Every unfilled key position costs money, time, and nerves—and yet many companies still rely on gut feelings when filling these roles. If you really want to get a handle on open positions, you need numbers: metrics that show where the bottlenecks are, how long the process takes, and what it costs. The most important ones are easy to explain—and one of the most effective ways to improve them is almost always overlooked.
This article defines the four metrics that matter when filling specialist and leadership roles, puts them in context with current benchmarks, and shows how Time to Fill can be shortened in practice.
What Is Time to Fill?
Time to Fill measures the period from the moment a position is officially approved or posted until the day a candidate accepts the role. It answers the question that truly concerns decision-makers: How long will this role remain vacant?
The formula is simple: Time to Fill = number of days from when the position is approved until the candidate accepts the offer. To obtain a reliable metric, calculate the average across multiple hires, ideally broken down by role type—a sales specialist cannot be compared to an interim CFO.
Time to Fill vs. Time to Hire – The Most Commonly Confused Difference
Both terms are constantly used interchangeably, but they measure different things:
- Time to Fill begins when the position is approved and ends with the job offer. It is the organization’s key metric: it shows how long the entire process takes—including internal approvals, job postings, and the search.
- Time to Hire begins later—with the first contact with a specific candidate—and also ends with the job offer. It measures the efficiency of the selection process, not the search that precedes it.
In short: Time to Fill represents the company’s perspective on the vacancy, while Time to Hire represents the perspective of an individual candidate within the process. A company can have a short Time to Hire and still have a long Time to Fill—because it takes weeks just to find suitable candidates in the first place. It is precisely this gap that serves as the starting point.
Vakanzzeit: The German Vacancy Metric and What It Says About the Market
Vakanzzeit is the German equivalent — literally "vacancy time" — and is recorded officially by the Bundesagentur für Arbeit (Federal Employment Agency): it measures the time from when a reported job opening is scheduled to be filled until it is actually filled. Because the Federal Employment Agency analyzes this data nationwide, it serves as the best public benchmark for the German labor market.
The average Vakanzzeit for reported positions subject to social security contributions has been in the range of about four to five months for years; in shortage occupations and specialist roles, it is significantly higher—for highly specialized professional and leadership roles, a time to fill of several months is not uncommon (Source: Federal Employment Agency, “Blickpunkt Arbeitsmarkt”). These figures are not a law of nature, but rather a benchmark: Companies that keep their own Time to Fill below the market average gain a real advantage—every month a vacancy is filled sooner is a month of productive work rather than downtime.
Cost per Hire and the Other Metrics That Matter
Time is just one dimension. Three other metrics round out the picture:
- Cost per Hire—the total cost of a hire (job posting, internal efforts, external service providers, onboarding), divided by the number of hires. The costs of not filling a position—lost revenue, overburdened teams—are deliberately left out here.
- Quality of hire — does the hire stay, deliver, and fit the team? A fast hire that falls apart after three months is expensive.
- Placement rate—for external partners: How many proposed profiles actually lead to a hire? A high rate means less downtime and a shorter time to fill.
Recruiting metrics only show their full value together: Time to Fill answers how long, Cost per Hire answers how much, and quality of hire and placement rate answer how well.
Calculating Time to Fill: A Worked Example
Suppose a company fills four roles in a quarter with the following times from approval to offer: 40, 55, 70, and 95 days. Total = 260 days, divided by 4 hires = 65 days average time to fill.
This figure only becomes meaningful when compared — against the previous month, against the market average (Vakanzzeit), and broken down by role type. A single value without context is just a number.
How Do You Reduce Time to Fill?
Three strategies really make a difference:
- Streamline processes. Consolidate internal approvals, shorten decision-making paths, and reduce feedback loops with candidates from weeks to days. Above all, this reduces the time to hire.
- Utilize pre-qualified talent pools. The biggest time sink is the search itself—not the selection process. If you wait until you have a need to start searching, you lose those crucial first few weeks.
- Access a curated network of experts and interim managers. This is exactly where the fastest lever comes into play: Instead of posting a job opening and waiting for applications, a quality-assured network draws on pre-vetted specialists, consultants, and interim managers—and delivers suitable profiles in 24 to 36 hours instead of weeks.
For critical vacancies, bridging situations, and specialised project roles, this moves Time to Fill into a different order of magnitude. These articles show exactly how it works:
When a key role cannot stay vacant for weeks, the direct route is the fastest: interim managers, freelance management consultants, or experts from the network — matched and vetted.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is the Difference Between Time to Fill and Time to Hire?
Time to Fill measures the total time from when a position is posted until the candidate accepts the offer. Time to Hire measures only the time from the first contact with a specific candidate until the offer is accepted. Time to Fill evaluates the entire hiring process, while Time to Hire evaluates only the selection process.
How Is Time to Fill Calculated?
Add up the number of days from when the position is posted until the candidate accepts the offer for all hires made during a given period, and divide the total by the number of hires. For meaningful analysis, break down the data by role type and compare it to the previous month and the market average.
What Is the Average Vakanzzeit in Germany?
The Bundesagentur für Arbeit (Federal Employment Agency) reports an average Vakanzzeit of around four to five months for registered positions subject to social security contributions; in shortage occupations, it is significantly higher.
What Is the Fastest Way to Reduce Time to Fill?
The most effective strategy is to tap into a curated network of experts and interim professionals with pre-vetted profiles. Instead of a search that takes weeks, such networks deliver suitable candidates within 24 to 36 hours.
