Time to Hire vs Time to Fill: Key Differences & How to Improve

You already know that Time to Hire and Time to Fill are quite similar since both measure how long it takes to hire a candidate. But there are certain differences between Time to Hire vs Time to Fill that we’ll break down a little later in this article.

Since hiring data from eight industries across 25 countries tells us that hiring in APAC, EMEA, and LATAM will be more challenging and unpredictable than ever before, it’s critical to improve your hiring process. Taking this into account, we’ll also show you how to optimize your hiring process so you can improve these two metrics.

Key Differences between Time to Hire vs Time to Fill

Difference between Time to Hire and Time to Fill at a glance:

Aspect	Time to Fill	Time to Hire
What It Measures	Total time to fill a role	Time for a candidate to move through the process
Start Point	Job requisition approved or posted	Candidate applies or is sourced
End Point	Candidate accepts the offer	Candidate accepts the offer
Focus	Organizational efficiency	Candidate experience
Use Case	Workforce planning, budgeting	Improving candidate experience, reducing drop-off

They’re both about how long it takes to hire someone, but they focus on different things.

Time to Fill is all about how long it takes your company to fill a specific job opening. You’re looking at the big picture: how quickly you can get someone in the door after the job is posted or approved.

Time to Hire, on the other hand, is about the candidate’s journey. It’s about how long it takes a specific person to go through the entire hiring process, from the moment they apply (or you find them) to when they finally accept the job offer.

You might be wondering, “Why do I need to track both? Isn’t one enough?” Nope!

Time to Fill helps you understand how efficiently your company is hiring in general. It helps you:

• Plan your budget
• Figure out where things are getting bogged down
• Make sure you’re hiring enough people

Time to Hire, on the other hand, tells you how happy your candidates are with the hiring process. A quick and easy hiring process attracts top talent and makes your company look good. Nobody wants to wait forever to hear back.

By tracking both, you get the full story. If it takes you forever to fill a role, but you’re super quick with each individual candidate, you might have a problem finding qualified applicants.

But if it takes ages for candidates to get through your interviews, you need to smoothen that process.

What is Time to Fill?

Time to Fill is simply how long it takes to find someone for a job opening.

You start counting from the moment the manager approves the job or when you first post it online, whichever happens first. Some places even start the clock when they officially add the job to their system.

You stop counting the day someone actually accepts the job offer. Some companies keep counting until their new hire’s first day.

For example, if the boss approves the job opening on January 1st and someone accepts the offer on February 15th, your Time to Fill would be 45 days.

Formula to Calculate Time to Fill

Subtract the date the job was posted (or when the boss gave the green light) from the date the lucky candidate said ‘yes’ to the offer.

Here’s the formula:

Time to Fill = Date Candidate Accepts Offer – Date Job Requisition is Approved (or Posted)

For example, if you posted a job on March 1st and someone accepted the offer on April 1st, your Time to Fill would be 30 days.

Now, if you want to get a bigger picture of how long it usually takes you to hire people, you have to calculate your average Time to Fill.

First, add up the Time to Fill for all the jobs you filled during a certain period, say a quarter or a year. Then, divide that total by the number of jobs you filled.

For example, say it took 30 days to fill one job, 45 days for another, and 60 days for the third.

Add those up: 30 + 45 + 60 = 135 days.

Divide that by 3 (since you filled 3 jobs): 135 / 3 = 45 days. 

So, your average Time to Fill is 45 days.

You can easily track this stuff in a spreadsheet. Just jot down the start and end dates for each job, and use the above formula to do the math for you.

But honestly, the easiest way is to use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) like Recruiterflow. Recruiterflow can automatically track your Time to Fill for every job opening and give you dashboards that show you trends and help you spot any hiring bottlenecks.

What is Time to Hire?

It’s just how long it takes to snag a new hire. We’re talking about the total number of days from the moment a candidate first shows interest until they finally agree to the offer.

