Recruitment Source Tracker Spreadsheet
This spreadsheet works out what each recruitment source costs per person who is still in the building a year later.
Cost per hire is the wrong number, because a hire who leaves is not a hire — it is the same vacancy again, with the advertising, the interviews and the settling-in period all bought a second time. This file follows every application through to the twelve-month mark and prices each source by the people it kept, not the people it sent.
What is in it
- Nine linked tabs, from Start Here through to a one-screen Overview.
- Applicants — one row per application, eight things typed, four of them Yes or No.
- By Source — every source, down to the cost of one person who stayed.
- By Job — because the same source is not equally good at every job.
- The Hours — your own time split by whether it came to anything.
- One Who Stays — the true cost of a keeper, including the weeks the job stood empty and the weeks a new starter spent learning.
Who it is for
Anywhere you hire more than a handful of people a year: a care group, a hospitality operator, a haulier, a factory, a chain of shops, a contractor, an agency, a professional practice.
The worked example
The worked example covers two intake years, ten sources and eight jobs: 1,776 applications, 460 interviews, 204 starters and 116 still there a year later — 56.9%. Advertising was $44,400, fees and bounties $86,800, and 2,091 of your own hours $71,088, for $202,288 all in. That is $114 an application, $992 a hire, and $1,744 for one person who stayed.
Between sources the spread is the point. One produced keepers at $374 each and another at $8,929. The source that sent 43% of all applications was among the cheapest to advertise on and one of the dearest per person still in the building, while word of mouth from staff cost five times as much per application and less than half as much per keeper. And 73.9% of all the hours came to nothing. Priced properly, at this business’s own 57% keep rate, one person who is still here costs $22,370 — against a headline cost per hire of $992.
How it works
Compatible with Microsoft Excel 2016 or newer on Windows or Mac, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice. No macros, no add-ons, no account to create, nothing to install.
The download has two workbooks: one with the example above already filled in, so you can see what every column expects, and the same file completely blank for your own figures. A plain-English guide comes as a PDF. Order on WhatsApp — $9
Orders are taken on WhatsApp: message me and I’ll send the payment details, then the files as soon as the payment is confirmed.
A look inside the file
Questions people actually ask
How do I work out the real cost of a hire who actually stays?
You count only the people still in the building twelve months later, then divide everything by them. In the worked example the headline cost per hire is $992 but the cost of one person who stayed is $1,744, and once the empty weeks and the learning weeks are counted the One Who Stays tab puts it at $22,370 at that business's own 57% keep rate. The weeks are almost always larger than anything you paid an agency, and they never appear on an invoice.
We only hire a few people a year. Is it worth filling in?
Yes, because the One Who Stays tab works from the five numbers in Setup alone and will tell you what a leaver costs you on day one. Filling the rest will take you two or three years and that is fine. It works anywhere you hire more than a handful of people a year: a haulier, a factory, a chain of shops, a contractor, an agency, a practice.
We do not record how long applications take us.
Estimate: ten minutes to read one, an hour and a half of two people for an interview. Half an hour either way will not change which source comes out best. Log every application, not just the ones you hired, because the rest is where the hours went, and in the worked example 73.9% of the hours came to nothing.
Is it Excel only, and does it need macros?
It runs in Excel, Google Sheets and LibreOffice, and there are no macros. It is built as .xlsx for Excel 2016 or newer on Windows or Mac, and imports into Google Sheets through File then Import then Upload. No add-ons, no account to create, nothing to install and no subscription.
Does it hold applicant names?
No. It holds jobs, sources and Yes or No answers, nothing else, and that is deliberate: there is no personal data in the file at all. It is not an applicant tracking system, an HR system or a payroll package, and it records outcomes, not people. It will not find you better people; it tells you which of the places you already look is worth the afternoon.
Need it built around your business?
This file assumes open advertising, interviews and a twelve-month view of who stayed. If your hiring works differently — seasonal intakes where a six-month stay is a success rather than a failure, apprenticeships with a training levy and a two-year runway, agency temp-to-perm where the fee lands months after the start date, or shift roles filled through a single labour supplier — I can build the same arithmetic around how you actually recruit and how long you need people to stay.
All other templates are listed on the Excel & Google Sheets Templates page.