Recruiting analytics dashboards are everywhere. Every ATS, every recruiting tool, every HR platform has one. They're all covered in colorful charts, impressive-looking graphs, and metrics that sound important.

Most of them are completely useless.

Here's the problem: dashboards show you data, not insights. They'll tell you that your time-to-fill is 42 days, but not whether that's good or bad. They'll show you that 300 people applied to your last job posting, but not whether those were quality candidates or complete garbage.

I spent two months testing 7 recruiting analytics platforms to figure out which ones actually help you make better hiring decisions versus which ones just make pretty pictures of useless numbers.

What I Tested

Tableau with recruiting data integrations Power BI for recruiting teams Visier People Analytics ChartHop Workday Recruiting Analytics Built-in ATS dashboards (Greenhouse, Lever, Workable) Custom Google Data Studio reports

Let's break down what's actually useful.

The Enterprise Solutions: Powerful But Overkill

Tableau is the gold standard for data visualization. If you have a data team and complex recruiting operations, it's unmatched. You can build custom dashboards tracking literally any metric across any system.

The catch: It costs $70/user/month minimum, requires significant setup, and assumes you have data engineers who can build integrations and maintain them. For most recruiting teams, this is like buying a Ferrari to drive to the grocery store.

Who it's for: Enterprise recruiting teams (1,000+ hires/year) with dedicated analytics resources. Everyone else is overspaying.

Power BI is Microsoft's answer to Tableau. Slightly cheaper ($10-20/user/month), better if you're already in the Microsoft ecosystem, still requires technical resources to implement properly.

Same verdict: powerful but overkill for most teams.

The HR-First Analytics Platforms

Visier People Analytics takes a different approach: pre-built recruiting dashboards focused on HR-specific metrics. Time-to-fill, cost-per-hire, source effectiveness, diversity metrics, the works.

What works: The dashboards are actually designed for recruiters, not data analysts. The metrics are relevant out of the box. Integration with major ATS platforms is solid.

What doesn't: Customization is limited. You get their metrics their way. If you want to track something specific to your business, you might be out of luck. Also expensive: $15,000-$50,000+/year depending on company size.

Verdict: Good for mid-size to large companies (200-2,000 employees) that want professional analytics without building everything from scratch.

ChartHop is the newer player trying to make org analytics visual and accessible. The org chart view is genuinely useful, and the recruiting pipeline visualizations are solid.

The problem: It's trying to be org management, compensation planning, AND recruiting analytics all in one. The recruiting features feel like an add-on rather than the core focus. At $8-12/employee/year, it's pricey for what recruiters actually get.

Verdict: Buy it for org planning and comp management. The recruiting analytics are a nice bonus, not the main event.

The Built-in ATS Dashboards: Better Than You Think

Here's something nobody wants to admit: for most recruiting teams, the analytics built into your ATS are probably good enough.

Greenhouse has legitimately good reporting. Source tracking, pipeline conversion rates, time in stage, interviewer feedback patterns. The reports are relevant, the data is clean, and it's included in your ATS subscription.

Lever is similar. Solid built-in reporting, clean visualizations, and everything you need to track pipeline health and recruiting efficiency.

Workable is more basic but covers the essentials: applicant sources, time-to-hire, recruiter activity.

Why these work: The data is already in your ATS. No integrations to build, no additional cost, no separate login. The metrics are recruiting-focused because they're built for recruiters.

Why they fall short: Limited customization, can't combine with data from other systems, and dashboards are relatively basic compared to BI tools.

The DIY Approach: Google Data Studio + Zapier

For smaller teams with a technical recruiter or ops person, you can build surprisingly good dashboards with free tools.

Google Data Studio (now called Looker Studio) is free and lets you build custom dashboards pulling data from multiple sources. Connect your ATS, your calendar, your sourcing tools, and build the reports you actually need.

The setup: Use Zapier or Make.com to pipe data from your recruiting tools into Google Sheets, then build Data Studio dashboards on top of those sheets.

Cost: $0 for Data Studio, $20-100/month for automation tools depending on volume.

The catch: You need someone who can build and maintain this. It's not plug-and-play. But for bootstrapped startups or small teams, it's way better than paying $20K for enterprise analytics.

The Metrics That Actually Matter (And The Ones That Don't)

Most recruiting dashboards are cluttered with vanity metrics that look impressive but tell you nothing useful. Here's what to focus on:

Actually Useful Metrics:

Quality of hire: Are the people you're hiring successful? Track performance reviews, retention at 1 year, manager satisfaction scores.

Source effectiveness: Which job boards, referrals, or sourcing channels produce the best candidates? Track by source AND by quality, not just volume.

Pipeline conversion rates by stage: Where are candidates dropping off? Is it after phone screens? After on-sites? This tells you where your process is broken.

Time in stage: Not overall time-to-fill, but how long candidates sit in each stage. Long delays between stages kill candidate interest.

Offer acceptance rate: If you're making offers and people are saying no, that's a huge red flag about your comp, process, or employer brand.

Vanity Metrics That Waste Your Time:

Total applications: Who cares if 500 people applied if only 3 were qualified?

Overall time-to-fill: This number is meaningless without context. 30 days for a junior role is slow. 90 days for a senior executive is fast.

Number of interviews conducted: Activity ≠ results. This just measures busyness.

Candidates in pipeline: Unless you're tracking quality AND progression, this is just a count of how many resumes you've collected.

The Workday Problem

I have to call out Workday Recruiting Analytics separately because it deserves its own warning label.

Workday has powerful analytics capabilities... buried under the worst user interface in enterprise software. The learning curve is brutal, generating reports requires understanding Workday's bizarre data model, and even simple dashboard changes require your IT team.

Yes, it integrates seamlessly with Workday HRIS. Yes, it has deep data. But unless you have a dedicated Workday administrator, you'll spend more time fighting the system than using the insights.

Verdict: If you're already on Workday and have proper admin support, it's fine. If you're considering Workday primarily for recruiting analytics, run away.

What You Should Actually Do

If you're a startup (0-50 employees): Use your ATS's built-in reporting. Don't overcomplicate this.

If you're a growing company (50-200 employees): Stick with ATS reporting or invest in a simple DIY dashboard (Google Data Studio). Save your budget for recruiting tools that matter.

If you're mid-size (200-1,000 employees): Consider Visier if you need professional analytics and have budget. Otherwise, your ATS dashboards plus some custom Google Data Studio reports will get you 90% of the way there.

If you're enterprise (1,000+ employees): Tableau or Power BI with proper data team support. You need the customization and sophistication.

The Bottom Line

The best recruiting analytics tool is the one you'll actually use. Most teams buy expensive dashboards, look at them once during implementation, and then never open them again.

Before you invest in analytics:

1. Define the 5-10 metrics that actually drive your recruiting decisions
2. Check if your current ATS already tracks them
3. Only buy a dedicated analytics tool if there's a real gap

Pretty dashboards are worthless if they don't change how you recruit. Focus on insights that drive action, not charts that look impressive in board meetings.

Your recruiting team doesn't need more data. They need better decisions. Choose tools accordingly.