Time to Fill and Time to Hire are two distinct but often confused metrics for measuring hiring efficiency. The key difference is the starting point.
- Time to Fill measures the entire hiring process from the company’s perspective. It starts the moment a need for a new role is identified or a job requisition is approved by a hiring manager, and it ends when a candidate accepts the job offer. This metric gives you a full picture of how long it takes to go from a business need to a filled position.
- Time to Hire focuses specifically on the candidate’s journey. It starts when a specific candidate first applies for a job (or is sourced by a recruiter) and ends when they accept the offer. This metric tells you how long a single person spent moving through your interview and selection pipeline.
In short, Time to Fill is about the business’s efficiency, while Time to Hire is about the candidate’s experience.
Why Do Both Metrics Matter?
Both metrics offer valuable insights, but they answer different questions.
- Time to Fill is a critical business planning metric. A long time to fill means a position is vacant, which can hurt productivity, strain existing employees, and cost the company money. Tracking this metric helps you understand your overall recruiting workflow, from internal approvals and job posting to final offer. It helps you forecast how long it will take to replace an employee or hire for a new role.
- Time to Hire is an indicator of your recruitment team’s effectiveness and the quality of your candidate experience. A long time to hire can signal problems in your interview process, such as slow decision-making, poor communication, or a complex application process. The faster you can move top talent through your pipeline, the less likely they are to accept an offer from a competitor.
A Quick Example
Let’s say a manager submits a job requisition for a new software engineer on January 1st. The job is posted online a week later, on January 8th.
A great candidate sees the posting and applies on January 15th. After several rounds of interviews, they receive and accept an offer on January 30th.
- Time to Fill: 29 days (January 30th – January 1st)
- Time to Hire: 15 days (January 30th – January 15th)
In this scenario, a long Time to Fill tells you there was a week-long delay between the business identifying the need and the recruiting process actually starting. A short Time to Hire, however, shows that once you found the right candidate, you moved them through the process very quickly.