Average Days to Fill
Mean elapsed days between requisition opening (approved and posted) and offer acceptance, averaged across requisitions filled in the period. The headline recruiting-velocity KPI commonly tracked in the SHRM Talent Acquisition Benchmarking Report. Common pitfall: choosing between time-to-fill (req-opened to offer-accepted) and time-to-hire (first-applicant to offer-accepted) without locking the convention — the two can differ by weeks. Best practice is to standardize on time-to-fill (the SHRM benchmark convention) and document any deviation. — HR KPI anchored to SHRM Talent Acquisition Benchmarking Report.
Rogue ID: hr.avg_days_to_fill
Type: Number (days)
Domain: HR
Definition
Mean elapsed days between requisition opening (approved and posted) and offer acceptance, averaged across requisitions filled in the period. The headline recruiting-velocity KPI commonly tracked in the SHRM Talent Acquisition Benchmarking Report. Common pitfall: choosing between time-to-fill (req-opened to offer-accepted) and time-to-hire (first-applicant to offer-accepted) without locking the convention — the two can differ by weeks. Best practice is to standardize on time-to-fill (the SHRM benchmark convention) and document any deviation.
Formula
Average Days to Fill = Σ(offer-accepted-date − requisition-opened-date) / count of requisitions filled in the period. Convention: time-to-fill per SHRM Talent Acquisition Benchmarking Report — req-opened to offer-accepted, not first-applicant to offer-accepted.Why it matters
A stretching time-to-fill is one of the earliest leading indicators of either comp-band misfit, role-spec creep, or recruiter capacity exhaustion. Combined with hr.open_positions, it projects when promised capacity actually arrives.
How to interpret
SHRM Talent Acquisition Benchmarking Report typically reports cross-industry medians around 40–45 days time-to-fill, with technical roles (engineering, data) often longer (60–90+ days). Verify against the most recent SHRM report for the exact figure. A sustained increase of >20% with no role-mix change typically signals a recruiting-pipeline issue (industry folk-wisdom, not citation-grade).
Related KPIs
hr.open_positionshr.hiring_planhr.new_hireshr.key_openingshr.key_hires
Source
SHRM Talent Acquisition Benchmarking Report · section: Time-to-Fill — published 2023-01-01.
Why does this cite SHRM Talent Acquisition Benchmarking Report? Read the ontology methodology for the published vs editorial tier system, attribution rules, and dispute process.
Stage relevance
| Company stage | Priority |
|---|---|
| Series A | Recommended |
| Series B | Recommended |
| Series C+ | Recommended |
| Public | Recommended |
Suggested for stages: Series A, Series B, Series C+, Public.
Default owning functions
- HR
Machine-readable
- This KPI as JSON:
/api/ontology/hr/avg_days_to_fill.json - All HR KPIs:
/api/ontology/hr.json - Full catalog:
/api/ontology/index.json
ARR per FTE
Annual Recurring Revenue divided by total FTE-equivalent workforce — the canonical SaaS workforce-productivity ratio anchored to the SaaS Capital Annual Survey methodology (revenue per employee benchmarks). A high-signal denominator for "are we over- or under-staffed for our revenue scale?" Common pitfall: choosing different ARR conventions (ending vs average, GAAP-reconciled vs raw) without locking in a board-level standard. Best practice is to pair this with `sales.arr` so the numerator is unambiguous and to disclose whether contractors are included in the FTE denominator. — HR KPI anchored to SaaS Capital Annual Survey 2025 (14th Annual).
Involuntary Turnover Rate
Annualized rate of company-initiated separations as a percentage of average headcount. Complement to `hr.voluntary_turnover_rate`; together they form the total turnover picture per the Mercer US Turnover Survey methodology. Common pitfall: lumping one-time RIFs into the steady-state rate, which makes the trend unreadable. Best practice is to report steady-state involuntary turnover and call out any RIF events separately in `hr.board_actions` with the headcount delta. — HR KPI anchored to Mercer US Turnover Survey 2025.