Passisto
Recruitment

Time to Fill

Time to fill is the number of days between the opening of a job requisition and the day a candidate accepts the offer, showing how long a position stays vacant.

Definition

Time to fill measures how long a position stays open. The clock starts when the job requisition is approved or the vacancy is published, and stops when a candidate accepts the offer. It covers everything in between: sourcing, screening, interviews, decision, offer and negotiation.

It is calculated for each position and then averaged by role, department or period. Because it starts earlier than time to hire, it also includes the time spent attracting candidates and waiting for the requisition to be approved. Comparing the two tells you whether delays come from finding candidates or from your selection process.

Time to fill matters because every vacant week has a cost: work is redistributed to colleagues, projects slip and customers or teams wait. Be careful with comparisons: a specialist or senior role naturally takes longer than a high-volume role, so compare similar positions and avoid a single global average.

Key points

  • Formula: date of offer acceptance minus date the requisition was opened or the job published, averaged by role or period.
  • It shows how long a position stays vacant, from the business point of view.
  • Compare it with time to hire to see whether the delay is in sourcing or in selection.
  • Compare similar roles only: senior and specialist positions are slower by nature.
  • Agree internally on the start date of the clock so the figure stays consistent.

Example

A retail company approves a store manager vacancy on April 1 and publishes it the next day. The offer is accepted on May 20. The time to fill is 49 days. If the candidate entered the process on April 25, the time to hire is 25 days, which shows that most of the delay came from attracting candidates, not from the selection process.

Frequently asked questions

When does time to fill start?

Most teams start the clock when the requisition is approved or the vacancy is published. There is no single rule, so decide on one definition and apply it everywhere to keep your figures comparable.

How is time to fill different from time to hire?

Time to fill covers the whole life of a vacancy, including sourcing. Time to hire starts when a specific candidate enters your process. The gap between the two reveals how long it takes to attract candidates.

How can I reduce time to fill?

Speed up requisition approval, write clear job descriptions, work on several sourcing channels at once and keep a talent pool of people you have already met. A shorter selection process helps too, as long as the evaluation stays fair.

Related terms

Time to HireTime to hire is the number of days between the moment a candidate enters your recruitment process and the moment they accept your job offer.Cost per HireCost per hire is the average total amount a company spends to recruit one new employee, adding internal and external recruitment costs and dividing them by the number of hires in the period.Candidate SourcingCandidate sourcing is the proactive search for and first contact with potential candidates, including people who are not actively applying, in order to build a pipeline of qualified profiles for current or future roles.Talent PoolA talent pool is a database of qualified people, such as past applicants, silver medalists, referrals and contacts, whom a company has identified and keeps in touch with so that it can fill future openings faster.

AI conversations, human decisions

Passisto holds structured voice conversations with candidates, employees, clients and students, and turns them into reports your team can act on.

Discover Passisto Talk to us
What is Time to Fill? Definition and examples | Passisto