Direct Answer

Source of hire is the recruiting metric that tracks which channel or source first identified a candidate who was ultimately hired. Common sources include: employee referrals, retained executive search firms, LinkedIn sourcing, job boards, direct applications, networking events, and internal databases. Tracking source of hire at the executive level reveals which sourcing channels produce the highest-quality hires, not just the most applicants — a critical distinction for investment decisions.

Why Source of Hire Matters

Source of hire is valuable because different sourcing channels produce different candidate quality, not just different volumes. Job boards produce a high volume of active candidates, most of whom are not the passive leaders who make the best executive hires. Retained search firms produce a smaller volume of specifically qualified, pre-assessed candidates — but they require a fee.

Understanding source of hire at the quality level (not just the activity level) requires correlating source with quality of hire outcomes: which source produces candidates who stay longest, perform at or above expectations at 12 months, and advance within the organisation. This data, tracked over multiple hires, is the foundation of a defensible sourcing investment strategy.

Executive Hire Source — Quality vs Volume

Retained searchLow volume, high quality; 20–25% fee; best for passive senior talent
Employee referralsLow-medium volume, often high quality; social validation adds signal
LinkedIn outreachMedium volume, mixed quality; most senior leaders are approached here
Job boardsHigh volume, low quality at senior level; most senior leaders don't apply
Direct applicationsVery low quality at VP+ level; self-selected active candidates only
Internal promotionLowest acquisition cost; requires prior talent development investment

Source of Hire in Executive Search

At the VP and C-suite level, the source of hire data consistently favours retained executive search and employee referrals over job boards and direct applications. This is because the best senior leaders are largely passive — they are not on job boards and do not apply to roles. They are identified through market research and approached directly.

Many companies are surprised by their source of hire data when they track it systematically. A VP of Sales hired through LinkedIn Recruiter outreach may appear to be a 'LinkedIn hire' — but the specific individual was identified through a retained search firm's database and network. Tracking the true first-identification source, not the last-contact channel, produces more accurate data.

“Most companies think they know where their best hires come from. Most are wrong. The hire closed through LinkedIn may have been identified by a recruiter whose database found the profile first. True source of hire requires tracing back to the first identification — not the last interaction.”

Using Source of Hire to Guide Investment

At Majhi Group, every search we run produces source of hire data that we share with the client: where did we identify the placed candidate, how does that compare to the other candidates in the process, and what does this tell us about where to focus sourcing effort in future searches.

For companies building a long-term executive sourcing strategy, source of hire data over 10–20 hires reveals the consistent patterns: which networks produce which types of leaders, which former company backgrounds correlate with success, and which investment in sourcing infrastructure pays off.