How to Set SMART Goals for a Recruitment Team: Expert Advice

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Setting goals in recruitment is a task that requires gymnastic agility. And, like in gymnastics, not everyone succeeds. The difficulty lies in:

1/ forecasting the company’s needs amid dynamic changes;

2/ achieving the goal despite new market restrictions and challenges faced by the recruitment team.

“So, should we stop planning altogether?” Some people have attempted to implement the SMART system in management and hiring but then failed and abandoned this idea. Others have long since learned how to set SMART goals and have been successfully putting this method into practice.

We asked recruitment experts about how they work with SMART goals, namely: examples of tasks, what metrics should be tracked as goals, and how to communicate them to the team. We’ve shared the experience of ITExpert specialists in this article.

What is goal-setting using the SMART framework?

Let’s look at what a SMART goal is. This is the name given to the method according to which tasks are set while taking into account the existing limitations. The SMART approach helps to formulate goals in such a way that they are specific, aligned with your business needs, and take into account the current market situation. In addition, this principle helps to set predictable and achievable goals within a certain time frame. All of these characteristics are essential components of successful planning.

How should goals using the SMART framework be set? Here are examples of questions that can help you with this:

• Specific: What does the goal mean, how can it be achieved, and who will be responsible for it?
• Measurable: How to assess whether the goal has been achieved? What metrics will help us do so?
• Achievable: Can the team achieve this goal with the available resources? What can affect this, and what can we do to make this goal more realistic?
• Relevant: Does the goal help to achieve the company’s larger goals? Is it relevant and a priority for our business now?
• Time-bound: Are there any time limits within which the planned objective must be reached?

Setting goals using the SMART system for recruiters: a must-have or an overhyped trend?

Recruitment teams gather a wealth of data about the company and the market. They help you make informed decisions and set goals according to the SMART method. In this way, every recruiter can act as a business partner. It’s not just a trendy or temporary fad; it’s a necessity.

Proper examples of setting SMART goals:

✅ Usually, we decide to make an offer after having evaluated six candidates. We are going to look at 3-4 more resumes and decide on the finalist.

✅ We need to fill this position within 25 business days (average time-to-hire is 30).

✅ We want to improve the candidates’ impressions after interviews. We need to conduct research and redesign the process by the next quarter.

How not to plan and evaluate results:

❌ We need to find candidates ASAP; the position is urgent!

❌ Let’s consider more specialists for the interview.

❌ Recruiters are not showing solid results.

Setting and tracking goals increases hiring productivity and reduces cost-per-hire. It also benefits all parties involved in the hiring process.

• At the company level: helps to set goals for a quarter, six months, and a year; plan the start of employment of new hires and allocate resources for organizing onboarding (from manager availability to purchasing equipment and finding office space); take into account the seasonality of recruitment and staff turnover, which affect key business indicators.

• At the recruitment team level: helps to set achievable team goals, control hiring quality, and make the most efficient use of the budget allocated for recruitment tools and platforms.

• At the recruiter or sourcer level: SMART goal setting helps to motivate each specialist while also communicating expectations transparently. Examples at the individual level would be KPIs common in outsourcing and product companies: organize X candidate onboardings, fill Y positions, or present Z resumes for a vacancy, etc.

Recruitment objectives are usually set both at the team and individual levels, while still striving for alignment with the overall department or company goals. 

The SMART method in recruitment

How is each aspect of the SMART approach implemented in recruitment? How can a recruiter set goals according to SMART principles? We are going to share with you examples and advice from industry practitioners.

Specific

You can’t achieve a goal without clarity, which is an essential characteristic of setting goals according to the SMART approach. Examples of tasks that lack specificity are often worded as “improve,” “optimize,” or “establish.” An employee may see the goal differently or not understand what it means and how to accomplish it. When choosing a goal, specify what you want to achieve and what steps you need to take in order to do so.

📌 More examples:

• Redesign the process of searching for IT specialists to make it faster and more convenient for candidates (based on the results of in-depth interviews).
• Implement a pre-onboarding system.
• Develop a list of questions to check cultural fit and recommendations for analyzing the answers to be used by hiring managers.

Measurable

To track the progress, determine what you want to get as a result (what the achievement marker is). Most often, quantitative indicators are chosen for this purpose: sent emails, received resumes, accepted offers, the speed of filling a vacancy, etc. Less often, they set such goals as hiring quality, hiring manager satisfaction, or sourcing channel efficiency.

