The 3 Best Strategies To Reduce Time To Fill

 

One of the most important hiring metrics to track, measure, and optimize is time to fill. The time-to-fill metric is defined as the number of calendar days it takes to hire new candidates from when a job opening is approved to when an offer is accepted.

Although organizations can easily measure the time to fill their open positions, implementing strategies to reduce this metric is often challenging. Reducing time to fill can significantly impact an organization’s overall effectiveness, business performance, and financial results.

Below, we provide three strategies to help you reduce your time to fill. Each strategy includes a visualization and example to demonstrate its impact.

1. Optimize Recruiting Budget Allocation

The first strategy to reduce your time to fill is to optimize your recruiting budget allocation. This is particularly effective if you have a multi-faceted recruiting strategy that includes job boards, referrals, and other recruiting methods. To optimize your recruiting budget, begin by identifying time-to-fill rates across different strategies. You can then use this information to reallocate your budget effectively.

In the example below, you’ll see the time-to-fill rate by channel for a customer service role, segmented by recruiting source. The two best sources for faster time-to-fill rates are referrals and Glassdoor, while Indeed and ZipRecruiter produce fewer quality hires. Knowing that referrals and Glassdoor are better sources, you can reallocate more budget to those areas. This approach can accelerate the hiring process by investing resources into channels that produce the best outcomes.

Figure 1 Reduce Hiring Costs

2. Build Ideal Candidate Profiles Based on KPIs

Another strategy to reduce your time-to-fill rate is to build Ideal Candidate Profiles based on KPIs. Most roles within your company have key performance indicators (KPIs) that define success. Additionally, success in a role often correlates with certain characteristics and behaviors. With this information, you can build ideal candidate profiles based on a combination of performance and behavioral data to attract the best candidates for each role. The higher the quality of candidates you attract, the more likely you are to reduce your time to fill.

For example, suppose your organization is hiring for a Sales Associate position, where revenue is the most important KPI. Knowing this, you can assess behaviors that correlate with performance. In the graph below, you’ll see that impatience is an indicator of success in this sales role based on the quality hire rate. This insight allows you to create a more robust Ideal Candidate Profile that includes keywords related to impatience, attracting suitable candidates for the role.

Figure 2 Reduce Hiring Costs

3. Empower Hiring Managers With Interview Guides

The final strategy to help reduce your time-to-fill rate is to create interview guides for hiring managers. This approach reduces indecisiveness in hiring decisions, which can otherwise cause delays and negatively impact the time-to-fill rate. By creating formal interview guides, you provide hiring managers with a structured approach to interviewing candidates. You can tailor these guides to each role, incorporating key performance metrics, behavioral indicators, and job-specific competencies.

In the example below, you’ll see the time-to-fill rates for a marketing position before and after implementing interview guides. Before using interview guides, the time-to-fill rate for the marketing role was 85 days, while after using the guides, it dropped to 63 days. Being more decisive about candidate fit can accelerate the interviewing process and reduce the time to fill.

Figure 3 Reduce Hiring Costs

Ready to reduce your time to fill? Contact Us to learn more about how we can help.