Hi, today's Bite is all about time to hire.
One of the most important recruiting metrics in HR.
Stay tuned while you learn what it is,
how to calculate it,
what a good benchmark for time to hire is,
and finally, how you can optimize it in your organization.
Time to hire is often used interchangeably
with time to fill.
However, you can also treat them as separate metrics
and gain different insights.
Time to hire measures a time between the moment
your prospective hire enters your pipeline
through sourcing or application,
and the moment they accept your job offer.
This metric indicates how fast you've spotted
your best candidate
and moved them through your recruitment funnel.
How do you calculate time to hire?
Time to hire is a candidate-centered metric.
The time to hire is the number of days
between a candidate applying and getting hired.
Let's say you open up a specific position at day one.
If your best candidate applies on day 10
and accepts your job offer on day 25,
then the time to hire is 15 days.
In other words, it measures the time
it takes for someone to move through the hiring process
once they've applied.
What's a good benchmark for time to hire?
The moment the best candidate applies,
your hiring team should be ready to identify them.
It is always best to aim
for the shortest time to hire possible
while still having sufficient time to make a good decision.
How can we improve time to hire?
It goes without saying that the more efficient
your hiring process is,
the shorter your time to hire will be.
To reduce your time to hire
start by identifying what causes it to be higher
than you'd expect.
Here are a few ideas.
One, be data-driven.
As soon as we talk about measuring time,
it's obvious that data is involved.
So of course when it comes to measuring time to hire,
and eventually reducing it where possible,
data is key.
In that regard, as a first step toward working
on your time to hire,
try to find out how long it currently takes you
to fill a role, the time it takes for the candidate
to move between stages,
for example, from the application stage
to the phone interview stage,
or from phone interview stage
to the in-person interview stage and so on.
How your time to hire compares
with the standard time to hire in your industry,
the number of calendar days from the final selection
to making the job offer.
The ratio of good to poor applications
you typically get.
This will help you diagnose if the slow down
is happening in the sourcing phase.
Two, build a talent pipeline ahead of time.
A talent pipeline or a group of candidates
you've pre-screened for a certain role
is one of the most powerful ways to reduce time to hire.
When you have a number of qualified candidates
on your speed dial,
you don't have to advertise your job,
wait for the applications to roll in,
or spend time vetting the applicants.
All you need to do is reach out to these people
about the open role.
Three, make interviewing quick.
Delay scheduling interviews directly at your time to hire.
With most companies conducting at least three rounds
of interviews, the time to schedule interviews
usually offers a lot of room for improvement.
Using an automated interview scheduling tool
will save you time.
Also schedule all the interviews rapidly,
as delays between interviews frustrate
a number of applicants
and degrade the overall candidate experience.
What is time to fill versus time to hire?
Time to fill and time to hire
are sometimes used interchangeably.
However, it's useful to separate the two metrics
because they can give you very different insights.
The difference between time to fill and time to hire
is the point at which you start counting.
For instance, you start counting time to fill
as soon as a job opening is approved.
If this is on day one and your best candidate
applies on day 10
and you close the deal on day 25,
your time to fill is 25 days
while your time to hire is 15 days.
This is a significant difference.
Time to fill is usually more relevant
for measuring organizational efficiency
while time to hire is more candidate-centric.
Time to hire will therefore likely influence
the candidate experience
while time to fill reflects your recruitment efficiency.
That's it for today's Bite in which you've learned
what time to hire is,
how to calculate it,
what a good benchmark is,
how you can improve in your organization,
and how it differs from time to fill.
If you're interested in even more recruitment metrics,
click on the link in the description
in which you can find a full list of 19 recruiting metrics.
Remember to stay up to date with our Learning Bites
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And if you like this video, make sure you like and share it.
And I'll see you soon in our next Learning Bite.
(bright music)