For example, if someone applies for a job on March 1st and accepts the offer on March 20th, your Time to Hire is 19 days.

Formula to Calculate Time to Hire

First, you have to know when the candidate entered your hiring process. Was it when they applied? Or did a recruiter find them on LinkedIn or any other job site?

Once you know that, it’s simple math: just subtract the date they entered the process from the date they accepted the offer.

Here’s the formula:

Time to Hire = Date Candidate Accepts Offer – Date Candidate Enters the Hiring Process (Application or Sourcing Date)

For example, if someone applied on April 1st and accepted the offer on April 15th, your Time to Hire would be 14 days.

Now, it’s time to see how we can calculate your average Time to Hire. Here’s how:

• Add up the Time to Hire for all the roles you hired in a specific period (e.g., a quarter or year).
• Then, divide that total time it took to hire by the number of roles you filled.

For example:

First role: 15 days

Second role: 20 days

Third role: 25 days

Total Time to Hire = 60 days

Number of Roles = 3

Average Time to Hire = 60 / 3 = 20 days

How to Improve the Time to Fill and Time to Hire?

So, you want to know how to actually improve those Time to Fill and Time to Hire numbers, right? First things first, you have to understand exactly how your hiring process works.

1. Map out your hiring process

Create a simple flowchart. Visualize every single step, from the moment you approve a new job opening to when the new hire finally starts.

Or better yet, use a visual tool like Recruiterflow to map out your hiring process. Simply add each step of your process as a stage in the hiring pipeline (e.g., “Sourced”, “Screened”, “Interviewed”, “Offer Sent”, “Hired”). You can even use something like a Kanban view to track candidates as they move through each stage.

Once you have your pipeline set up, it’s time to find the bottlenecks. Look at each step closely. Where are things getting stuck? Is it taking forever to screen resumes? Are interviews dragging on for weeks? Are decisions getting delayed because everyone is too busy?

Once you’ve mapped out your hiring process, you can easily spot these roadblocks and figure out how to fix them.

Also read: RecOps 101: Optimizing Your End-to-End Recruiting Process

2. Simplify your job posting process

Every day that goes by without a job posting is a day you’re missing out on potential candidates.

Use templates: Create some pre-made job descriptions for common roles. This saves you and your hiring managers a ton of time.

Level up with AI: RF GPT can generate job descriptions from scratch or help you rewrite existing ones. It does so after carefully analyzing the key job details like skills and experience.

Automate approvals: If you need multiple people to sign off on a job posting, set up an automated workflow. This eliminates the back-and-forth emails and gets things moving faster.

Post in the right places: Don’t just blast your job posting everywhere. Focus on the platforms where your ideal candidates actually hang out. LinkedIn is great for professional roles, while Indeed is good for reaching a wider audience.

Pro tip: Tools like Recruiterflow can automatically post your job to multiple platforms at once. It’s a real time-saver!

3. Optimize your sourcing strategy

Are you having trouble finding candidates quickly? That usually means you need to beef up your sourcing strategy.

Use AI to your advantage: Recruiterflow has AI that can find qualified candidates in a flash. It’s like having a search engine that knows exactly the top candidates you’re looking for.

Build a talent pipeline: Don’t let good candidates slip through the cracks! Stay in touch with people you’ve interviewed in the past, even if they didn’t get the job. Recruiterflow helps you keep track of everyone and even sends out automated emails or texts to stay connected.

Get your team involved: Encourage your employees to refer their friends and connections. People they know are often a great fit, and they’re usually more likely to stick around. Use Recruiterflow’s referral tool to make it easy for your employees to submit referrals and for you to track them.

4. Shorten the application process

You know how frustrating it is to fill out one of those super long job applications? Well, a lot of people feel the same way. A study says that 60% of job seekers just give up if the application is too complicated.

