You started hiring veterans last year. Maybe you set a goal. Maybe a few hires worked out. But your CEO just asked a simple question. Is the program working? And you realized you cannot answer it with data.

That is the gap most veteran hiring programs have. They have good intent. They have a few wins. But they have no scoreboard. So when budget season comes, the program is the first to get cut. Not because it failed. Because nobody could prove it worked.

This guide fixes that. It walks through the metrics that actually matter for a veteran hiring program. Source of hire. Conversion rates. Time to fill. New-hire retention at 90 days, 6 months, and 1 year. Cost per hire. Manager satisfaction. And how to put them all on one simple dashboard.

This is about measuring a program you already run. If you are still setting the goal, start with how to set realistic veteran hiring targets first. And if you are a federal contractor with a reporting duty, that is a different scoreboard. See the OFCCP veteran hiring benchmark for compliance numbers. This guide is for internal measurement. Numbers you track to run a better program, not to satisfy a regulator.

Why Do You Need Metrics for a Veteran Hiring Program?

Most veteran hiring programs run on feel. A manager says the new hire is great. HR points to a job fair you attended. Everybody nods. Then the data request comes and there is nothing to show.

Metrics turn the program from a nice idea into a business line. They tell you what is working and what is wasting money. They show which sourcing channel actually produces hires. They flag a retention problem before it becomes a turnover bill.

They also protect the program. When you can show a 1-year retention rate that beats your company average, the program defends itself. The veteran talent market is strong, and you are competing for it. In 2025 the veteran unemployment rate was just 3.5 percent, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That means good candidates move fast. A program that measures itself moves faster.

One more reason. Metrics make your case to leadership for you. You do not have to argue. The dashboard argues. If you are still building that internal pitch, pair this with making the internal business case for veteran hiring.

What Is Source of Hire and Why Does It Matter?

Source of hire tells you where your veteran hires actually came from. Not where you spent money. Where the hire came from. Those are often two different things.

You might spend the most on a big job fair. But when you trace each hire back, you find that most came from a candidate database or a referral. That is the number that should drive your budget. Spend follows results, not effort.

Track it simply. For every veteran you hire, tag one source. Job fair. Veteran candidate pool. Employee referral. Base transition office. LinkedIn. SkillBridge. Then count hires by source over a quarter or a year.

If one channel quietly produces most of your hires, lean into it. If a costly channel produces almost none, cut it or fix it. That single shift can save a budget line every year.

How Do You Measure Conversion Rates in Veteran Hiring?

Conversion rate measures how candidates move through your funnel. Each stage has a pass rate. When you track them, you find the exact spot where veteran candidates fall out.

Two rates matter most. Application to interview, and interview to offer. A third, offer to accept, closes the loop. Each one tells a different story about your process.

Application to Interview Rate

This is the share of veteran applicants who get an interview. If it is low, your screening is the problem. Maybe your recruiters cannot read military experience. Maybe the resume looks unfamiliar so it sinks in the stack.

This is a common leak. A veteran resume gets racked and stacked by an ATS that does not match military terms to your keywords. A strong candidate ranks low and never gets a look. Train recruiters to read military backgrounds and the rate climbs. A screening guide for veteran resumes helps your team fix this fast.

Interview to Offer Rate

This is the share of interviewed veterans who get an offer. A low rate here points at the interview itself. Your panel may be asking the wrong questions. They may not know how to translate military leadership into your role.

A structured scorecard fixes most of this. Same questions, same scale, every candidate. It cuts bias and surfaces real fit. See a structured interview scorecard for veteran candidates.

Offer to Accept Rate

This is the share of offers veterans accept. A low rate means your offer is not competitive, or your process took too long and they took another job. That second cause links straight to time to fill, which is next.

What Is a Good Time to Fill for Veteran Roles?

Time to fill is the number of days from posting a role to the candidate accepting. It is a speed metric. And speed wins in a tight market.

There is no single right number. It varies by role and industry. A warehouse lead fills faster than a cleared engineer. The point is not to hit a magic figure. The point is to watch your own trend and shrink it.

A long time to fill costs you good candidates. Veterans in demand do not wait three weeks for your second interview. They accept the offer that came first. Every extra day raises your risk of losing them.

