The job market today, especially for recruiters looking for skilled labor, has grown even more competitive. With a lack of qualified candidates and growing need for skilled employees, it’s paramount for recruiters to focus on reducing time to hire and discover the right candidates for their job quickly. Because, let’s face it, there isn’t a lack of competition out there and your inefficiency can be someone else’s opportunity.
With that in mind, let's take a deep breath and dive into the importance of focusing on one of the most necessary KPIs for recruiting in a competitive job market - Time to Fill.
What is time to fill?
Time to fill is an important recruitment metric that details the number of days taken by a recruiter to fill an open position at an organization. The duration can begin from learning about the job opening to the days spent on sourcing, candidate screening, interview process, selection and finally, when the candidate accepts the job offer, the timer stops. It’s important to know your average time to fill for different types of positions. Analyzing time to fill can help you figure out loopholes in your recruiting process and fill a position faster.
Not to forget that time to fill also points out where you stand in variance with your competition. You can discover which steps in your hiring process can be automated and where all you can save time between when the candidate applies and you get them on for an interview.
You can also find clarity in budgetary terms. For example: if you're spending a large position of your money on job boards but the candidates from there are unqualified, leading to an increased screening time, you can make necessary changes in budget allocation to render your process more efficient.
To calculate time to fill, subtract the date a job opening was posted from the date the job offer is accepted by a new hire. This formula measures the duration it takes to fill a job position from the moment it's advertised to when it's successfully filled.
Let’s take time to fill calculation with an example.
- Job Opening Posted: March 1st
- Approval for Hiring Granted: March 10th
Job Offer Accepted by New Hire: March 20th
To calculate the "time to fill," we subtract the date the job opening was posted from the date the job offer was accepted:
- Time to Fill = Date job offer accepted - Date job opening posted
- Time to Fill = March 20th - March 1st
- Time to Fill = 19 days
So, in this example, the "time to fill" for the job opening is 19 days.
Time to Fill vs Time To Hire
Before we move further, we need to clear some air about the difference between time to fill and time to hire. Before we delve deeper, let's distinguish the two hiring metrics.
Many hiring managers use these terms interchangeably. However, you won’t believe that both these metrics serve distinct purposes, hinging on when you commence counting.
The time to fill metric is broader. It starts when you learn about a new role and start promoting it to attract more applicants. It concludes upon candidate acceptance of the job. It gauges overall hiring process efficiency, unveiling bottlenecks hindering recruitment flow.
On the flip side, time to hire metric is narrower. It begins when a candidate applies for the job and ends with offer acceptance. It prioritizes candidate experience and recruitment funnel speed, aiding in enhancing candidate journeys and evaluating team efficacy.
How to Reduce Time to Fill?
1. Audit your recruitment process
When was the last time you checked your recruiting strategy? Infact, have you been following the same recruitment process for a long time? If it’s been a while, maybe you need to go back and re-evaluate your hiring strategy. Seek for bottlenecks in your process that’s pushing your time to fill out of the window.
Yes, we can’t always account for external factors like candidates redacting their application or absconding at the last moment, but we certainly can analyze the reasons for such instances. Is it candidate experience you need to improve or is your interview process stringent? Go back to your recruitment strategy, find out the issues with it and quickly fix them to see a sustainable reduction in time to fill.
2. Automate everything you can
Maybe why your competition is taking half the time you take to zero in on a candidate is because you are spending too much time screening candidates mindlessly. Don’t tire yourself with tasks that can very well be automated with AI recruiting tools. Automation can also enhance candidate experience, help you build a positive employer brand and make your overall recruitment efforts more efficient.
So, take some time to identify the tasks that can easily be automated. Find the right AI recruiting tools and spend more time with qualified candidates that are genuinely interested in taking the job.
3. Use employee referral
Referral solves two of your problems. One, finds the right candidates faster and pushes diversity at the workplace. For example - if you have an opening for a junior web developer and you know your company lacks diversity in terms of women at the organization. You can build a referral program to not only attract a skilled candidate but one that also satisfies your diversity needs.
The most important reason why referral programs work is because existing employees find something for themselves in the deal. Whether it’s an extra set of leaves, money, coupons or tickets to the next Knicks game, have something in the program to sweeten the deal for the employees to assure they too work towards filling that position fast.
4. Don’t follow the same process for all job roles
Just as every job role is different, its process should also be different. Don’t use the same platforms, same screening techniques, same interview styles to hire candidates for different jobs, especially different departments. Revamp your hiring strategy. Check which sourcing technique works best for which job role. For example - you might find a ton of junior level applications for marketing roles on Indeed but it’s LinkedIn where CTOs and Senior Management hangs out.
Streamline your job role via hiring strategy and make sure you follow your revised plans to see significant reduction in time to fill across varied jobs.
5. Use data and follow metrics
As important communication and planning is, data analysis must also have a place in your recruiting process. Ensure you keep a close eye on all your recruitment and HR KPIs regularly. This way, you'll gain valuable insights into every step of your hiring journey. By doing so, you'll spot any potential roadblocks, enabling you to enhance both candidate experience and your hiring speed.
In addition to tracking metrics directly linked to your recruitment funnel, keep tabs on broader indicators like employee satisfaction, retention, and diversity. These factors significantly influence your employer reputation and consequently affect your time to fill.
Similar Important Hiring Metrics to Monitor
- Candidate experience satisfaction: Evaluating candidate’s perceptions of their interactions with your organization throughout the hiring process is crucial to improve your employer branding. It also attracts top talent. Gathering feedback via surveys or interviews can provide an in depth perspective of aspects like communication effectiveness, transparency, and overall satisfaction. Positive candidate experiences not only improve your employer reputation, but also increase the likelihood of candidates accepting job offers and referring others to your organization.
- Offer acceptance rate: This metric calculates the percentage of selected candidates who accept your job offers out of those who receive them. A high acceptance rate shows that the candidate is satisfied with the offer. It can range from effective candidate engagement, competitive compensation to benefits packages, and alignment between candidate expectations and your employer brand. Whereas, a low acceptance rate can signal issues with your recruitment process, employer reputation, or compensation competitiveness.
- Sourcing channel effectiveness: Finding the right channels to attract qualified candidates for a job role can certainly optimize your recruitment budget and hiring efforts. By tracking metrics such as the number of applicants, conversion rates, and eventual hires from various sources (e.g., job boards, employee referrals, social media), you can refine your sourcing strategies and invest resources where they yield the best results.
If you weren’t considering time to fill as one of your recruiting KPIs, well, now you know why you must. Also, find the 10 Best Recruiting Software for Small Business. You might also like to know How to Transition to Artificial Intelligence Recruiting?
