What is the 80/20 rule in recruiting?

The 80/20 rule in recruiting is the Pareto principle applied to hiring: a small share of inputs produces most of the results. Recruiters most often apply it to sourcing channels, saying about 80 percent of applicants come from 20 percent of sources. It is a rule of thumb to test, not a benchmark.

The 80/20 rule in recruiting, defined

80/20 rule in recruiting The Pareto principle applied to hiring: a minority of channels, activities or candidates accounts for most of the outcome. The 80 and 20 are a shape, not a measurement.

A recruiter counts last year's hires by source, finds that two channels produced most of them, and moves effort toward those two.

Where the 80/20 rule comes from

The pattern is older than recruiting. The Juran Institute traces it to the economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that about 80 percent of the land in Italy was owned by 20 percent of the population. The quality engineer Joseph Juran later generalised the idea, named it after Pareto and called the small group that drives most of an effect the vital few.

Recruiting borrowed the shape, not the numbers. No study cited by the recruiting articles below measured an exact 80/20 split in hiring data.

Four ways recruiters apply the 80/20 rule

The same ratio gets pointed at four different things. Each version below is written down by a named source, and none of them claims to be the official one.

The channel version is the one most people mean when they ask about the 80/20 rule in recruiting.

The honest version

Your own split might be 90/10, 60/40 or nothing like Pareto at all. The rule is useful as a question, which few sources produce most of the hires, and useless as an answer.

Test the 80/20 rule on your own hires

Five steps, one spreadsheet. Use hires rather than applicants wherever you can, because applicant volume flatters the noisiest channels.

1. Pull a year of hires with their source Job board, referral, sourced outreach, careers page, agency, rehire. Leave unknown sources as unknown rather than guessing.
2. Sort sources by hires, largest first Add a running total as a share of all hires. Note how many sources it takes to pass 80 percent. 2 of 9 sources reach 78 percent of hires.
3. Check quality, not only count Compare 6 or 12 month retention or performance by source. A channel with many hires and early exits is not in the vital few.
4. Look for roles the top sources never fill A small channel can be the only one that works for a scarce role. Do not cut it because it is small overall.
5. Shift effort, then measure again Move time and budget toward the strongest sources for a quarter, and repeat the count before cutting anything for good.

Where the 80/20 rule misleads recruiters

Small numbers. A team that made 15 hires last year cannot tell a real pattern from luck, and a single referral wave can make any channel look like the vital few.

Attribution. A person who saw the job ad, then got a sourcing email, then applied through the careers page may be counted under any of the three. Fix how source is recorded before trusting the split.

Narrowing. Cutting every small channel concentrates hiring on the same few pools, which can shrink the range of people who ever hear about the job.

Seeing where candidates stall

Candidates grouped by stage for one role, with a stage history for each person.

The 80/20 question also applies inside the funnel: which few stages lose most of the people. The Cognitive keeps candidates grouped by stage for each role, with a stage history on every candidate record, so a recruiter can see where people stop moving rather than guess.

Using the 80/20 rule well

Do

• Measure hires and retention by source before moving any budget.
• Record source the same way for every hire, every time.
• Keep a small channel that is the only one filling a scarce role.
• Repeat the count each quarter, because channel mix drifts.

Do not

• Quote 80/20 as a benchmark. None of the recruiting sources measured it.
• Rank channels on applicant volume alone.
• Cut a channel after one bad quarter on a handful of hires.
• Assume another company's top 20 percent of channels is yours.

The 80/20 rule in 4 lines

• It is the Pareto principle, named by Joseph Juran after the economist Vilfredo Pareto.
• In recruiting it most often means a few sourcing channels produce most applicants or hires.
• Other versions apply it to the talent market, HR time and interview talk time.
• Treat the ratio as a question to test on your own data, never as a benchmark.

Keep reading

Recruiting metrics · How to source candidates · The 70/30 rule in hiring · The recruitment funnel · Where to source candidates · The 7 steps of strategic sourcing

Frequently asked questions

What is the 80/20 rule in recruiting?

The 80/20 rule in recruiting is the Pareto principle applied to hiring: a small share of channels, activities or candidates produces most of the results. The most common version says about 80 percent of applicants come from 20 percent of sourcing outlets, as Brian Ruther wrote on ERE in 2012. It is a rule of thumb, not a measured benchmark.

Where does the 80/20 rule come from?

It comes from the Pareto principle. The economist Vilfredo Pareto observed that about 80 percent of the land in Italy was owned by 20 percent of the population, and the quality engineer Joseph Juran later generalised the pattern, named it after Pareto and coined the phrase the vital few. Recruiting borrowed the idea much later.

What is the 80/20 talent rule?

The 80/20 talent rule is Lou Adler's version, published on the LinkedIn Talent Blog in 2018: focus 80 percent of your hiring and recruiting efforts on the most important 20 percent of the talent market. In the same article he ranked referrals as the best source of candidates, direct sourcing second and job postings last.

How do you apply the 80/20 rule to sourcing?

Count a year of hires by source, sort the sources from most hires to fewest, and see how many it takes to reach about 80 percent of the total. Check retention by source too, then shift effort toward the strongest channels for a quarter and measure again before cutting anything.

Is the 80/20 rule in recruiting backed by research?

Not as an exact ratio. The Pareto pattern is well documented in economics and quality management, but the recruiting articles that apply it give the 80/20 split as an illustration, not a measurement of hiring data. Your own source-of-hire split may look very different, so test it before acting on it.

What is the 80/20 rule in an interview?

In interviewing, the 80/20 rule means the candidate should do about 80 percent of the talking and the interviewer about 20 percent. A 2010 ABA Journal report quoted a law firm hiring partner and recruiting coordinator giving exactly that advice. Some guides use 70/30 for the same idea.

How is the 80/20 rule used to manage a recruiter's time?

Recruiters use it to find the few activities that lead to most placements or hires and to spend more time on them. Mat Apodaca, writing on ERE in 2018, applied it to HR work, noting that about 20 percent of employees typically take up 80 percent of HR's time and energy.

Can the 80/20 rule lead to bad hiring decisions?

Yes, if it is applied blindly. Small hiring numbers make the split unreliable, inconsistent source tracking can credit the wrong channel, and cutting every small channel can remove the only source that fills a scarce role or reaches a different pool of people.

What is the difference between the 80/20 rule and the 70/30 rule in hiring?

The 80/20 rule is about where results come from: a few channels or activities produce most hires. The 70/30 rule is usually about who to hire: someone who meets about 70 percent of the requirements, with the rest learned on the job. Both are heuristics rather than standards.

Explore: The 70/30 rule in hiring · The 5 C's of recruitment · Recruiting metrics · What is candidate sourcing · Recruiting dashboard