Time to Fill
Also known as TTF, Requisition Cycle Time
Time to fill measures the days from requisition approval to the new hire's start date. Because it includes sourcing, selection, offer and notice period, it is the metric that hiring managers and workforce planners care about — it describes how long the work goes uncovered.
Formula
Time to Fill = New hire start date − Requisition approval dateSome organisations measure to offer acceptance rather than start date. Measuring to start date is more useful for capacity planning because notice periods are a real part of the gap.
Worked example
- Scenario
- A requisition approved on 3 March, offer accepted 21 April, candidate starts 2 June after a six-week notice period.
- Calculation
- 3 March to 2 June
- Result
- 91 days time to fill, of which 42 were notice period — a component recruiting cannot compress
What good looks like
Median time to fill of 40–60 days is common for professional roles, with senior and specialist positions running considerably longer. Notice-period norms vary substantially by country, which makes cross-border comparison of this metric particularly unreliable.
Why time to fill matters
Time to fill is the input to vacancy cost and to workforce planning. If a critical role takes 90 days to fill, succession planning and pipeline building have to start well before anyone resigns. It is also the metric that exposes approval bottlenecks — requisitions frequently sit unapproved for weeks before recruiting sees them.
How to improve it
- 1Break it into approval, sourcing, selection, offer and notice. Only the middle three are within recruiting's control, and reporting them together lets recruiting be blamed for the rest.
- 2Build talent pools for recurring critical roles rather than starting sourcing at requisition approval.
- 3Measure the approval stage explicitly — it is often the largest and least-examined segment.
- 4Report notice period separately so international comparisons remain meaningful.
Common mistakes
- Holding recruiting accountable for a total that includes approval delay and notice periods.
- Comparing across countries without adjusting for notice-period norms.
- Excluding cancelled requisitions, which removes exactly the roles that took longest.
Frequently asked questions
Should time to fill end at offer acceptance or start date?
Start date, if the metric is for workforce planning — the work is uncovered until someone is actually doing it. Report offer acceptance as a sub-measure so recruiting performance can be separated from notice periods it cannot influence.
Related metrics
Time to hire measures the days between a candidate entering your pipeline and accepting an offer. It is a candidate-experience and process-efficiency metric, and it is distinct from time to fill, which starts when the role is approved rather than when the candidate applies.
Cost per HireCost per hire is the total internal and external recruiting spend divided by the number of hires in a period. It is the standard efficiency measure for talent acquisition and the basis for comparing sourcing channels against each other.
Internal Mobility RateInternal mobility rate is the percentage of open roles filled by existing employees through promotion or lateral move, rather than external hire. It is one of the strongest available indicators of whether an organisation offers a visible career path — and it correlates closely with retention.
Applicants per OpeningApplicants per opening is the average number of applications received per open role. It is a top-of-funnel volume measure, and it is only meaningful when read against how many of those applicants were actually qualified.
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