Time to Hire Calculator

How it is calculated

The formula is average time to hire = total days to fill ÷ number of hires. Total days is the sum, across every role you filled in the period, of the days from the start of the count (job opening or requisition approved, whichever your company uses) to the day the hire was made. Hires is the number of positions filled in that same period. The result is shown in days with one decimal, together with the total and the hire count.

The number of hires must be a whole number of at least 1; a decimal such as 2.5 or a zero returns no result. Total days must be zero or more and may include decimals, though the total line is shown rounded to a whole day. The calculation is a simple mean, so it treats a 5-day fill and a 120-day fill as equally important and is pulled up by a few very slow hires.

Common mistakes

• Counting from different starting points: time to hire from requisition approval and time to hire from a candidate's first application are different numbers, so use the same start for every role.
• Dividing by open roles instead of filled roles: only hires actually made belong in the divisor, and roles still open or cancelled should be left out of both fields.
• Entering the average of averages: if you already have a per-department average, enter the summed days and total hires instead, otherwise a department with few hires gets too much weight.
• Entering working days in one line and calendar days in another: pick one unit for every role, because the tool simply divides the number you type.
• Reading the mean as the typical case: one role that took 200 days can pull the average well above most hires, so compare it with the individual times too.