What else can be used to measure recruitment effectiveness? Velina Vaitkunaite shares the following, “For me personally, as a recruiter, I value that candidates respond to my emails and, after a while, become members of our team. This is another confirmation that the employer’s brand and the recruiter’s personal brand play an important role in hiring.” Recruitment using paid resources can be loss-making; therefore, attention to attracting candidates through employee branding is growing.

📌 More examples:

• Increase the speed with which resumes are submitted to the hiring manager—the recruiter should submit the first CV no later than 7-8 business days after starting to work on the opening.
• Increase the application-to-interview ratio by 15%.
• Improve successful probationary period completion to 80% (taking into account external and internal causes of turnover).

Achievable

The next step in setting SMART goals and objectives is to check if they can be achieved. You should evaluate the available resources: tools, platforms, budget for placement and promotion, and whether the brief has enough information. Consider the team’s workload (including interviewers) and seasonality; a hiring manager’s vacation can sometimes prevent a vacancy from being filled on time.

📌 More examples:

• Reduce cost-per-hire by 20% by reallocating the budget from external platforms to attracting candidates on the company’s career website.
• Increase the number of filled vacancies to two offers per recruiter.
• Create a list of free resources for hiring IT professionals in Ukraine. Develop a page in the internal manual on how to use them.

Sometimes, internal data is not enough to make an assessment. Forecasting in recruitment is a really difficult task. If you’re not sure about your goals, order an IT recruitment consultation with experts.

Relevant for business

SMART business goals should be aligned with each other. If the recruitment department regularly generates new hires while the HR department does not have the resources for onboarding because they are busy with L&D initiatives, this is not okay. Identify the company’s key needs and priorities, and then move on to setting goals for your team.

The second challenge of this stage is the dynamic changes in the market. Planning in the BANI world* is difficult: sometimes companies plan active growth for the upcoming year only to lay off employees the very next quarter. Take market trends into consideration and be flexible while making plans.

*The BANI world is a concept of a brittle, anxious, non-linear, and incomprehensible world where even the most reliable plans can fall apart and businesses are facing unpredictable threats. This term was coined by an American futurist called Jamais Cascio to describe a new paradigm that emerged at the start of the COVID pandemic.

📌 More examples:

• Develop a hiring plan for 2025, taking into account the seasonality of previous years.
• Increase OAR (Offer Acceptance Rate) to 85%.
• Conduct training for hiring managers and recruiters on how to communicate with veterans.

Time-bound

A specific deadline helps to determine the progress of work, evaluate the results, and keep the team on track. If deadlines are too extended (or not set at all), recruiters may lose focus.

📌 More examples:

• Implement KPIs for the recruitment team within the quarter.
• Develop a sourcing strategy for the DevSecOps engineer position by Wednesday.
• Reduce the time-to-fill to 20 days (based on the average data for the current year).

Addressing tricky questions with experts: Can probation period completion goals be set for the recruitment department?

Most often, recruiters’ KPIs and goals are based on offers or candidates starting work, while passing the probation period is less commonly set as a goal. The latter leads to disputes and conflicts. The issue is that recruiters can’t always influence the success of the probation period, yet managers want to see the final result — an employed and onboarded staff member.

Should you set such a goal for recruitment in your company? Keep reading if you want to find out the opinion of our expert, Maria Kutsevol.

Maria Kutsevol

Recruitment Team Lead at ITExpert

“To answer the question briefly: yes, but not always. Usually, the decision of what to base a recruiter’s KPIs on depends on the type of business and the size of the company.

If the recruitment department has some HR functions, is responsible for the success of onboarding, and can influence how well it is organized, it is okay to set such a goal. However, if a recruiter’s responsibilities end at the stage of accepting an offer, it is not advisable to set a goal based on successful probationary periods (even if it is convenient for the business). More often, the goal for a recruiter is set on accepted offers or confirmed job starts.

However, IT recruitment agencies usually expand this rule. An external team cannot control the quality of adaptation, but agencies often provide additional guarantees, such as a one-time ‘replacement’ of a candidate if they do not pass the probationary period. For example, our recruiters keep in touch with candidates and keep their finger on the pulse during the probationary period to support onboarding and help both sides of the hiring process if necessary.

When considering implementing such a goal, you need to understand that the responsibility for selecting a candidate lies not only with the recruiter but also with the hiring manager and technical specialists involved in the selection. The recruiter helps to test skills, recommends finalists, and provides arguments to make the decision easier, but does not make the final decision on their own. Recruitment is teamwork and team responsibility.”