How to calculate and interpret Qualified Applicant Rate

Qualified Applicant Rate (QAR) tells you what share of applicants meet the minimum requirements you define up front, such as must‑have skills, credentials, location, work eligibility, or passing a structured knockout screen. It is a fast signal of whether your recruiting marketing and job ads are attracting the right audience.

Formula: (Qualified applicants ÷ Total applicants) × 100.

What counts as qualified: Decide this before launching a campaign. Common criteria include passing an application knockout form, scoring above a threshold on a pre-screen, or meeting non‑negotiable requirements verified by resume parsing plus human review.

Granularity that matters:

• By role: senior roles often require lower application volume but higher QAR.
• By source and campaign: compare job boards, programmatic ads, social, referrals, and career site.
• By geography and labor market: a tight market may reduce total applicants but can still sustain a strong QAR.

Interpretation tips:

• Rising QAR usually means sharper targeting, cleaner job titles, and clearer must‑have criteria.
• Falling QAR points to misaligned channels, vague requirements, or overly broad audiences.
• Pair QAR with stage yield ratios to ensure early quality persists through the funnel.

Related concept: Yield ratio measures the percent of candidates who progress from one hiring stage to the next. Use yield ratios alongside QAR to validate that "qualified" truly predicts downstream success. Source background on yield ratios: AIHR defines yield ratio as the percentage moving from one stage to the next and provides the standard formula and examples.

Benchmarking, diagnostics, and how to improve your rate

Set baselines, then segment: Establish a 90‑day baseline by role family. Segment by source, campaign, and location. Track weekly to catch drift early.

Diagnostic checklist when QAR drops:

• Job-market fit: Are title and keywords aligned with how target talent searches?
• Requirements clarity: Are must‑haves buried or ambiguous? Are you over‑filtering with unrealistic minimums?
• Channel mix: Did spend shift toward low‑intent sources? Review programmatic rules and budgets.
• Friction: Are screening questions or apply flow suppressing qualified candidates?
• Signal quality: Are auto‑screen rules accurate, or are they disqualifying good resumes?

Practical ways to improve QAR:

• Refine job titles and the first 150 characters of the description to match search intent.
• Lead with non‑negotiables and eliminate nice‑to‑haves that block qualified talent.
• Tune targeting: update campaigns, audiences, and geo filters based on source performance.
• Strengthen screening: use 3–5 knockout questions tied to must‑haves, then auto‑advance those who pass.
• Optimize routing: send qualified applicants to the right recruiter or hiring manager within SLA.
• Tighten feedback loops: tag disqualifications with standardized reasons to spot patterns.

Validate with downstream outcomes:

• Compare QAR by source to interview and offer yield ratios to confirm that early "quality" persists. Yield ratio formula: (number advancing ÷ number at prior stage) × 100, as described by AIHR.
• Review source‑of‑hire distribution quarterly to identify channels that convert qualified applicants into hires.
• Monitor time‑to-screen and time‑to-offer; high QAR without velocity can still strain teams.

Reporting tips:

• Show a simple funnel: Applicants → Qualified → Interviewed → Offered → Hired.
• Include QAR trend lines by role and source. Flag outliers with annotations when campaigns or criteria changed.
• Use ratio and absolute numbers. A higher QAR with very low volume may still fail hiring plans.