Time to Hire

What Is Time to Hire?

There are many KPIs and metrics that HR managers and business owners have to measure. When it comes to employment, time to hire is crucial.

But what is it?

Time to hire is often mentioned in the same breath as time to fill, but there are differences. Time to hire is measured from when a new candidate is introduced into the pipeline right up until the point at which the job offer is accepted.

Time to fill, on the other hand, measures when the time from when the job is posted until the candidate accepts the offer.

So, time to hire essentially shows you how quickly your team (or you) are able to find the right candidate for any given role – and measuring how effective your hiring process is crucial for a successful recruitment process.

What Is the Best Time to Hire Formula?

There are many different formulas for measuring time to hire. This one from Workable is simple but effective.

“Time to hire = day candidate accepted the offer – the day the candidate entered the pipeline.”

Let’s say that there’s a new job opening on Wednesday. Take that as day 1 in this formula. In this example, let’s say the ideal candidate applies on day 15 of the process and accepts a job offer on day 33.

The time to hire using this simple formula would be 33 – 15 = 18.

How Can We Improve Time to Hire?

As with any HR process, you need to be data-driven – measure as much as you can and always be looking at ways to improve the process. Look at the data regularly throughout the year to make sure that you’re on track.

Here are a few other ways to improve your time to hire

• Create a structure – this might sound obvious, but it’s essential to create a rigid hiring process and stick to it. Only change that structure when the data indicates that there are issues that need to be addressed.
• Work on your pipeline – try to keep an eye out for good candidates even when there’s no immediate position to fill. For example, keeping candidates on file who may fit roles that you need to fill regularly can drastically bring down your time to hire.

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