Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 7
7
Accepted
Recruitment efficiency relies on clearly defined 'time to hire' and 'time to fill' metrics.
Conclusion
The time taken to recruit staff is a key indicator of the efficiency of an organisation’s recruitment process. Recruitment times can be measured in a number of ways, including the time it takes from starting a recruitment campaign to making a firm employment offer – often referred to as ‘time to hire’. Organisations may also measure ‘time to fill’, or the time it takes to get a new staff member recruited and in post, which includes time taken for pre-employment and security vetting checks.12
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and states the recommendation is implemented, confirming that consistent 'time to hire' and 'time to fill' recruitment measures have been implemented across 17 Whitehall departments, with data available quarterly from April 2024.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 2.2 Consistent and comparable Civil Service recruitment measures have been implemented across the Whitehall 17 departments. These metrics are time to hire, time to fill, diversity of candidate, cost per hire, vacancy holder experience and candidate experience. The first data set became available during April 2024 and on a quarterly basis thereafter. 2.3 Time to hire represents the time between the advertisement closing date and the date that the successful candidate is offered the post. This represents a candidate’s perspective of the selection process and provides the basis for reliable and fair external benchmarking closely aligned to researched industry interpretation of this measurement. 2.4 Departments will also monitor the total time to fill a post. This extends beyond the time to hire to also measure time taken for any internal approvals processes that departments operate in order for a recruitment to commence and runs through to the arrival of the individual in post, taking account of pre-employment checks and security clearance. 2.5 These metrics will enable effective benchmarking between departments, as well as external comparators, to drive improvements using a single standard. Once the new metrics are fully embedded, the Cabinet Office will introduce a set of recruitment standards, which will drive further consistency and improvements across Civil Service recruitment.