The numbers that matter
A curious number
In spite of the tightening economy, hiring managers report that it’s not getting any easier to hire new employees. It's part of our job to track all kinds of stats about hiring, and a statistic that measures hiring activity is called “Time to Fill”. The surprising fact is that Time to Fill is currently over 40 days; a number that is actually still growing! (If you are a job seeker, this can explain a lot about long delays in getting back to you about your resume.)
What’s taking so long?
Why wouldn’t this number be shrinking? Here are a few reasons to consider:
Candidates hate long onboarding times, and they move on. One measure of this process says that the average wait time for a candidate to hear anything from an employer is 17 days. In some cases, employers don’t even bother to respond at all to candidates if the position was already filled or if they are otherwise not under consideration. While most overworked HR managers can empathize with the need to prioritize workloads and the sheer unreality of personally responding to literally hundreds of resumes; this practice tends to make good candidates assume they are not in the running.
Workers are somewhat less likely to make a job change, so they are harder to attract. While inflation still means that pay is an issue in the motivation to look for a new job, it turns out that most of those actively seeking a new job are doing so today because they simply want a “better place to work”. We hear this frequently as we screen candidates for our database. The desire for a setting that will engage them on a daily basis and provide a feeling of true purpose is a high priority. Workers have low tolerance for dealing with incivility or poorly-trained managers, both of which are motivators for keeping one foot out the door. Most job posts don’t convey the reasons why a job seeker might want to work for the organization, and thus they don’t motivate that population to apply
33% of new hires leave in the first 30 days, so it might take multiple tries to even fill an opening. This is another issue entirely - the need to properly onboard and retain a new hire. If the new employee doesn’t feel a sense of belonging, the decision to abandon a new job typically happens quickly. This means that the Time to Fill an opening can include several weeks, then several more, etc.
Some encouraging stats
If this makes you curious about your the TTF stat, check out this article. You can compare your own company’s average to current trends, or just learn how Time to Fill is calculated. At Personnel Partners, we calculated our average Time to Fill and are happy to report that it’s MUCH FASTER to call us! On average, we fill positions in 4.9 days. If the role is temporary only, the average fill time goes down to a lightning-fast 1.18 days.
For hiring managers with so many other priorities on your plate, we can make your team more efficient when you let us work on the hiring. Our Certified Staffing Professionals have already sorted through the candidates you don’t want, so that we can quickly put the right people in front of you. Clients who use us come back, to the tune of 37% of those who have ordered this year already placing additional orders.
For job seekers, we can make the process more responsive. Whether your file is created and waiting for just the right possible opportunity, or whether you are an immediate candidate for a client’s opening, you’ll actually hear from us. Job seekers are never referred without personally meeting our placement team, and job orders are never taken without a series of questions (and even visits) that mean we know the profile of the right fit for the opening. This personal attention makes the odds that our call brings something you want to hear about into very good odds indeed.