Introduction
In the dynamic world of Talent Acquisition, speed and precision are key. As leading specialists in Recruiting efficiency, we continually seek ways to optimize our processes and deliver significant value to our clients. This blog post will provide a deeper insight into how we reduced the time-to-fill from 58 days to 45 days for a revenue-generating team at a client’s organization, generating over $20M in added performance.
Understanding Time to Fill
To go deeper into the topic, it’s important to define the metric that we are using. Two metrics often create confusion – Time to Fill and Time to Hire. It’s crucial to distinguish between the two for effective talent management.
Time to Fill reflects the time between the day the role was opened and when it was filled.
Time to Hire signifies the time it takes to hire a candidate after they enter the recruitment funnel.
In other words, Time to Fill measures how fast a team can fill a role on average, and Time to Hire measures how long a hired candidate spends on average in the hiring process.
Despite being a widely utilized metric, Time to Fill has its flaws. Averages, by their very nature, can be deceptive. As the saying goes, “Never cross a river that’s on average 4 feet deep.” When applied to Time to Fill, this adage shows that broad averages can obscure specific problem areas by diluting the problem in the large dataset.
An organization should always strive to minimize its Time to Fill. Extended hiring processes beyond a certain threshold yield diminishing returns. Prolonged timelines may lead to losing potential candidates, difficulty securing top talent, wasted resources, and increasing opportunity costs for vacant roles.
Case Study: Improving Time to Fill at a Large Tech Company
To illustrate this, let’s consider a case study from our own experience. We collaborated with a large technology company with over 5,000 employees. The Time to Fill for one of their key revenue-generating teams averaged 58 days, a significant duration in such a fast-paced industry.
In the following sections, we will explore how we addressed this challenge, reducing the Time to Fill to just 45 days, and in turn, saved the company a significant amount in potential costs.
The strategies below are not in any particular order, as they can be implemented independently.
Strategy 1: Building Talent Communities
One of our initial strategies involved the development of talent communities. By creating a network of potential candidates, we established a pool of qualified individuals ready to step in when a new position opened. This not only expedited the process but also ensured that we had a group of candidates who were familiar with the company’s culture and expectations, reducing the possibility of a poor fit.
Talent communities are a common feature in most ATS, but few companies use it appropriately. When used strategically they can be a gold mine for efficiency. Before rejecting candidates, the Talent team should always ask themselves if the candidate could be a better match for another team or another level, and then add them to the community.
Strategy 2: Leveraging Talent Intelligence
When there’s some similarity on the roles that are being hired, there’s an opportunity to optimize the way we source that talent pool. We utilized talent intelligence to gain insight into the availability and distribution of talent based on their level and location. This in-depth understanding of the talent landscape allowed us to predict and plan for potential staffing needs, making the hiring process more streamlined and efficient.
Once a role opened in one of the mapped locations, the Talent team could educate hiring managers on the talent pool for that region, the top employers, challenges in compensation, and opportunities for hiring. This gave the Talent team an advisory role that helped build trust and optimized the sourcing process.
Strategy 3: Hiring Manager Enablement
Another significant strategy was creating resources for hiring managers, designed to expedite the timeline between headcount approval, kick off meeting, and candidate screenings. By equipping hiring managers with the necessary tools, we added efficiency to the education process, they were more prepared to share the right information with Recruiters, and knew what their role was in the process. With this we were able to reduce delays and ensure a seamless hiring process.
Strategy 4: Standardizing Competencies and Assessment Guides
We implemented standard competencies and assessment guides to bring consistency to the evaluation process. By doing so, we helped minimize subjective biases and ensure that candidates were assessed based on relevant skills and qualifications, leading to quicker decision-making.
Strategy 5: Implementing Decision-Making Frameworks
A significant aspect of our strategy involved creating decision-making frameworks. These facilitated more efficient collaboration between hiring managers, recruiters, and interviewers, ensuring that everyone involved in the hiring process was aligned, and decisions could be made more quickly and accurately.
Strategy 6: Streamlining Processes
Lastly, we focused on identifying and eliminating unnecessary steps in the hiring process. By streamlining these procedures, we reduced bottlenecks and inefficiencies, further shortening the Time to Fill. For example, roles with significant differences in seniority were being treated with the same rigor and number of steps. By simplifying entry level roles we were able to free up time for the team to apply other methods that are more suited for senior roles.
Conclusion: The Impact of Reducing Time to Fill
Through these strategic initiatives, we managed to reduce the Time to Fill from 58 to 45 days, a remarkable achievement.
It was shared with us that in that team, for every 30 days a role went unfilled, it created an opportunity cost of $115k (or $3,833 / day). When we reduced the average Time to Fill in 13 days, it anticipated about $50k in revenue per hire. Considering that team hired about 500 people per year, it’s a $25M opportunity cost that was recaptured.
This case study illustrates the powerful impact of streamlining the hiring process.
We work side by side with our clients to identify the opportunities for innovation and efficiency. The reason our method works is because we care about creating great cultures for talent. It starts with hiring, but the entire talent lifecycle is full of potential gains.
If you want to learn more about our method, you can learn more in our services page and book a call with our team.
