The difference between hiring velocity and time to hire

When discussing recruitment metrics, ‘time to hire’ is probably the one that comes to mind most often. Time to hire measures the amount of days between a candidate applying for a role and accepting the job offer, a metric that focuses on candidate experience and the efficiency of the hiring process, with a shorter time to hire being more ideal. While similar, hiring velocity is gaining traction for being a must-track recruitment metric for hitting your organisation’s overall objectives.

What is hiring velocity?

Hiring velocity refers to the overall length of time it takes your organization to fill its open positions, encompassing roles across the entire business to provide an idea of how efficiently you’re filling your open roles. It is usually measured by the average number of days it takes to fill job roles within a specific time period. 

How do you calculate hiring velocity?

The key to calculating hiring velocity is to specify the time period you want to measure. This can be days, months, quarters etc.

The formula for hiring velocity is to divide the number of hires with the specified time period you’re measuring. For example, if we wanted the hiring velocity per week for Q1:

How does this differ from time-to-hire?

Time to hire is a much simpler metric to calculate as all it does is measure the amount of days between a candidate entering the pipeline and accepting the job offer. For example:

You can then use these figures to calculate your average time to hire. If you have an ATS, time to hire can be calculated for you, without you having to do the extra work.

Why is hiring velocity important?

Hiring velocity is appreciated more by higher ups or c-suites as it can provide insight on how the company is performing from a more strategic standpoint. While time to hire focuses on the hiring process for individual candidates, hiring velocity looks at the speed at which you’re filling multiple roles within a certain timeframe.

As well as this, time to hire is a better indicator of candidate experience and a smaller number indicates your hiring process is smooth and efficient. Hiring velocity looks more at strategic decision-making and whether your organization is meeting its hiring needs over a specified amount of time. For example, have you hired enough sales representatives to meet your budget for the year? Or, have you hired enough people in the support team to hit your response targets? Having these goals and using hiring velocity as a metric to hit them can help with more well thought out hiring decisions.

Both time to hire and hiring velocity are crucial metrics for enhancing the overall recruitment process. By understanding both and leveraging them in the right way, you can create a more streamlined and more efficient hiring process.

What other metrics should you consider?

Data-driven recruitment is undoubtedly the way to create a more successful hiring process. Being able to harness data and measure your hiring success is essential in today’s recruitment landscape. Apart from time to hire and deal velocity, below you can find some of the other most common metrics companies are tracking in their recruiting.

1. Cost per Hire

This metric tends to divide opinion as there isn’t always a one-size-fits-all approach to it. Some companies swear by it while others don’t see the need as it can also lead to hiring for saving money rather than for quality. Despite this, it’s still one of the more commonly used metrics when it comes to recruitment.

2. Source of Hire

Source of hire identifies where your candidates are coming from. This is a useful metric as you can identify the channels where you’re getting the most qualified candidates, which then allows you to put more resources into those sources.

3. Candidate Quality

Quality of hire has quickly become one of the more essential recruitment metrics to measure. Naturally, it’s a little more subjective as quality will depend on what your organization views as the right fit, but there are certain other factors like retention rate and cultural fit that can help you define the quality of your hires.

4. Offer Acceptance Rate

Simply put, this is the percentage of job offers accepted by candidates once they’ve been made. A higher offer acceptance is a good sign as it means you’re offering desirable roles and benefits to attract the right talent. This is also an indication of your candidates having a positive candidate experience during the hiring process.

5. Candidate Experience

89% of recruitment professionals measure candidate experience when hiring, as a positive candidate experience is now considered an absolute necessity when it comes to the recruitment process. You can use other metrics like acceptance rate, time to hire or NPS surveys to get an idea of what your candidates think of the process.

If you'd like to dive deeper into recruitment metrics and understand the typical metrics used to make more informed decisions on your hiring, download our guide below!