Make it mobile-friendly: Most people use their phones to look for jobs. If your application process is a pain to navigate on a phone, you’re going to lose a lot of potential candidates.

Keep it short and sweet: Don’t make them jump through a million hoops. Limit the number of questions and let them apply with their LinkedIn profile if possible.

Give clear instructions: Nobody likes guessing games. Make sure your job posting tells candidates exactly what to do and what you’re looking for.

You’ll attract more candidates and speed up your hiring with an application process that is candidate-focused. Trust me, it’s a win-win!

5. Smooth out candidate screening

Screening candidates can take forever! Here’s how to make it faster and more efficient:

Set some clear rules: Decide exactly what you’re looking for in a candidate. What skills are must-haves? What kind of experience do they need? Do they fit with your company culture?

Use some screening tools: Give candidates a quick skills test or a personality quiz early on. This helps you weed out the people who aren’t a good fit without wasting time on interviews.

Leverage AI: RF GPT can help you create custom screening questions that are super relevant to the job. Recruiterflow also lets you create tailored tests that assess things like technical skills, how they think, and how they might behave in the workplace.

6. Speed up the interview process

Interviews can be a real drag. Scheduling conflicts, back-and-forth emails, it’s a nightmare!

Here’s how to make things easier:

Video interviews are your friend: Tools like Zoom or HireVue let you interview people without everyone having to be in the same room. No more travel time or scheduling headaches!

Conduct panel interviews: Instead of having candidates meet with each person individually, bring everyone together for one big interview. It saves time and gets everyone on the same page.

Automate scheduling: Recruiterflow integrates with your calendar, so you can easily schedule interviews and everyone gets automatic reminders. No more messy email chains!

7. Improve decision-making speed

You know that nothing kills momentum faster than a slow hiring process. And a big part of that is decision-making.

Set deadlines: Don’t let things drag on. Set clear deadlines for each step of the hiring process.

Communicate effectively: Use tools like Slack or Teams to keep everyone on the same page and make decisions quickly.

Use scorecards: This helps you compare candidates apples-to-apples. Recruiterflow has scorecards that let you rate candidates based on different criteria and even include feedback from everyone involved.

8. Enhance communication with candidates

Okay, let’s talk about keeping candidates in the loop. Nobody likes to feel ignored, especially when they’re waiting to hear back about a job.

Keep them in the know: Send them updates throughout the process, even if it’s just to say “We’re still reviewing applications.” Recruiterflow can help you automate these updates so you don’t forget.

Give them feedback: Even if they don’t get the job, let them know. Give them some constructive criticism. Tell them what they did well and where they could improve. This shows that you value their time and help them grow.

When you keep candidates informed and treat them with respect, you build a better reputation for your company and attract top talent in the future.

Also read: 10+ Actionable Tips to Improve Your Candidate Experience

8. Leverage data and analytics

You know what they say: “You can’t improve what you don’t measure.”

Track your progress: Use your ATS or Recruiterflow to keep tabs on things like Time to Fill and Time to Hire.

Find the bottlenecks: Look at the data and see where things are slowing down. Are interviews taking forever? Are you losing candidates during the screening process?

Compare yourself to the competition: See how your hiring times stack up against other companies in your industry.

See How Recruiterflow Can Help

Doubling down on tracking & optimizing your recruiting metrics? Recruiterflow can help with that.

You can whip up custom reports with its reporting tools to see exactly where things are at in your hiring pipeline. Time-to-fill, team performance, you name it, it tracks it.

But here’s the real magic: AI-powered insights. Recruiterflow can actually predict future hiring challenges and give you some seriously smart advice on how to improve your game.

And on top of all that, it also helps you optimize all those key metrics to improve the whole hiring process. Recruiterflow’s ATS uses AI to make your hiring process way more efficient.

It supercharges all the important stuff, like how quickly you fill roles and how happy your candidates are. For example, one UK-based recruitment firm I know was able to cut their hiring time in half using Recruiterflow

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