Time To Fill

What Is Time To Fill?

In recruiting, time to fill is a performance metric. It is used by HR managers to gauge how long it takes to fill a position, calculated from the time a new vacancy is created until the time a new hire is successfully hired. The time to fill measures how long it takes for a company to successfully hire a new employee to replace a vacancy. Therefore, the terms "vacancy time" and "filling time" are interchangeable. Days are used to calculate the figure.

Typically, the key figure involves at least these actions:

• Creation of the requirement or communicating it to personnel managers
• Developing a job description
• Financial planning
• Placing the job posting
• Screening
• Choosing candidates through interviews
• Delivery of a job offer
• Negotiations for pay, time off, etc.
• Executing the contract

Many businesses additionally account for the period of time the new employee must wait before starting. This is so because there isn't a consensus on what constitutes the end of the time to fill.

It is disputed as to when the time to fill genuinely ends—when the contract is signed or when the new employee starts working for the company—because it is not quite apparent which step constitutes that conclusion. The following succinct summary of the key arguments is provided:

Arguments against coming to a conclusion after the contract are signed: Technically speaking, the post is not "filled" after the contract is signed because it may still be weeks or even months before the employee hired really begins working. There are frequent notice periods or preparation times that need to be considered.

Arguments in favor of signing a contract to conclude: Although the wait until the new hire starts frequently unavoidable, it often has nothing to do with how effectively the hiring process is going, which tends to artificially increase the time to fill.

How Is The Time To Fill Determined?

It is relatively easy to determine the time to fill and can be done in one of two ways:

• Determine each case's value: Calculate the difference between the recruitment process's beginning and end dates. The notice of the need serves as the start date, and the contract signing date or the first day of business, depending on the definition, serves as the end date. Time-span estimators are a useful resource in this case.
• Adding days: Alternately, you can just total the number of days that each phase of the process's labor requires.
• Calculate the average: Individual cases don't yield a typical outcome. Only by calculating the average of numerous previous vacancy periods can a truly useful indicator be determined.

Conclusion

This indicator is used to assess the talent pool's quality and the efficiency of the hiring process. A long time to fill a position suggests a weak talent pool and/or an ineffective hiring process. A short time to fill a position suggests that the hiring procedure is successful and/or that the talent pool is robust.