Time-to-hire is one of the most important and frequently used hiring and recruiting metrics. If bench marking and tracking this metric is done correctly, it can reveal any pesky inefficiencies in your recruitment process – Often it’s one or two small inefficiencies in the process which result in you losing the placement to a competitor! This is a vital KPI for recruitment business owners and serious career recruiters to watch if you’d like to see growth.
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Time-to-Hire vs. Time-to-Fill
Time-to-hire is often used as a synonym for time-to-fill. This is a mistake! Time-to-Hire and Time-to-Fill are two completely different metrics.
The difference between these two metrics is in the starting point:
1. Time-to-Fill counts the days from the date when you’ve published your new job opening. This is by no means an unimportant metric to track.
Time-to-fill answers the question: How long is your whole recruitment process, from creating a new job opening to hiring someone?
2. Time-to-Hire counts the days from the date when you have sourced viable candidates and shortlisted for the vacancy in your Send Outs tab.
Time-to-hire answers the question: After you have candidates lined up for a position, how long does it take you to seal the deal.
Time-to-Hire reveals some important information:
~ How effective your communication tactics are when it comes to coordinating with Candidates and Clients.
~ How effective your referral CV is in grabbing a client’s attention.
~ How well you are managing with scheduling and timing challenges.
~ And above all else, how effectively you are applying your sales and negotiation skills.
Remember: A long time-to-hire raises the cost of your placement, eats up time and attention which could be spent on filling more positions and can also cause you to lose top candidates. Robert Half’s research found that a massive 57% of candidates lose interest in a job if the hiring process is too long.
Here are some international insights to use as a starting point when benchmarking your time-to-hire:
The 2020 Yello Interview Scheduling Survey presents the following findings.
- Average Time-to-Hire across all industries is 3-4 weeks.
- On average, each corporate job offer attracts 250 resumes. Of those candidates, 4 to 6 will get called for an interview, and only one will get the job.
- 67% of respondents say it takes between 30 minutes and 2 hours to schedule a single interview.
- Recruiters’ #1 interview scheduling challenge is finding a time that works for everyone.
- 56% of recruiters said they can’t make good hires because of lengthy hiring procedures.
- According to recruiters, the average number of interviews which come before an offer is made;
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- Three – 51%
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- Four – 22%
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- Two – 17%
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- Five or More – 9%
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- One – 1%
How to improve time-to-hire?
One of the best ways to reduce your time-to-hire is to use modern recruitment software.
According to research, 86% of recruiting professionals say that using an ATS has helped them hire faster.
Top 5 ways in which software reduces time to hire:
- Build a talent pipeline – With features such as the Top Candidates list, you can keep a pool of your best candidates close and nurture much closer relationships with these quality candidates.
- Track your interactions – Your comprehensive CRM function allows you to to keep notes on each and every interaction you’ve had with clients and candidates. The automated reminder system also makes it a breeze to ensure that you are driving the process forward and keeping everyone accountable.
- Integrated scheduling tools – The scheduling and reminder functions in your Vacancies module allows you to keep track of each candidate in the pipeline, in one centralised place. Avoid any embarrassing scheduling issues by scheduling through the system, sharing the info to your integrated email calendar and scheduling reminder SMS’s to go out on the day.
- Customise your referral CV – Stand out from the crowd with a sleek, branded referral CV which is programmed into your Placement Partner system and simply pulls your candidate’s relevant info into a clean, easy-to-read standard format for your clients to enjoy.
- Tracking and reporting – Get familiar with the reporting tools in your system. This will allow you to keep an eye on your metrics at a glance. If you have the required permissions you can also run comparisons within your team to identify your respective strengths and weaknesses.