Performance reporting should help the agency decide where to focus. Connect consultant activity and placement progress with revenue and margin, then use regular reviews to identify conversion gaps, coaching needs and commercial priorities. This guide defines the core measures for a healthcare staffing agency and shows how to turn each one into a decision.

Agree definitions before you build reports

Most reporting arguments are really arguments about definitions. One manager counts a placement when the booking is confirmed, another when the candidate starts. Finance reports revenue by invoice date while the branch reports it by the week the shifts were worked. Both figures can be correct and still disagree, and every disagreement weakens trust in the whole dashboard.

Write each measure down once, in plain words, before anyone builds a report on it. For every measure, record:

  • What counts: the records included and the ones excluded, such as shifts the client cancelled or internal test records.
  • How it is calculated: one sentence a new consultant could follow.
  • The period and the date it uses: shift date, start date, timesheet week or invoice date.
  • The source: the record it is drawn from, so anyone can trace it.
  • The owner: the person who approves changes to the definition.

Keep the definitions where the whole team can read them, and date any change so comparisons across it are read with care.

Use placement value to set priorities

Review booked and active work alongside revenue and gross profit for the chosen period. Keep forecasts separate from completed results. Use the comparison to identify gaps in delivery and agree which requirements, extensions or accounts need attention. The measures below form the core of commercial reporting, and each should mean the same thing in every view.

Placements

A placement is a confirmed booking where the candidate has started work. Count it once, on the start date, within the period under review. Decide whether an extension to a locum doctor's assignment counts as a new placement or a continuation of the original, and apply that rule everywhere. For shift-based agency nursing and care work, count shifts worked as well, because one nurse may work many shifts across several wards in a month.

Revenue

Revenue is the amount charged to clients for work delivered in the period. For temporary and locum work, total the client charge on approved timesheets for the shifts or hours worked in the period, after any credits. For permanent placements, use the fee once the placement is confirmed under your terms. State whether the report uses the date the work was done or the invoice date. Operational reviews usually read better by work date, while finance may need invoice date, so label which is which.

Gross profit

Gross profit is revenue less the direct cost of delivering that work. For temporary and locum work, that means the candidate's pay plus the costs your finance team treats as direct, calculated for the same timesheets as the revenue. Agree that list of direct costs with finance once, and do not let individual managers vary it.

Margin %

Margin % is gross profit divided by revenue for the same records and period, shown as a percentage. Calculate it from the totals rather than averaging the margin of each placement. An average of percentages gives a single weekend shift the same weight as a long locum assignment and can point the team at the wrong accounts.

Forecast and actual value

Forecast value is the expected revenue and gross profit of booked work not yet worked: the booked shifts or hours multiplied by the agreed rates. Actual value comes from approved timesheets. Report them in separate columns. A placement booked at one value often finishes at another, because shifts are cancelled, hours change or rates are amended. In RecSphere, each placement shows its original, updated and actual value and margin, so the difference can be reviewed placement by placement.

For example, if a large hospital account shows healthy forecast value but actual value falls short month after month, look at cancellation patterns, timesheet approval delays and rate changes before asking the desk for more bookings.

Coach the activity that converts

Review submissions, client conversations and follow-up work in the context of the desk. Connect activity counts with opportunity quality and placement progress. Coach the qualification, follow-up or account development that could improve the result, then review its effect.

Activity

Activity is the number of calls, emails and messages a consultant records against candidate and client records in the period, usually reviewed weekly. Count interactions with a real person. Exclude automated reminders and bulk messages, or report them separately, because they measure the system rather than the consultant.

Submissions

A submission is a candidate formally put forward to a client for a specific vacancy or block of shifts. Count each candidate once per vacancy, on the date of submission. Re-sending the same profile because the client asked for it again is not a new submission.

Submission to placement conversion

Take the submissions made in a period and count how many of those candidates went on to a placement. Divide the placements by the submissions for that same group. Allow time for client decisions to land before judging the result, and avoid dividing this month's placements by this month's submissions, because the two figures describe different candidates.

