Overall Average Time to Fill Metric – Does it Really Capture What is Going on?

One of the most compelling things we identified from our inaugural Healthcare Recruitment Benchmark Study was related to time to fill (TTF). We first reported on this back in November, 2010.

The data clearly demonstrated that average TTF does not represent what is actually going on with respect to staffing performance.

For most organizations, it showed that roughly 75-80% of the positions were being filled very quickly (20-30 days) while the other 20-25% of the positions were being filled in 90-100+ days!

Conclusion:
Recruitment organizations are designed (and excel) at filling what we call “business as usual” req’s with internal/referral/active candidates. However, they struggle to fill “critical/difficult/visible” req’s that typically require a more proactive, aggressive sourcing strategy (targeting passive candidates).

Based on these findings, we added the following TTF related questions to our study:

• Number of positions filled in less than 60 days
• Avg TTF for positions filled in less than 60 days
• Number of positions filled in 60 or more days
• Avg TTF for positions filled in 60 or more days

Of our Benchmark Study respondents so far, the data continues to support what we initially found:

• % of positions filled in less than 60 days: 73%
• Avg TTF for positions filled in less than 60 days: 23 days
• % of positions filled in 60 days or more: 27%
• Avg TTF for positions filled in 60 days or more: 113 days 

If you do not currently measure TTF thru this lens, we encourage you to do so!

It will help you:

• Understand how you’re currently performing with respect to time
  Provide clarity around staffing/sourcing priorities
• Provide guidance around developing a staffing model that will help you reduce TTF for critical/difficult/visible positions.

If you’re interested in participating in our Healthcare Recruitment Benchmark Study please contact us.

I hope you’re having a perfect day!