Measure it per role type, not as one blended number. Then attack the slowest stage. Most delay hides between application and first interview. Fixing that one handoff usually cuts the most days. For a full playbook, see how to reduce time-to-hire for veteran candidates.

How Do You Track Veteran New-Hire Retention?

Retention is the metric that proves the program over time. Anybody can make a hire. Keeping that hire is the real win. And veterans tend to stay when the workplace fits, which makes this number a strength to show off.

Track retention at three points. 90 days. 6 months. 1 year. Each one catches a different problem.

90-Day Retention

This is the share of veteran hires still on the job at 90 days. A drop here points at onboarding. The hire showed up, did not feel set up to win, and left. A strong onboarding plan fixes most early exits. So does a sponsor who helps the new hire learn the ropes.

6-Month Retention

This is the share still on the job at 6 months. A drop here usually points at the role or the manager. The job was not what they expected. Or the manager did not know how to lead a veteran hire. Manager training closes that gap. See how to train managers to retain your veteran hires.

1-Year Retention

This is the number leadership cares about most. The share still on the job at one year. Compare it to your company-wide 1-year retention. If your veteran hires beat the average, you have a program worth funding. That comparison is your strongest single data point.

Why do veterans stay? It is rarely luck. It comes down to fit, respect, and a clear path. Veteran employee retention and why they stay breaks down the drivers you can build on.

How Do You Calculate Cost Per Veteran Hire?

Cost per hire tells you what each veteran hire costs to land. It is the metric finance wants. Get it right and you can defend every dollar.

The math is simple. Add up your program costs for the period. Job board fees. Job fair travel. Recruiter time. Software. Referral bonuses. Then divide by the number of veterans hired in that same period.

One trap. Do not look at cost per hire alone. A channel can look cheap per hire but deliver people who quit in 90 days. That is not cheap. That is expensive twice. Always read cost per hire next to retention.

When you combine the two, the picture gets honest. A slightly higher cost per hire that produces a 1-year keeper beats a cheap hire who walks. For the full return picture, see the ROI of hiring veterans and what they return.

Why Does Manager Satisfaction Belong on the Dashboard?

Numbers from the funnel tell you how the program runs. Manager satisfaction tells you if the hires are working. It is the one soft metric worth tracking because it predicts the hard ones.

Keep it simple. After 90 days, ask each hiring manager one or two questions. Would you hire from this pool again? How is this hire performing against expectations? A short pulse survey beats a long form nobody fills out.

Why it matters. A manager who is happy with a veteran hire becomes your best referral source. They send you the next req and the next candidate. A manager who is unhappy quietly stops calling. That signal shows up in your sourcing before it shows up anywhere else.

Watch for a gap between high retention and low manager satisfaction. That gap means hires are staying but underused. Often it is a pay or growth problem. Pay and promotion equity for veteran employees covers how to close it.

How Do You Build a Simple Veteran Hiring Dashboard?

You do not need fancy software. A single spreadsheet works. The goal is one page that answers, in 30 seconds, whether the program is healthy.

Put the core metrics in rows. Track each one against last quarter so you see the trend, not just the snapshot. A number alone means little. A number moving the right way means everything.

Review the dashboard every quarter. Look for the metric moving the wrong way and act on that one. Do not try to fix everything at once. One leak per quarter is real progress.

The federal government publishes solid employer guidance you can lean on as you build this out. The Department of Labor's Hire a Veteran resources include a best-practices employer guide. And the HIRE Vets Medallion Program recognizes companies that hit real veteran hiring and retention marks. Strong metrics put that award in reach.

What Should You Do Next?

Pick three metrics to start. Source of hire. 1-year retention. Cost per hire. Those three answer the question your CEO will ask. Add the rest as you go.

Then make sure you have candidates flowing in to measure. A dashboard means nothing with an empty top of funnel. The program needs a steady supply of qualified veteran applicants to track.

That is where BMR fits. We add over 1,000 new veteran profiles every month, and more than 60,000 resumes have been built on the platform. That is a fresh, growing pool of veteran candidates ready for your open roles. Your dashboard gets real numbers because the funnel actually fills.

Want to put veteran candidates into your pipeline so your metrics have something to measure? Reach out to access BMR's veteran talent pool and start filling the top of your funnel.