Activity on its own is a weak coaching tool. Telling a consultant to make more calls rarely changes much. A better conversation starts from the pattern behind the numbers. Plenty of submissions to one community health service but few placements suggests the requirements were not qualified well, or the candidates did not meet the client's real criteria. That points to a specific skill to coach.

Find gaps in conversion

Agree what each pipeline stage means and which records are counted. Compare similar role types and periods, then investigate where opportunities stop progressing. Assign actions to address the gap, with clear ownership and a date to review progress.

In healthcare staffing, the stages might run from requirement received, through qualified, shortlisted, submitted, accepted and compliance cleared, to started and first timesheet approved. Your stages may differ. What matters is that each one has a written entry rule.

Stage conversion

For each stage, count the opportunities that entered it during the period and how many of them reached the next stage. Divide the second number by the first. Weak conversion between accepted and started, for example, can point to compliance or onboarding delays rather than sales performance.

Fill rate

For shift-based work, fill rate is the number of shifts filled divided by the number of shifts clients requested, by shift date, for the period. Decide how to treat shifts the client cancelled before they were filled. Excluding them is reasonable, since the agency had no chance to fill them, but say so in the definition. Shifts the agency could not fill always stay in the count.

Time to fill

Measure the days from requirement received to first submission, and separately from requirement received to confirmed booking. Use the median rather than the average, so one long search does not distort the picture. Compare like with like: a night shift for an agency nurse and a permanent allied health role will never share a timescale.

Common mistakes when reviewing conversion:

  • Comparing consultants who work different role types or clients without allowing for the difference.
  • Counting an opportunity in a stage it skipped because the record was updated late.
  • Reading one month in isolation, when a few large assignments can swing the result.
  • Agreeing an action without an owner or a date to check its effect.

Give each role actions it can take

Consultants need priorities for live opportunities. Managers need visibility of conversion, coaching needs and delivery issues. Owners need to understand financial trends and account value. Those views should draw from shared records, with consistent definitions across the business.

A useful test for any report is whether the person reading it can do something differently tomorrow. As a starting point:

  • Consultants: live opportunities with their next action, submissions awaiting client feedback, unfilled shifts in the coming week and candidates whose documents are due to expire.
  • Managers: stage conversion and fill rate by consultant and client, overdue actions, and margin % on new bookings compared with the existing book.
  • Owners: revenue, gross profit and margin % by branch and client over time, the share of gross profit coming from the largest accounts, and forecast against actual value.

Account value needs its own definition: the revenue and gross profit from one client over a rolling period you choose, with margin % alongside. Read it together with the effort the account takes. A large hospital account with thin margin, heavy client-specific compliance and frequent timesheet queries may be worth less than its revenue suggests.

Make figures traceable

Be able to identify the underlying placement or financial records behind a report. Resolve inconsistent dates, ownership and status definitions at source. A figure nobody can trace gets argued about rather than acted on. Run a short reconciliation each month:

  1. Pick a handful of placements from the main revenue and margin report.
  2. Open each underlying record and check the dates, owner, status and value.
  3. For temporary work, compare the actual value with the approved timesheets and the invoice.
  4. Log each difference and its cause.
  5. Fix the cause in the workflow or the record, not in an exported copy.

The last step matters most. Once managers start correcting figures in a spreadsheet after export, the agency has two versions of the truth and the reports stop improving.

Set a review rhythm

Measures change behaviour only when they are reviewed on a regular cadence, using the same views each time.

  • Weekly desk review: live opportunities, next actions, unfilled shifts and submissions awaiting feedback.
  • Monthly management review: stage conversion, fill rate, time to fill, margin % on new work and the reconciliation findings.
  • Quarterly commercial review: account value, branch trends and where to invest business development time.

Record the actions agreed at each review and open the next one by checking them. That habit turns reporting from a description of last month into a way of improving the next one.