Time to fill

What the research says

SHRM’s 2025 benchmarking survey of 2,371 members found a median time to fill of about a month and a half for both executive and nonexecutive roles.¹ Executive roles used to take noticeably longer. Their median fell from 60 days in 2022 to 45 days in 2025.¹

Organization size now makes the bigger difference. Employers with 5,000 or more people reported 61 days for nonexecutive roles and 60 for executives, and spent nearly twice as long getting positions approved, posted and interviewed.¹ Their recruiters also carry the heaviest load, a median of 60 requisitions a year against 20 across all organizations with dedicated recruiters.¹

Candidate supply adds days as well. In SHRM’s 2025 Talent Trends survey of 2,040 HR professionals,³ 69% of employers said they were having difficulty filling full-time roles, and 51% reported a low number of applicants.²

Shuffl · HR by the numbers

Large employers take the longest

61 daysmedian time to fill nonexecutive roles at organizations with 5,000+ employees, 2025

Large employers take the longest: 61 days median time to fill nonexecutive roles at organizations with 5,000+ employees, 2025. Source: SHRM, 2025.

Where the days go

SHRM splits time to fill into stages, from the requisition being opened to the offer being accepted. Timing each stage in your own process shows which one is slow.¹

An example

A 60-person marketing agency needs a senior designer. The requisition waits 9 days for the finance director’s sign-off and another 4 before the job is posted. Screening starts 6 days later and takes 5. Interviews take 14 days, the decision and offer take 6, and the candidate accepts after 4. Time to fill is 48 days.

Only 18 of those days were spent interviewing or waiting on the candidate. The agency gives itself a standing budget for replacement hires, so they no longer need sign-off, and books interview panels before the job goes live. The next designer hire takes 31 days.