Recruiter weekly report template: internal and client-facing versions
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A recruiter weekly report is a one-page summary of the week in four parts: activity (calls, screens, submittals), outcomes (interviews, offers, placements, fall-offs), the pipeline for each open role with the next step and any risk, and the decisions you need from your manager or client. Agencies need two versions: an internal report with the numbers, and a client-facing update per client that covers only their roles.
Below are both templates, a filled example, and a team roll-up for agency owners. How each metric is defined and calculated is on the recruiting agency metrics page; this page is about putting them on one page every Friday.
What belongs in a weekly report
| Section | What it answers | Internal | Client |
|---|---|---|---|
| Activity | Did the work happen? | Yes | No |
| Outcomes | Did the work produce interviews, offers and placements? | Yes | Their roles only |
| Pipeline by role | Where is every live candidate, and what happens next? | Yes | Yes, with less detail |
| Risks | What could go wrong this week? | Yes | Only what they can act on |
| Decisions needed | What is blocked on someone else? | Yes | Yes |
| Revenue | What was billed or is expected? | Yes | No |
Leave out narrative about how busy the week was. Every line should be a number, a candidate status, or a request.
Internal weekly report template
For a recruiter reporting to a manager or agency owner. Copy it into an email or shared doc and keep the order the same every week.
WEEKLY REPORT — [Recruiter] — Week ending [date]
1. HEADLINE (two lines)
[The one thing that matters most this week, e.g. "Offer accepted on
Halden AP Supervisor; Northwind search stalled on client feedback."]
2. ACTIVITY This week Last week 4-wk avg
New candidates contacted [ ] [ ] [ ]
Phone screens completed [ ] [ ] [ ]
Submittals sent [ ] [ ] [ ]
Client calls / meetings [ ] [ ] [ ]
New jobs taken [ ] [ ] [ ]
3. OUTCOMES This week Last week 4-wk total
First client interviews [ ] [ ] [ ]
Final interviews [ ] [ ] [ ]
Offers made [ ] [ ] [ ]
Offers accepted [ ] [ ] [ ]
Starts [ ] [ ] [ ]
Fall-offs (after acceptance) [ ] [ ] [ ]
4-week rates (see metric definitions):
Submittal-to-interview: [interviews ÷ submittals] = [ ]%
Interview-to-offer: [offers ÷ candidates interviewed] = [ ]%
4. PIPELINE BY ROLE
[Client] — [Role] — open [X] days — fee [ ] — priority [H/M/L]
Submitted: [n] Interviewing: [n] Offer: [n]
- [Candidate]: [stage], next: [action] by [date]
- [Candidate]: [stage], next: [action] by [date]
Risk: [one line or "none"]
[Repeat per role]
5. RISKS THIS WEEK
- [Counteroffer risk, competing offer, client silence, notice issue]
6. DECISIONS OR HELP NEEDED
- [What, from whom, by when]
7. REVENUE
Placements billed this week: [ ] Expected next 30 days: [ ]
Fees at risk (offers not yet started): [ ]
8. NEXT WEEK'S FOCUS
- [Three items maximum]A filled example
An invented recruiter's week, showing how the numbers and pipeline read together:
WEEKLY REPORT — J. Ortiz — Week ending Sep 11
1. HEADLINE
Offer accepted on Halden AP Supervisor (start Oct 6). Northwind Senior
Backend has 3 submittals with no feedback for 8 days.
2. ACTIVITY This week Last week 4-wk avg
New candidates contacted 64 58 61
Phone screens completed 11 9 10
Submittals sent 5 4 4.5
Client calls / meetings 7 6 6
New jobs taken 1 0 0.5
3. OUTCOMES This week Last week 4-wk total
First client interviews 3 2 9
Final interviews 1 1 3
Offers made 1 0 2
Offers accepted 1 0 1
Starts 0 1 1
Fall-offs (after acceptance) 0 0 0
4-week rates:
Submittal-to-interview: 9 ÷ 18 = 50%
Interview-to-offer: 2 ÷ 9 = 22%
4. PIPELINE BY ROLE
Halden — AP Supervisor — open 26 days — priority H
Offer accepted: Marcus W., background check started, resigns
after it clears. Next: resignation call Tue.
Risk: low counteroffer risk (role moving out of state).
Northwind — Senior Backend Engineer — open 34 days — priority H
Submitted: 3 Interviewing: 0
- Priya N.: submitted Sep 3, no feedback; final round elsewhere
Sep 17. Next: call Dana Mon am.
- Two others: submitted Sep 3, no feedback.
Risk: lose Priya to the other process if no interview by Sep 16.
5. DECISIONS OR HELP NEEDED
- Can you call Northwind's VP if Dana hasn't replied by Mon noon?The 4-week rates use 4-week totals, not this week's numbers alone. Three interviews this week mostly came from submittals sent in earlier weeks, so dividing this week's interviews by this week's submittals mixes two different groups of candidates. Rolling totals smooth that out.
Pipeline by role: the section that matters most
Managers skim activity and read the pipeline. Write every candidate line so someone covering your desk tomorrow could act on it.
Every candidate line needs
- Stage, in the same words as your ATS statuses.
- Days in stage when it is longer than the client's agreed feedback time.
- The next action, the owner and the date. "Chasing" is not an action; "call Dana Monday before 10" is.
- Anything with a deadline: competing offers, notice periods, start dates.
