When it comes to volume hiring, it can be challenging to ensure high offer acceptance rates. With the current job market being highly competitive, companies need to think outside the box to attract and retain top talent. Out-of-the-box recruiting strategies can help improve your offer acceptance rates, and in turn, the quality of your hires.
There are plenty of reasons why a candidate might choose to reject your offer or drop out of the application process. Perhaps they’ve received a better offer, or counteroffer elsewhere. Maybe your application process put them off. Or they felt the role was misrepresented in the job description. Understanding your offer acceptance rate can help you identify any potential issues and improve your hiring strategy accordingly.
Calculating Your Offer Acceptance Rate
Calculating your Offer Acceptance Rate (OAR) is straightforward. Simply use the following formula:
Offer Acceptance Rate = (Number of Job Offers Accepted / Number of Job Offers Extended) x 100
For example, if you extended 100 job offers and 80 were accepted, your offer acceptance rate would be:
Offer Acceptance Rate = (80 / 100) x 100 = 80%
This means that out of the 100 job offers extended, 80 were accepted, resulting in an 80% offer acceptance rate.
Many businesses choose to calculate their OAR annually to avoid using small sample sizes. However, in the case of high-volume hiring, you should be aiming to understand your OAR monthly. By tracking this metric over time, you can measure the success of any changes you make to your out-of-the-box recruiting strategies and adjust your approach accordingly.
What Does Your Offer Acceptance Rate Tell You?
Tracking your offer acceptance rate can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of every stage of your recruitment strategy. Here are some of the things you can learn:
- The accuracy of your job descriptions.
- The effectiveness of your recruitment channels.
- The effectiveness of your candidate experience.
- The attractiveness of your Employee Value Proposition.
- The overall appeal of your employer brand.
Having this information available makes it easier to know where you can make improvements or even identify areas that could benefit from new, out-of-the-box recruitment strategies.
4 Strategies To Improve Your High-Volume Recruitment Process And Secure Those Offer Acceptances
When recruiting for high-volume roles, the large number of candidates involved can make it difficult to identify the most suitable ones. Additionally, candidates may receive multiple job offers, which means that companies are not only sifting through a lot of data but they’re also competing against companies who may have the same candidate data. This can make it challenging to create a compelling job offer that stands out from the rest. Furthermore, the recruitment process can be time-consuming, and lengthy delays can cause candidates to lose interest and accept another job offer.
All these factors can contribute to a lower offer acceptance rate when it comes to volume hiring. As a result, companies need to find innovative, out-of-the-box recruiting strategies to improve their offer acceptance rates to secure the best talent for their business
1. Learn What Motivates Your Candidates
The hiring process is a two-way street. You are evaluating and selecting potential candidates and they are assessing you as well. Before candidates accept a role, they want to be sure your business will be a good fit for them. By understanding what motivates candidates you can pitch your organization to them more effectively and tailor your job offers to their needs.
Ask what they like or dislike about their current position; where they see their career going; and why they chose to apply. Review your compensation package in terms of salary, benefits, or other factors compared to your competitors.
2. Write Better Job Descriptions
Unclear or overly complicated job descriptions can cause candidates to drop out of the process or refuse an offer as they learn more about what the roles entail. Transparency around roles and responsibilities can help ensure only the right candidates are applying for the role in the first place. This will help speed up your hiring process and improve your offer acceptance rates as you won’t waste time extending offers to candidates who are unsuitable or unsure.
3. Prioritize Candidate Experience
A low offer acceptance rate may indicate that the candidate’s experience during the recruitment process is not positive. You may need to review your recruitment process to ensure that it is efficient, transparent, and engaging for candidates. Glassdoor found that most companies have an incredible 80% drop-out rate from their application processes. Long, complicated candidate experiences can cause candidates to disengage.
Your application process should be as frictionless as possible, and you should aim to provide regular communication and feedback on the status of their application. Encourage candidates to voice their questions and concerns and answer them empathetically. Good communication can help clear up any concerns candidates might have about the role.
4. Automate, Automate, Automate!
Volume hiring can be made more effective by the precise use of automation and AI technology. Automation can help streamline the recruitment process, reducing delays and keeping candidates informed to improve the candidate experience. Using automation, businesses can personalize their job offers, considering the candidate’s preferences, skills, and experience. This can make the job offer more attractive and increase the chances of acceptance.
Automated systems can even analyze recruitment data, including metrics like candidate engagement rates, conversion rates, and offer acceptance rates. Identifying areas for improvement and allowing businesses to make data-driven decisions to improve the recruitment process.
Partnering with an RPO provider like Pierpoint can help you make sense of your metrics and develop new, out-of-the-box recruiting strategies designed to optimize your high-volume hiring. Attract the talent you need by booking a call with one of our experts to find out more.

Jen is an experienced content marketer specializing in recruitment. Driven by a genuine passion for writing, she provides insightful, accurate and engaging content for the recruitment community across a wide range of topics and industries. Her strengths lie in producing SEO-optimized blogs, landing pages, website copy, newsletters, thought leadership and social media designed for a wide array of brands, expertly capturing brand tone, vision and mission.
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