What Is a Good Offer Acceptance Rate? How to Measure & Improve It

In today’s increasingly competitive business environments, forward-looking HR professionals are becoming more strategic about hiring practices. The best policies include setting, measuring, and tracking key hiring metrics to pinpoint specific areas for improvement.

In addition to key hiring metrics like cost per hire and time to fill, offer acceptance rates (OAR) measure the percentage of job offers that candidates accept and provide valuable insight into the effectiveness of your recruitment strategy.

A high OAR indicates strong employer appeal and good candidate selection. Still, many HR professionals aren’t sure how to calculate or evaluate their job offer acceptance rate. What is a good offer acceptance rate? In this article, M&F Talent explains the OAR metric and how to apply it to improve hiring.

How to Calculate Offer Acceptance Rate

Calculate your job offer acceptance rate using this simple formula: (number of accepted offers ÷ total offers extended) × 100. 

For example, suppose that you interview 58 candidates in a month and extend offers to 52. Out of these 52 candidates, 45 accept the job offer. Your OAR would be calculated as follows: (45 ÷ 52) × 100 = 86.5%.

Please note, that the OAR metric differs fundamentally from the job offer rate (JOR). JOR tracks the percentage of interviewed candidates who receive offers, while OAR measures what happens in the final decision stage.

What Is a Good Offer Acceptance Rate?

Many HR professionals ask, “What is a good offer acceptance rate?” The answer varies depending on the industry, role type, and hiring strategy.  However, some HR professionals use the following breakdown when evaluating OARs:

• Excellent: 90% or higher – indicates an attractive employer brand and competitive offers
• Healthy: 80% – indicates some room for improvement
• Concerning: Below 70% – indicates issues with compensation benchmarking, role expectations, or candidate selection

Data from PwC show that the national average for OARs across all sectors is currently 84%, which means that 85% is a great benchmark for companies to reach. Be aware that several factors can influence OAR, including:

• Industry
• Role type
• Role seniority
• Competitor activity

For example, competitive industries like tech and healthcare may have lower OARs. Additionally, senior-level hires often take longer to select new roles, which can influence an organization’s OAR for any given period.

Why Offer Acceptance Rates Drop: Common Causes

The following are some common reasons for lower OARs:

• Pay and perks don’t match industry standards
• Poor communication or slow processes frustrate candidates
• Better offers from competitors draw candidates away
• Job descriptions don’t align with actual responsibilities

Reviewing candidate feedback can help you understand what is a good offer acceptance rate for your company and determine which challenges to address to improve hiring success.

How to Improve Offer Acceptance Rates

Consider the following actionable strategies you can use to improve your OAR.

Strengthen Employer Branding

Use your careers page and social media posts to highlight the attractive aspects of your organization. These may include perks and benefits, company culture, and career growth opportunities. When possible, use employee testimonials as social proof.

Improve the Candidate Experience

Enhance communication, provide timely updates, personalize interactions, and create a seamless interview experience to build trust and engagement with candidates. The stronger your reputation in your industry, the more qualified talent you’ll attract.

Personalize Job Offers

Any job offers should be targeted toward your candidate pool. Consider improving job offers with personalized compensation packages, including perks like flexible hours, signing bonuses, or remote work. 

Also, highlight career progression opportunities. Around half of employees across generations value investment in professional development and growth.

Speed Up the Hiring Process

Reduce unnecessary interview rounds that make your job harder and lead to frustration among potential hires. Communicate clearly with all applicants, setting timelines for offers and keeping them updated on their status.

Maintain Candidate Engagement Post-Offer

Keep in touch with candidates after making an offer to prevent drop-offs. Providing pre-onboarding materials and arranging team introductions can help candidates feel more connected with your organization early on.

Tracking & Benchmarking Offer Acceptance Rate

By tracking your OAR over time, you’ll see where your hiring practices need improvement. You can use an applicant tracking system (ATS) or human resources information system (HRIS) to generate reports for easy tracking.

In your analysis, compare rates across departments, job levels, and regions, and adjust your approach based on the insights you gather. This can help you develop more targeted and effective strategies to improve your OAR.

Why Offer Acceptance Rate Is a Key Hiring KPI

OAR is one of the most crucial recruitment KPIs because it helps you understand where there may be a mismatch between your hiring practices and what candidates truly want. If your OAR is not in the ideal range of 85% or higher, you may need to strengthen your employer branding, improve compensation packages, or speed up your hiring process.

At M&F Talent, we help companies optimize their hiring processes for better offer acceptance rates. Contact us today to turn your talent acquisition efforts into successes.