Roles need a status too
| Role status | Means | What to write |
|---|---|---|
| Active | Candidates moving, client responsive | Pipeline lines only |
| Stalled on client | Feedback overdue | Days overdue and your plan to unblock it |
| Stalled on market | Not enough candidates meet the brief | What you have tried, and the change to the brief you will propose |
| At risk | Likely to be lost or filled elsewhere | Why, and whether to keep working it |
| On hold | Client paused hiring | Date the client said they would decide |
A role stalled on the market three weeks running usually needs a new intake conversation, not more submittals.
Client-facing weekly update template
One email per client, covering only their roles. Send it on the same day each week, including weeks with little news.
Subject: [Client]: weekly recruiting update, week ending [date]
Hi [First name],
Here's where things stand on your open roles.
[ROLE 1] — [open since date]
- Candidates screened this week: [n]; submitted: [n]
- [Candidate A]: [stage]. [What you need from them, or what happens
next, with a date.]
- [Candidate B]: [stage]. [Next step.]
- Market note: [one line on what you're seeing, e.g. "most candidates
with NetSuite and team leadership are asking $85k+ base"]
[ROLE 2] — [open since date]
- [ ]
WHAT I NEED FROM YOU
- Feedback on [candidates] by [date]. [Why it matters, e.g. "Priya
has a final round elsewhere on the 17th."]
- [Decision on the brief, interview slots, approval for range]
NEXT WEEK
- [What you'll do, e.g. "Screen four candidates from the new search
and send a shortlist by Thursday."]
[Your name] | [phone]What to leave out of the client version
- Other clients, other roles and your activity totals.
- Conversion rates, fees and anything about revenue.
- Internal assessments such as counteroffer risk ratings. Tell the client what they need to act on ("she has another offer due Friday") without your internal notes.
- Candidates' personal circumstances. "Available from October 6" is enough; the reason is the candidate's business.
- Candidate names the client has not yet received in a submittal.
The market note is the most valuable line for most clients. Keep it to what you have actually heard on screens, and say so: "four of the six candidates I screened this week asked above your range" is evidence; "the market is tight" is not.
Team roll-up for agency owners
If you manage several recruiters, roll the individual reports into one table and read it with the 4-week columns, not the weekly ones. Weekly numbers for a single recruiter swing widely with one client's timing.
TEAM ROLL-UP — Week ending [date] — 4-week totals
Recruiter Screens Submittals Interviews Offers Accepted Fall-offs
[Name] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
[Name] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Team [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Open roles: [n] Stalled on client: [n] Stalled on market: [n]
Offers awaiting start: [n] Fees at risk: [ ]Invented example: reading two recruiters' 4-week totals
Recruiter A: 40 submittals, 12 interviews. Submittal-to-interview: 12 ÷ 40 = 30%.
Recruiter B: 18 submittals, 9 interviews. Submittal-to-interview: 9 ÷ 18 = 50%.
A has more than twice the submittals and only three more interviews. The question for A is not "do more"; it is whether submittals are going out before the fit is clear. The question for B is whether there are enough candidates in the pipeline to keep that rate once B's current roles close.
Compare recruiters on the same kinds of roles where you can. A recruiter filling high-volume light industrial roles and one running executive searches will have very different numbers, and neither set is wrong.
Writing it in 15 minutes every Friday
- Update statuses as things happen during the week, not on Friday. The report is only as current as your ATS.
- Pull the counts from your ATS for the week's date range: screens logged, submittals, interviews, offers, starts. If your ATS records status changes with dates, one saved report or export can give you all of them.
- Copy last week's report and update it, rather than starting blank. The 4-week columns update by dropping the oldest week.
- Write the pipeline lines role by role, with next actions and dates.
- Write the headline last, once you can see what mattered.
- Send client updates from the pipeline section, removing internal detail.
Use the same definitions every week. If "interview" sometimes means first interviews and sometimes all interviews, the trend line means nothing. The metric definitions page has a set you can adopt, and the screen-to-submittal workflow covers logging the times that time-to-submit needs.
Mistakes that make weekly reports useless
| Mistake | What happens | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Activity only | A busy week that produced nothing looks like a good week | Outcomes and rates next to activity |
| Weekly ratios from weekly numbers | Rates swing from 0% to 100% and mean nothing | 4-week rolling totals |
| "Chasing client" as a next step | Nobody knows what will happen or when | Action, owner and date |
| Same report sent to clients | Clients see other clients, fees or internal notes | A separate client version from the pipeline section |
| No decisions section | Blockers stay invisible to the person who can clear them | A named request with a deadline |
| Definitions change week to week | Trends cannot be compared | Written definitions at the top of the team's template |
Questions people ask
How long should a recruiter's weekly report take to write?
Around 15 minutes if the ATS statuses are up to date and the report pulls from them. If it takes an hour, the time is going into reconstructing the week, which usually means statuses are not being updated when things happen.
Should activity numbers like calls be in the report?
Yes in the internal version, next to outcomes, so a manager can see whether a slow week was a volume problem or a conversion problem. Leave activity out of the client version; clients want to know about their roles, not your call count.
What is the difference between a weekly report and a pipeline report?
A pipeline report is a snapshot of where candidates are on each open role. A weekly report adds what changed this week, the numbers behind it and the decisions you need. The pipeline section is the core of both.
Should I send clients a weekly update even when nothing has changed?
Yes, a short one. Say what you did, what you are waiting on and when they will hear next. A client who hears nothing assumes nothing is happening, and that is when they call another agency.