How to Track HR/TA ROI in Keap: A Consultant’s Guide to Custom Reports

In the competitive landscape of talent acquisition and HR, demonstrating tangible return on investment (ROI) is paramount. Many organizations struggle to move beyond anecdotal evidence, failing to connect their HR and talent acquisition efforts directly to business outcomes. Keap, when configured strategically, offers a powerful platform to bridge this gap. This guide provides a step-by-step approach for consultants and business leaders to set up custom reports in Keap, transforming raw data into actionable insights for measuring HR/TA ROI, ensuring every initiative is backed by clear, measurable results.

Step 1: Define Your Key HR/TA Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Before you build any report, you must clearly articulate what “ROI” means for your HR and Talent Acquisition efforts. This isn’t just about costs; it’s about the value generated. Common KPIs include time-to-hire, cost-per-hire, quality-of-hire (e.g., retention rates of new hires, performance scores post-onboarding), candidate source effectiveness, and the success rate of specific recruitment campaigns. Work with leadership to establish quantifiable metrics that align directly with broader organizational goals. For instance, if your goal is to reduce turnover by 15%, how will you measure the contribution of your hiring process to that metric? Clearly defined KPIs provide the foundation for every subsequent step, ensuring that the data you collect and report on is truly meaningful and impactful for strategic decision-making.

Step 2: Identify and Structure Data Points within Keap

Once KPIs are defined, the next crucial step is to identify where the necessary data points reside within Keap, or where they *need* to reside. Keap’s strength lies in its ability to manage contact records, company data, and automate campaigns. Consider how current candidate and employee data is being captured. Is the source of a candidate tracked? Are interview stages recorded? Are hiring dates, salary ranges, or performance review triggers linked to contact records? Often, a significant portion of relevant data may be missing or inconsistently entered. This phase is about auditing your existing Keap setup to see what data is available and what needs to be created or integrated to accurately reflect your defined HR/TA KPIs.

Step 3: Create Custom Fields and Tags for Granular Tracking

For data points not natively tracked or to add greater specificity, Keap’s custom fields and tagging system are indispensable. Based on your defined KPIs, create custom fields (e.g., “Hiring Manager,” “Department Hired Into,” “Offer Extended Date,” “Start Date,” “Recruitment Source,” “Onboarding Completion Date”) under contact records. Utilize tags to mark critical stages or outcomes, such as “Candidate – Interviewed,” “Candidate – Hired,” “Employee – 90 Day Review,” or “Campaign – Q3 Marketing Talent.” This structured approach allows you to capture the granular data required to calculate your ROI metrics accurately. Proper field types (date, dropdown, number) are essential for accurate reporting and later analysis.

Step 4: Implement Automated Data Capture Workflows

Manual data entry is prone to errors and inconsistencies, undermining the reliability of your reports. Leverage Keap’s automation capabilities to populate your new custom fields and tags automatically. Design campaigns that trigger based on specific actions (e.g., a candidate filling out a job application form, an internal HR notification, or an integration with an ATS). For example, when a candidate moves to the “Hired” stage in an external ATS, an integration via Make.com could update their Keap contact record with their start date and apply a “Hired” tag. This proactive automation ensures that data is consistently captured in real-time, providing a robust and dependable foundation for your HR/TA ROI reporting.

Step 5: Build Custom Saved Searches and Reports in Keap

With your data infrastructure in place, you can now construct powerful custom reports using Keap’s Saved Searches feature. Navigate to the “Contacts” section, select “New Search,” and specify your criteria. Combine contact data, custom fields, and campaign history to segment your audience and extract relevant information. For example, you might create a search for all contacts tagged “Hired” in the last quarter, displaying their “Recruitment Source,” “Time-to-Hire” (calculated from other custom dates), and “Department Hired Into.” Save these searches with clear, descriptive names, making them easily accessible for regular analysis. These saved searches are the backbone of your ROI measurement, turning raw data into structured insights.

Step 6: Develop Keap Dashboards for Visual Tracking and Analysis

Once your saved searches are perfected, elevate your reporting by presenting this data visually through Keap’s custom dashboards. A well-designed dashboard allows you to see key trends and metrics at a glance, making it easier to identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement in your HR/TA processes. Add widgets that display your key saved search results, perhaps showing the number of hires by source, average time-to-hire over time, or the performance of specific recruitment campaigns. Regularly review and refine these dashboards to ensure they provide the most impactful overview of your HR/TA ROI, enabling leadership to make informed, data-driven decisions that propel the business forward.

If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: The Strategic Value of a Keap Consultant for AI-Powered HR & Talent Acquisition