Time to hire shows how long it takes you to move a candidate from application to offer acceptance. Time to fill starts earlier, at requisition approval. If the two numbers are close, your process is moving. If they split apart, the bottleneck is usually before interviews or between interviews and the offer.
This matters because a fast-looking pipeline can still hide a slow hiring system. A role may get candidate interest quickly, yet sit idle while the request waits for approval, sourcing, or feedback. When you track time to hire and time to fill separately, you can see which part is dragging.
- What the metric measures
- Time to hire vs time to fill
- How to calculate time to hire
- What the gap means
- How to reduce both numbers
What the metric measures
Time to hire measures the average number of calendar days between a candidate entering the process and the offer being accepted. It tells you how fast your team moves once the person is already in the pipeline.
That makes it a process metric, not a sourcing metric. If recruiters already have good candidates but approvals are slow, time to hire will still look bad. If the issue is finding people in the first place, time to hire may look fine while time to fill stays high.
| Metric | Starts | Ends | Best for spotting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to hire | Candidate enters the process | Offer accepted | Interview and offer speed |
| Time to fill | Requisition approved | Offer accepted | Sourcing, approvals, and process delays |
Time to hire vs time to fill
The two numbers are related, but they answer different questions. Time to fill shows how long the role stayed open from the business side. Time to hire shows how quickly you handled the candidate side.
That split is useful. A high time to fill with a low time to hire usually points to sourcing or requisition delays. A low time to fill with a high time to hire points to slow interviews, poor feedback loops, or a messy offer stage.
SHRM publishes a simple time-to-hire and time-to-fill calculation spreadsheet if you want a clean worksheet to track both metrics.
How to calculate time to hire
The formula is simple:
Time to hire = total days from candidate entry to offer acceptance / number of hires measured
Use the same start and end points for every role. Otherwise the metric becomes noise. A consistent rule matters more than a pretty dashboard.
Here is a worked example for three hires in one month.
| Hire | Candidate enters | Offer accepted | Days | Time to fill days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 5 Jan | 12 Jan | 7 | 24 |
| B | 10 Jan | 22 Jan | 12 | 23 |
| C | 14 Jan | 25 Jan | 11 | 28 |
Time to hire = (7 + 12 + 11) / 3 = 10 days
Time to fill = (24 + 23 + 28) / 3 = 25 days
The gap is 15 days. That gap is the useful part. It tells you the role is not slow because of interviews alone. The missing days are sitting in sourcing or approval.
What the gap means
If time to fill is much higher than time to hire, start with the top of the funnel. Check job approval, sourcing channels, job ad quality, and recruiter capacity. If time to hire is the problem, look at hiring manager response time, interview scheduling, and offer approval.
If both numbers are high, the process is broken end to end. If both are low but offers are still being refused, speed is not the issue. Pay, role design, or candidate experience is.
Use the gap as a diagnostic, not a vanity metric. One number alone can hide the real delay.
How to reduce both numbers
- Set one start date and one stop date for every role.
- Track time per stage, not just the final average.
- Ask hiring managers for feedback within 24 hours.
- Keep interview panels small and consistent.
- Pre-approve salary bands before sourcing starts.
- Review the slowest role type every month, not just the overall average.
If your team still tracks hiring dates in spreadsheets, clean data will do more for you than a bigger report. Put the dates in one system, measure both metrics, and the bottleneck becomes obvious.
