", Bob emphasized.

2. Monitor the pipeline

Not just looking at how many candidates there are, but identifying where the strong and weak links are in the process. In other words, analyzing the recruitment funnel based on data.

3. Detect shifts in visitor behaviour in time

One striking example Bob gave: with the rise of agentic browsers such as Atlas (definitely worth looking up if you're not familiar with it), job traffic on your website will become increasingly less relevant—because talent will search directly through AI agents based on skills and preferences.

A company must therefore ensure that the right information is available and indexable according to the new ways people search for jobs.

A smartly designed dashboard does not provide HR teams with absolute predictions—but it does provide direction. A well-built dashboard helps to:

• improve candidate quality,
• identify bottlenecks in the recruitment process more quickly,
• have more meaningful conversations with hiring managers,
• and make timely adjustments when labor market conditions or internal needs change.

Together, Starfish and Doorstep have developed eight dashboard designs that we believe add significant value to any recruitment team. Feel free to contact us if you would like to learn more about them.

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