Time to fill is the total number of days it takes to complete your hiring process-from the moment you first post a job opening or the requisition is approved to the day your new hire accepts your offer.
Think of it as your recruitment stopwatch: It starts ticking when you hit "publish" on that job posting and stops when you hear those magic words, "I accept."
Why does time to fill matter? The metric gives you a clear picture of how efficiently your hiring machine is running and where you might need to fine-tune your process to land top talent faster.
Time to fill vs. time to hire
While often used interchangeably, time to fill and time to hire track different parts of the hiring process.
- Time to fill (TTF). The number of days a role stays open, from when an organization posts a job to when a candidate accepts an offer. It measures the overall recruiting cycle length.
- Time to hire (TTH). The number of days an organization takes to hire a candidate after they apply or are recruited for a job. It measures the time a candidate spends in the hiring process.
Time to fill is about the length of the recruitment cycle. Time to hire is about the candidate experience and how long it takes to make a hiring decision.
How to measure your time to fill
To measure time to fill, start by counting the calendar days from the moment a job requisition gets the green light (or the day you post it) to the moment your chosen candidate says "yes" to your offer. You can track this for a single role, a department, or across different regions.Think of it as a zoom lens that can go wide or close-up to spot patterns and uncover opportunities to speed things up.
The payoff: A clear view of where your hiring process shines, and where it could use tweaking.
Why your time to fill matters
A crystal ball for workforce planning
Understanding your time to fill is like having a crystal ball for workforce planning: It gives you the data you need to predict how long it'll actually take to bring new talent on board.
Armed with this insight, you can work backward from your business needs to set realistic hiring timelines, whether you're planning a team expansion next quarter or preparing for seasonal staffing shifts.
Savvy workforce planners (like you!) can use these historical patterns to build buffer time into their hiring schedules, ensuring they're never caught scrambling to fill critical roles at the last minute.
Is your hiring team efficient?
Time to fill is more than just a stopwatch. It's a snapshot of how efficiently your team is finding, evaluating, and securing the right talent. A shorter time to fill often signals a well‑oiled hiring engine where sourcing, screening, and selection flow from one stage to the next.
Tracking your time to fill can also tell you if your hiring is working-or if something's getting stuck. Are candidates moving smoothly from application to offer? Or are they dropping off because your process takes too long, has too many hoops, or just doesn't feel worth the wait? The numbers show you exactly where things slow down, so you can fix what's broken and hire the people you want before someone else does.
The ripple effect
An extended time to fill ripples across your organization: delaying projects, slowing productivity, and putting extra strain on the teams left to pick up the slack. When open roles stay unfilled, existing employees are usually the ones who should shoulder the extra work.
Plus, every day a role sits empty costs you real money. Your team's stretched thin trying to cover the work. Projects get delayed. Sales opportunities slip away. And you're still paying recruiters to keep searching. The longer it takes to hire, the more it hurts your bottom line-which is why getting someone great in the door quickly isn't just nice to have, it's how you protect your business.
What's slowing you down?
Unfortunately, some bottlenecks are out of your control. Luckily, others aren't, and that's where you should focus your efforts.
Out of your control
- Role complexity and seniority. The more specialized skills and experience you need, the smaller your talent pool becomes. Meanwhile, hiring for senior-level roles can stretch your time to fill by months (rather than weeks) since you're not just finding someone who can do the job, but someone who can excel in a leadership position.
- Your industry and talent availability. If you're competing in a field where top talent is scarce or highly sought after (think healthcare or tech), you'll naturally need more time to source and secure the right candidates.
- Global hiring challenges. Hiring employees from multiple countries impacts your time to fill. On top of the usual hiring work, you're now dealing with different time zones, local laws, and an array of cultural norms.
In your control
- Your internal approval process.
- The problem: When you need five people to approve every hire, or your interview panel can't find a time that works for everyone, or you're putting candidates through seven rounds of interviews, or the hiring manager takes a week to answer basic questions-that's when things fall apart. What should take days stretches into weeks. Sometimes months. Meanwhile, your best candidates have already taken other offers.
- The fix: Use an applicant tracking system (ATS) to speed up the hiring process and let your hiring team know how and why you're all working together to reduce time to fill. Check your time to fill regularly to see if you are meeting targets.
- Job location and remote work flexibility.
- The problem: Your job description wasn't clear on whether the role is fully remote, hybrid, or on-site. Now you've got confused candidates. So, you end up fielding email questions and receiving applications from candidates who don't want to come into the office (or vice versa).
- The fix: In the job description, clearly state the job location (if there is one) and if the role is remote, hybrid, or on-site.
- Your brand's strength and candidate pipeline health.
- The problem: When talented people don't know who you are-or worse, they've heard things that make them hesitate-you waste time trying to sell them on why they should work for you. And if you're not building relationships with potential hires before you need them? You're starting from scratch every single time, scrambling to find candidates while that empty desk costs you money.
- The fix: Easier said than done, but start working now (before you post a job) to build a robust talent pipeline. Strengthening your brand is an excellent start.
Speed up your global time to fill without cutting corners
Think your time to fill is tough now? Wait until your perfect candidate is in Singapore. Or São Paulo. Or Stockholm.
Now you're not just coordinating interviews across time zones-you're figuring out employment contracts in languages you don't speak, tax requirements you've never seen, and compliance rules that change by the month. That role you needed filled in 30 days? Try 90. Or more. While your competition scoops up the talent, you're still trying to figure out how to legally hire.
Here's what changes everything: with Pebl as your Employer of Record partner, hiring someone in Berlin takes the same time as hiring someone in Boston. We've already done the legal groundwork in more than 185 countries. The contracts are ready. The compliance is handled. The payroll systems are set up. So instead of adding months to your time to fill, you're making offers as fast as you can interview.
Ready to hire globally without the wait? Let's talk about getting your next great hire onboard-wherever they are.
Disclaimer: This information does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal or tax advice and is for general informational purposes only. The intent of this document is solely to provide general and preliminary information for private use. Do not rely on it as an alternative to legal, financial, taxation, or accountancy advice from an appropriately qualified professional. The content in this guide is provided "as is," and no representations are made that the content is error-free.
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