Studies have shown that recruiters in Germany often need (too) much time to fill a vacant position. We show why the time to hire is increasing in this country and how you can shorten this time period.

Studies have shown that recruiters in Germany often need (too) much time to fill a vacant position. We show why the time to hire is increasing in this country and how you can shorten this time period.
The term is a key figure for HR departments and recruiters that describes the duration of a position being filled. The time to hire begins at the point at which it is clear that a position in the company is becoming vacant or is being created. It ends as soon as this position is filled by a new employee.
The KPI provides information about the labor market situation in a particular industry and about the efficiency of the recruiting process in the company. A long period of time for filling positions can indicate that the labor market situation is difficult. On the other hand, it can be due to sluggish decision-making processes and slow response times in recruitment.
The term time-to-fill is often used as a synonym for time-to-hire.
The time to hire can be divided into several time periods.
In all four of these phases, costs of various kinds arise. For example, external costs for placing job advertisements, but also the costs for unfilled positions.
The longer the time to hire, the higher the costs. For this reason alone, it is in the interest of companies to keep this period as short as possible.
How long does it take on average for a position to be filled in this country? In our research we came across various results.
A clear time-to-hire benchmark cannot be given. The results for Duration of time-to-hire in this country vary primarily between 2 to 4 monthsHowever, it will become clear in the following that filling vacancies, particularly for IT specialists and management personnel, significantly longer can take.
According to a Forsa study commissioned by Xing E-Recruiting, 79% of the 200 HR managers surveyed from companies with over 200 employees stated that time-to-hire was a “very important metric” for them.
73 % of them recorded a Increase in time-to-hire30 % are even struggling with a “sharp increase” in occupation time.
Most HR experts assume that this trend will not change any time soon: 77% of respondents believe that the time to hire will increase slightly or significantly in the future.
51 percent of survey participants need three to six months to fill an open management position. Another ten percent estimate it will take six to nine months, six percent up to twelve months and two percent more than a year.
The costs of recruiting a manager: 29% of respondents spend 20,000 to 50,000 euros, 27% get by with 10,000 to 20,000 euros and 22% get by with 5,000 to 10,000 euros.
management are therefore obviously hard to find and are often high recruitment costs tied together.
And what about skilled workers? Here, it is a little quicker and more cost-effective: 66% of those surveyed can fill a vacant position in less than three months and 55% need less than 5,000 euros to fill the position.
IT professionals According to 68% of the HR managers surveyed particularly difficult to find – here the time-to-hire has increased significantly in recent years.
This result is consistent with a study on the job market for IT specialists by the digital association Bitkom from 2020, in which more than 850 human resources managers in companies from a wide range of industries were surveyed.
47 % of respondents said that it takes longer to fill IT jobs than other positions. To fill an open position IT position to be filled According to the survey, it takes on average six monthsIn 2018 it was five months.
A similar result is reached by the Wollmilchsau study “Recruiting in web and software development”. It takes an average of 208 days to fill an IT consulting position. That is almost seven months!
Why is the time to hire increasing? The respondents to the Xing E-Recruiting study cite external factors as the main reason: 90% of respondents say Skilled labor shortage and 64 % the Candidates’ salary demands die „Schuld“.
Internal factors include: lack of resources (51 %) and outdated recruiting tools (45 %).
In order to counteract the increasing filling times and to offer candidates a quick application process with good Candidate Experience Recruiters can do a number of things to make this possible. For example:
Do you need support in reducing your time-to-hire? We are happy to help you – just contact Contact with us.
(Image source cover image: fizkes – Shutterstock.com)