Time to hire calculator

Time to hire and time to fill are the two standard speed metrics in recruitment. Slow hiring loses strong candidates to faster competitors and leaves teams understaffed for longer. This calculator measures both metrics and breaks the process into stages, so you can see where candidates wait the longest.

The two metrics

• Time to hire: days from when a candidate enters your pipeline (applies or is sourced) to when they accept the offer. It measures how efficiently your team moves candidates through the process.
• Time to fill: days from when the job requisition is approved or posted to when an offer is accepted. It includes sourcing time and is used for workforce planning.

How to use it

1. Enter the requisition date, the date the hired candidate applied, and the offer acceptance date.
2. Optionally enter the dates each stage started: screening, interviews, assessment, offer.
3. Read time to hire, time to fill and the duration of each stage.

Worked example

A requisition opened on 1 September. The successful candidate applied on 10 September, had a phone screen on 15 September, interviews on 29 September and received an offer on 8 October, which they accepted on 11 October. Time to fill = 40 days. Time to hire = 31 days. The longest gap, 14 days between screen and interviews, is the bottleneck.

Ways to speed up hiring

• Pre-book interview slots with the panel before the role opens.
• Combine interview rounds into a single day where possible.
• Set feedback deadlines of 24 to 48 hours for interviewers.
• Prepare offer approval in advance so it is not a separate wait.