Cost per screened candidate
Cost per screened candidate is the total cost of screening divided by the number of candidates who finished a screening and got a clear outcome. It shows what one completed screening costs, so a team can compare recruiter time, software and outsourcing on the same basis.
Most hiring teams know their cost per hire. Few know what it costs to get one candidate through the first conversation. In frontline hiring that first step takes most of the recruiter's day, so it is often the largest cost nobody measures.
How does cost per screened candidate differ from cost per hire?
| Cost per screened candidate | Cost per hire | |
|---|---|---|
| What it divides by | Candidates who finished a screening | Candidates who started the job |
| When you can measure it | Within days | Weeks or months later |
| What it shows | How efficient your first step is | What the whole hiring process costs |
| Useful for | Choosing how to screen | Budgeting a hiring plan |
The two work together. A low cost per screened candidate with a high cost per hire points to a problem later in the process, for example at the interview.
How do you calculate it?
Use the same period for every number, for example one month.
- Count the screened candidates. Only count candidates who answered the screening questions and got a clear yes or no.
- Add up the recruiter time. Take the hours spent calling, messaging and screening. Include the calls that reached nobody. Multiply by the full hourly cost of a recruiter.
- Add the tools. Count the software or service you pay for this step.
- Divide the total by the number of screened candidates.
Cost per screened candidate = (recruiter time cost + tool cost) ÷ screened candidates
Leave advertising out of this number. Ad spend belongs to the cost of finding candidates, not of screening them. See cost per application.
What does it show in frontline hiring?
In office hiring a recruiter spends most of a call talking. In frontline hiring a recruiter spends most of the time trying to reach someone. Calls that end in voicemail produce no screened candidate, but they still cost hours. Phone screening shows how much of a day that can take.
Cost per screened candidate makes that hidden time visible. Two teams with the same salary bill can have very different costs per screened candidate, depending on how many attempts each completed screening needs.
What should count as a screened candidate?
Agree on the definition before you compare teams or vendors. A useful definition:
- Counts: a candidate who answered the screening questions and got an outcome, yes or no.
- Does not count: a call nobody answered, a wrong number, a message without a reply or a candidate who stopped before the questions.
A vendor that charges per call or per message shifts the cost of unanswered attempts to you. A price per screened candidate keeps that risk with the vendor.
How does Ringtime price per screened candidate?
Ringtime charges per screened candidate: a candidate who answers your questions with a clear yes or no. Missed calls and unanswered messages cost nothing, so you never pay for voicemail. The current rates are on the pricing page.
To compare your own number, the return on investment (ROI) calculator works it out from your candidate volume and recruiter cost. Candidate screening explains what happens in the screening itself.
To pay only for candidates who answer, see Ringtime's pricing.
