When and Why Should You Visualise Data?
As a recruiter, you’re surrounded by data. Candidate pipelines, time-to-hire, market trends and many more.
But raw numbers alone rarely drive action. Visualising data transforms it into a clear, compelling story that’s easy for you and your stakeholders to understand.
Good visualisation allows you to:
- Spot trends or bottlenecks in your hiring process
- Compare performance across teams, roles or time periods
- Present results or recommendations to leaders or hiring managers
- Benchmark your team against the market or your own hiring targets
Key Pillars
Clarity: Visuals simplify complex data, making insights obvious at a glance.
Influence: Well-designed charts help you communicate more persuasively with stakeholders, from hiring managers to execs.
Faster Decisions: Visual data speeds up meetings and helps teams align on priorities or process changes.
Continuous Improvement: Spotting patterns visually makes it easier to identify what’s working, where to improve, and how to track progress over time.
In short, visualising data isn’t just about making reports look good.
It’s about making your impact as a recruiter visible, actionable and understood by everyone involved.
How to Pick the Right Chart for Each Recruiting Metric
The right chart helps you spot trends, communicate results, and drive action with your team and stakeholders.
Here’s how to choose the best visual for the most common recruiting metrics:
1 - Pipeline Conversion Rates
→ Use a Funnel Chart
Best for showing how candidates move from one stage to the next and where drop-offs occur.
Funnel charts make it easy to spot bottlenecks and communicate process efficiency to hiring managers or leadership.
2 - Comparing Departments, Roles or Benchmarks
→ Use a Bar Chart
Ideal for side-by-side comparisons between teams, roles, or your stats vs. competitors.
Bar charts make it simple to highlight where performance is strong or where resources may be needed.
3 - Tracking Trends Over Time (e.g. applications, time to fill)
→ Use a Line Graph
Perfect for visualising changes and patterns month by month or quarter by quarter.
Line graphs help you and your stakeholders quickly see if your process improvements or campaigns are working.
4 - Hiring Timelines (e.g. time to offer, time to sign, time to start)
→ Use a Stacked Bar Chart
Shows both the total time and the breakdown of each hiring stage.
Stacked bar charts are great for demonstrating where delays happen and for setting realistic expectations with stakeholders.
5 - Mapping Candidate Locations or Talent Pool Diversity
→ Use a Geomap or Heatmap
Great for presenting geographic dispersion, diversity by region, or talent mapping data.
These visuals help you communicate market reach, identify sourcing opportunities, or support diversity initiatives.
Whilst some of your tools may already visualise data for you, it never hurts to understand how each chart helps you build a compelling narrative.
If you haven't checked it out already, this free course with Eric Guidice covers some metrics you might be missing
See you next week!