US hiring, in plain English.

Total internal + external cost to fill a role, divided by number of hires. US average ~$5,475 in 2025.

Calendar days from job requisition open to accepted offer. US average ~44 days across sectors.

Days from candidate first contact to accepted offer. A tighter operator metric than time-to-fill.

Separations in a period divided by average headcount, annualized. Reported monthly by BLS JOLTS.

Voluntary separations as a % of employment. A leading indicator of labor-market heat.

Revenue and productivity lost per day an operating seat is empty. Commonly $200–$1,000/day for hourly roles.

Total cost to replace a departing employee. Estimated at 50–200% of annual salary depending on role complexity.

Volume of applicants per open req per week. High flow is not the goal — qualified flow is.

% of scheduled interviews that actually occur. Hourly-role show-up rates commonly sit at 40–60% without a follow-up cadence.

% of extended offers accepted. Below 70% is a signal of misaligned wage, benefits, or interview experience.

Composite score of new-hire performance, retention, and ramp time — the only KPI that actually matters.

% of employees remaining after a defined period (90-day, 1-year). Retention economics dominate hiring economics.

% of new hires who leave within 90 days. High 90-day turnover means the funnel is filtering the wrong people.

The candidate-side perception of what it's like to work at your company. Ranks alongside wage as a decision driver.

The bundled reasons a candidate should pick you over the employer down the street. Wage, schedule, growth, culture.

A candidate who did not apply, but was proactively surfaced via ads, referrals, or outbound.

Currently employed and not actively job-hunting. The bulk of the qualified US labor pool.

A hire sourced from an existing employee's network. Typically the highest-retention hire channel.

A single approved, budgeted open role.

Software that stores applicants and tracks them through hiring stages. Necessary but not sufficient — an ATS doesn't recruit.

A candidate-relationship system that nurtures qualified people over time, including passive candidates. What TalentZilla ships to every client.

Using paid ads on Meta, TikTok, and other social platforms to reach candidates where they already scroll.

Automated bidding across job aggregators to place your req in front of relevant candidates. Complementary to social.

A qualification that is job-related and necessary — legally defensible screening criteria under EEOC.

US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Enforces federal anti-discrimination law in hiring.

US federal form to verify employment eligibility. Completed by every new US hire.

W-2 = employee (withholding, benefits). 1099 = independent contractor (self-managed). Misclassification is a top DOL enforcement area.

Co-employer arrangement handling payroll, benefits, HR compliance. Not a recruiting solution.

Third party that supplies workers under their employ, marked up. Pay-per-placement or bill-rate model.

BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey — monthly US openings, hires, quits, and layoffs data.