Time to Fill vs Time to Hire — And How to Optimize Both

When it comes to measuring recruitment success, two metrics often come to the forefront: time to fill and time to hire. While they might seem similar at first glance, each provides unique insights into different aspects of the hiring process. Understanding these differences is crucial for talent acquisition teams aiming to optimize their strategies, reduce costs, and secure top talent.

But there’s more to these recruitment metrics than meets the eye. Time to fill gives you a bird’s-eye view of how long it takes to complete the entire hiring process, from job posting to offer acceptance. Meanwhile, time to hire zeroes in on the candidate’s journey, tracking the period from their application to the moment they say “yes” to your offer. Both are essential, but they serve different purposes and influence various parts of the recruitment pipeline.

Throughout this article, we’ll dive deep into the nuances of time to fill vs time to hire, offering strategies to optimize both. We’ll also share expert insights from leaders in the field, including Charles Mah, Chief Customer and Operations Officer at GoodTime, and Dallas Frazer, former Recruitment Operations Lead at Shopify. By the end, you’ll have a clear understanding of how to leverage these metrics to improve your recruitment outcomes—and how technology can play a pivotal role in this process.

The difference between time to fill vs time to hire

To fully appreciate the importance of time to fill and time to hire, it’s essential to understand what each metric measures and how they contribute to your recruitment strategy.

Time to fill

Time to fill is the metric that tracks the number of days from when a job requisition is posted to when a candidate accepts the offer. This metric is vital for understanding the overall efficiency of your recruitment process. It sheds light on how quickly your team can move from identifying a need to filling the position, which directly impacts operational continuity and team productivity.

Organizations that struggle with a high time to fill often face increased costs and operational disruptions, as vacant positions can leave teams short-staffed and overworked. A prolonged time to fill can also lead to a diluted candidate pool, as top talent might accept other offers if the process drags on too long.

Time to hire

Time to hire, on the other hand, measures the time from when a candidate enters your recruitment pipeline—usually when they apply for a position—to when they accept the job offer. This metric is crucial for evaluating the candidate experience and the effectiveness of your recruitment stages.

A shorter time to hire generally indicates a smoother and more efficient process, which can enhance the candidate’s perception of your company. It also reduces the risk of losing top candidates to faster-moving competitors. As Dallas Frazer, former Recruitment Operations Lead at Shopify and now Customer Success Coach at GoodTime, emphasizes, “One of the key metrics recruiters will want to track is time-to-hire. If you find your process dragging on for longer than necessary, it’s a clear sign you might be investing too much time and effort in certain stages.”

Why these metrics matter

Understanding and tracking both time to fill and time to hire is crucial for optimizing your recruitment efforts. These metrics not only impact the efficiency of your hiring process but also play a significant role in your organization’s ability to attract and secure top talent.

Impact of time to fill

Time to fill directly influences how quickly your organization can maintain or scale its talent operations. A lengthy time to fill can result in extended periods where key roles remain vacant, potentially disrupting team productivity and delaying critical projects. Additionally, the longer a position stays open, the higher the recruitment costs—advertising, interviewing, and onboarding add up over time. It also increases the risk of losing candidates to other offers, especially in competitive job markets.

When time to fill is too high, it’s a signal that there may be inefficiencies within the recruitment process, such as delays in approval stages, a lack of qualified candidates, or bottlenecks in interview scheduling. By monitoring and optimizing this metric, organizations can streamline their processes, reduce costs, and ensure that teams are fully staffed to meet their objectives.

Impact of time to hire

Time to hire is a key indicator of how well your recruitment process is functioning from the candidate’s perspective. A shorter time to hire often correlates with a positive candidate experience, which is critical in building and maintaining a strong employer brand. When candidates move quickly through the hiring process, it reflects well on the organization, signaling efficiency, decisiveness, and a respect for the candidate’s time.

On the other hand, a prolonged time to hire can frustrate candidates, leading to a poor experience that can tarnish your brand and deter future applicants. This is particularly crucial for roles where top talent is in high demand; the faster you can move, the better your chances of securing the best candidates. As Erika Thorson-Garay, Head of Talent Acquisition at LiveRamp, points out, “The fastest hiring team typically gets the best candidates. GoodTime helped us accomplish that.”

Additionally, analyzing time to hire across different roles can uncover valuable insights into where your process may be lagging. Dallas Frazer further elaborates, “If time-to-hire is consistently higher for one role type versus another, it’s worth looking into and saying what part of that role’s hiring process isn’t working.”

Strategies to optimize both metrics

To effectively manage both time to fill and time to hire, it’s essential to implement strategies that address the unique challenges of each metric. By focusing on process improvements, leveraging technology, and maintaining a candidate-centric approach, you can significantly reduce both timeframes, leading to more efficient and successful hiring outcomes.

Reducing time to fill

1. Improve job ad visibility and sourcing: One of the first steps in reducing time to fill is ensuring that your job postings are visible to the right candidates. Utilize targeted job boards, social media, and recruitment marketing tools to reach a broader and more relevant audience. This strategy increases the number of qualified candidates in the pipeline, reducing the time it takes to fill the position.
2. Streamline internal approval processes: Delays often occur in the early stages of recruitment due to lengthy internal approval processes. By streamlining these steps—such as obtaining job requisition approvals—you can significantly cut down the time it takes to move from job posting to candidate sourcing. Automating these processes with tools like GoodTime can help accelerate the overall timeline.
3. Leverage technology for efficiency: Incorporating AI-driven tools and automation into your recruitment process can drastically reduce time to fill. GoodTime, for instance, automates interview scheduling and candidate communications, enabling teams to focus on high-value tasks rather than administrative work. As Charles Mah, Chief Customer and Operations Officer at GoodTime, advises, “Ensure that your interviewers have cross-sets of data, including scorecards, focus areas, and pertinent candidate information.”

Reducing time to hire

1. Enhance communication and coordination: Effective communication between recruiters, candidates, and hiring managers is critical to reducing time to hire. Implementing clear communication protocols and utilizing platforms that facilitate seamless interactions, including text recruiting, can help keep the process moving swiftly. This not only speeds up decision-making but also improves the candidate experience.
2. Optimize the interview process: A streamlined interview process is key to reducing time to hire. Consider implementing structured interview guides, reducing the number of interview rounds, and ensuring that decision-makers are available and prepared to give timely feedback. As Dallas Frazer notes, “If you find your process dragging on for longer than necessary, it’s a clear sign you might be investing too much time and effort in certain stages.”
3. Use data to identify bottlenecks: Regularly analyzing your recruitment data can help you identify stages in the process that are causing delays. Platforms like GoodTime provide detailed insights into where time is being spent, allowing you to make data-driven decisions to optimize the process. As Frazer emphasizes, “Platforms like GoodTime massively increase our visibility into key recruiting metrics like time-to-hire. They allow recruiting teams to not only see overall time-to-hire, but also pinpoint specific areas that might be causing delays.”

By adopting these strategies, organizations can effectively reduce both time to fill and time to hire, resulting in a more efficient hiring process that attracts and secures top talent quickly.

Final thoughts

Time to fill and time to hire are essential metrics that reveal different aspects of your recruitment process. Time to fill provides a broad view of the entire timeline, while time to hire focuses on the candidate’s experience. To achieve recruitment success, it’s crucial to balance both metrics, ensuring efficiency without compromising on the quality of hires or candidate experience.

Using tools like GoodTime can help streamline your process, reducing both time to fill and time to hire, as emphasized by the experts. By adopting a balanced, data-driven approach, you can enhance your recruitment outcomes and secure top talent effectively.