Time to Fill vs Time to Hire: The Difference and How to Measure Both

Time to fill is the number of days from when a job is approved or opened to when a candidate accepts the offer. Time to hire is the number of days from when a specific candidate first enters your process, usually when they apply or are first contacted, to when they accept. Time to fill measures how long the role was open. Time to hire measures how fast your process moves a candidate. They answer different questions, so track both.

Time to fill

Start the clock when the request to open the role is approved, or the job is posted, and stop it when an offer is accepted. Decide which start you use and keep to it. It tells the business how long a seat stays empty, which includes the time spent writing the job description, sourcing and waiting for approvals as well as interviewing.

Time to hire

Start the clock when the candidate applies or is first contacted and stop it when they accept the offer. It tells you how long the process takes for one person, and shows where candidates wait. A long time to hire often means candidates drop out or accept elsewhere.

A worked example

A role is approved on 1 March and posted on 8 March. A candidate applies on 20 March and accepts on 18 April. Time to fill is 48 days from 1 March to 18 April, or 41 days if you count from the posting. Time to hire for that candidate is 29 days, from 20 March to 18 April.

What to do with them

If time to fill is long but time to hire is short, the delay is before candidates reach you: approvals, the job description or sourcing. If time to hire is long, look at your interview stages, feedback delays and offer approval. Look at the stage where candidates wait the longest and fix that first.

Use medians and compare like with like

A few unusual roles can distort an average, so a median is more representative. Compare similar kinds of role, and look at the trend over time rather than a single number. Do not compare with other companies' figures unless the definitions match.

Related measures

Also useful: time in each stage, offer acceptance rate, and source of hire, which shows which channels bring people who are hired. Together they show where the process is slow and where it works.

In Rezumz

Rezumz records when each job opens and closes, when each candidate was added, every status change with its date, and where candidates came from, so you can see how long each stage takes, which candidates are waiting, and which sources produce hires. The today view lists what is waiting on you, so the slowest part, a person's own queue, is visible.