Marissa Mayer's tenure as CEO of Yahoo seems to have helped the company in at least one noticeable way so far: more people want to work there now.

During Yahoo's first-quarter earnings call Tuesday, Mayer revealed that the number of people applying for jobs at the company has nearly doubled year-over-year and the number of resumes Yahoo received more than tripled during the March quarter. (Mayer didn't outline exactly how many people had applied.)

Mayer also noted what she calls the "boomerang" effect: the company is seeing more former Yahoos apply to work at the company and 14% of new hires last quarter were ex-Yahoos. At the same time, she said the rate of "top talent" leaving the company is about half of what it was a year prior.

"The data is undeniable," Mayer said. "Today, more people are trying to work at Yahoo and more employees are staying."

She referred to this as the first of three big "sprints" in her effort to turn around Yahoo. First, Yahoo is working to get "great people," then it will use to those people to build "great products," and finally those products will lead to more user engagement, which in turn will boost the company's ad revenue. It's a long-term strategy, and one that still hasn't quite paid off for the company: Yahoo's revenue continued to decline in the March quarter due largely to its declining display ad business.

Mayer joined Yahoo from Google in July and has since worked to revitalize the company's culture by initiating town hall meetings and giving employees free food — perks that are common at other Silicon Valley companies. Under her leadership, Yahoo has also acquired six small startups including Stamped and Jybe to bring new engineering talent to the company and double down on mobile.

On the call, Mayer noted that Yahoo has implemented 567 "employee-focused initiatives" to date, including one new program that "encourages all employees to test and improve our latest products which is yielding exciting new thinking." She credited these new initiatives with helping to keep and attract top talent.

Of course, some out there might note that one of the changes Yahoo has made under Mayer is to crack down on the option to work-from-home, which appeared to frustrate many outside the company and some inside as well. She has also been criticized for pushing to personally reviewing all new hires at the company — a move that some Yahoos believe is slowing down the process too much and causing the company to miss out on potential hires.

Yahoo currently had 11,300 employees at the end of the first quarter, 19% fewer than the number it had the same quarter a year earlier.

The company's stock initially dropped by as much as 4% after-hours following the earnings report, but it was essentially flat in early trading Wednesday.