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What Is Time to Hire?

Time to hire is the number of days between a candidate entering the pipeline and accepting an offer.

An educational definition from the HR glossary. Explore related terms below, or jump into the resource center to go deeper.

Definition

Time to hire is the number of days between a candidate entering the pipeline and accepting an offer.

Why it matters

It reflects how efficiently your process moves a candidate, and slow processes lose strong candidates.

Examples

Illustrative example. A candidate who applies on day 0 and accepts on day 21 has a time to hire of 21 days.

For the practical detail behind this term, follow the related metric, template and resources below.

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For informational purposes only. This is an educational, plain-language definition — not legal, tax, financial or compliance advice and not an official definition. Terms and obligations vary by organisation and jurisdiction. Numeric examples are simple, placeholder-based illustrations, not data. Confirm specifics with qualified professionals.
Related concepts

Related glossary terms

Keep exploring the HR vocabulary.

Glossary

Time to Fill

Time to fill is the number of days between a role opening and a candidate accepting an offer.

Open Glossary

Recruitment Funnel

The recruitment funnel is the set of stages candidates pass through from first contact to accepted offer, with conversion at each step.

Open Glossary

Quality of Hire

Quality of hire is a composite measure of how well hired people turn out — combining performance, ramp and retention signals.

Open Glossary

Candidate Pipeline

A candidate pipeline is the pool of candidates in progress for current or future roles, and the metrics describing its health.

Open
Measure it

Related metrics & calculators

Recruitment metric

Time to Hire

Time to hire measures how long a specific candidate takes to move from entering the pipeline to accepting the offer.

Open Calculators

HR calculators

Quantify the metrics in your browser.

Open Hub

HR metrics hub

How HR measures are defined and read.

Open
Put it into practice

Related templates

Template

Recruitment Planning Template

Planning a hire before you source it saves weeks later.

Open
Go deeper

Related resources

The clusters that put this concept into practice.

Lifecycle

Employee lifecycle

The full employee journey, stage by stage.

Open Operations

Employer operations

Run the workforce as a repeatable system.

Open Planning

Workforce planning

Strategy and organizational design.

Open Compliance

HR compliance

Documentation, records, data and policy.

Open Templates

HR templates

Free, printable, placeholder-based templates.

Open Playbooks

HR playbooks

Step-by-step plays for people processes.

Open Technology

HR technology

Automation, analytics and systems.

Open Funnel

Recruitment funnel

Sourcing through to accepted offer.

Open Reporting

HR reporting & dashboards

Turn people data into clear views.

Open AI for HR

AI for HR

Where AI assists HR, responsibly.

Open Resource center

HR resource center

The central map of every cluster.

Open

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is Time to Hire?

Time to hire is the number of days between a candidate entering the pipeline and accepting an offer.

Why does Time to Hire matter?

It reflects how efficiently your process moves a candidate, and slow processes lose strong candidates.

How is Time to Hire measured?

It connects to the HR metric linked on this page, where you can find the formula and how to read it. This glossary entry is an educational definition, not a data source.