Time-to-Hire: How to fill vacancies faster

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.

Definition: What is time to hire?

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.

Four phases until a position is filled

The time to hire can be divided into several time periods.

Vier Phasen der Time-to-Hire

Preparation phase: Once it has been determined that a (new) position is available, job requirements and budget are defined. The job advertisement is created.
Sourcing: Depending on the recruiting strategy, campaigns are launched and continuously optimized, and Active sourcing methods applied.
Screening: Applications are reviewed and candidates are interviewed. (Pre-)selection and follow-up questions take place.
Decision: Evaluation by (personnel) decision-makers and acceptance or rejection of candidates. If accepted, a contract is drawn up and concluded.

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.

Also read: How to flexibly outsource your recruiting with RPO

Time-to-hire benchmark in Germany

How long does it take on average for a position to be filled in this country? In our research we came across various results.

An analysis of VONQ has shown that it takes an average of 78 days to find a candidate and sign the contract.
The study “Business effects of family-friendly measures” by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth with ten participating companies from different sectors and sizes came to the following figures: For a position in the lower income bracket, the average time to hire is 1 month, for the middle income bracket 2.3 months and for the upper income bracket 4 months.
According to the Skilled labor shortage analysis 2020 by the Federal Employment Agency The average vacancy time in Germany is 135 days.
According to a Blog post by Robert Half In 2016, it took an average of 62 days to fill vacant positions.

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.

Study shows: Occupation times are increasing

Die Time-to-Hire nimmt zu — The time-to-hire increases (Image source: chaipanya – Shutterstock.com)

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.

Long time-to-hire for managers

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 specialists as a special challenge

IT-Stellen sind besonders schwer zu besetzen — IT positions are particularly difficult to fill (Image source: Gorodenkoff – Shutterstock.com)

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!

Also read: Career changers as a solution to the shortage of skilled workers?

These are the reasons for the long periods

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 %).

Shorten time to hire – here's how

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:

Enable fast communication: Contact persons should be easily accessible. In addition, Chatbots be used for initial contact with candidates.
Define KPIs: Many companies do not use key performance indicators in recruiting. This means they miss the opportunity to efficiently analyze and optimize their recruitment processes.
Driving digitalization forward: corona has shown it – Remote Recruiting is possible. Video interviews and other digital measures can speed up application processes and defy numerous challenges posed by the pandemic situation.
Optimize your career page: With a attractive career page, you can enable candidates to apply quickly and provide answers to their most common questions (Read more: What candidates expect from a career site).
Cross-departmental coordination: Department heads and managers should be involved. This will enable faster decisions to be made.
Use efficient tools: Do you already know flynne? The recruiting tool shortens the time-to-hire enormously by giving you immediate access to a Talent pool for the position you are looking for. This allows you to skip the time-consuming sourcing process and start contacting suitable candidates straight away.