Time to Start
2022 National Average Value
100
days
What is the Time to Start?
Time to Start measures the time between requisition approval and when hire finishes onboarding and starts the job.
What is this measurement used for?
Time to Start can be an indicator of the overall efficiency of the total recruiting, hiring, and onboarding process.
What is the average value of Time to Start?
According to the Saratoga Workforce Index, the national average Time to Start in 2022 was 100 days (about 3.3 months).
What is Time to Start by industry?
There is no universal Time to Start number, as the Time to Start varies widely across industries. If you need the Time to Start for your industry, please contact us.
Where can I get Time to Start benchmarks?
You can find it in the annual Saratoga HR and Workforce Benchmarking Study. Saratoga releases the Time to Start benchmark for over 20 different industries each year. The national average is also released as part of the annual Saratoga Workforce Index.
How is Time to Start calculated?
Time to Start is calculated by measuring the average number of calendar days from the date a job requisition is approved to the date a new non-contingent hire begins work. This includes full-time and part-time non-contingent candidates and excludes college interns. It is a measure of the efficiency of the entire recruiting process through the time a hire finishes onboarding and starts the job.
What does a low Time to Start mean?
A low Time to Start indicates that the organization may have an efficient recruitment and onboarding processes. A low Time to Start can lead to positive candidate experiences, increased team productivity, and better engagement as positions are filled quickly.
However, it could also mean that not enough time is being spent properly onboarding employees, so the Time to Start metric should be considered against quality of hire metrics like First Year Turnover Rate.
What does a high Time to Start mean?
A high Time to Start may indicate issues with the hiring process such as bottlenecks, or it could be a function of labor shortages. This could lead to suboptimal candidate experiences and reduce team productivity and possibly engagement as they compensate for the unfilled position. It could also indicate that the recruitment process is slow or lengthy, or the organization is unable to set clear hiring criteria and make decisions promptly.
At the same time, this may also reflect that the onboarding process is lengthy and could have a positive outcome in 90-day and first year retention.
What other benchmarks are relevant to Time to Start?
Other relevant benchmarks include:
First Year of Service Turnover Rate
About the Saratoga Workforce Index
The Saratoga Workforce Index is an indispensable reference of national averages of 30 commonly requested HR metrics. Based on PwC Saratoga’s annual workforce benchmarking study of over 1000 metrics spanning hundreds of companies and over 20 industries, the Saratoga Workforce Index is your “quick start” guide to workforce benchmarks.
Download the guide to see the national averages for all of these:
- 90 Day Total Turnover Rate
- Average Number of Direct Reports
- Cost per Hire
- Director Headcount Ratio
- Executive Headcount Ratio
- Finance FTE Ratio
- First Year of Service Turnover Rate
- General & Administrative Function Voluntary Separation Rate
- Hire Rate
- HR FTE Ratio
- Information Technology FTE Ratio
- Labor Cost Revenue Percent
- Layers
- Learning & Development Investment per Employee
- Legal FTE Ratio
- Management Headcount Ratio
- Manager Headcount Ratio
- Offer Acceptance Rate
- One to Three Years of Service Voluntary Separation Rate
- Promotion Rate
- Racial/Ethnic Minority Headcount Percent
- Racial/Ethnic Minority Promotion Rate
- Racial/Ethnic Minority Voluntary Separation Rate
- Revenue per FTE
- Time to Accept
- Time to Start
- Turnover Rate
- Vacancy Rate
- Voluntary Separation Rate
- Women Executive Headcount Percent
- Women Headcount Percent
- Women Promotion Rate
- Women Voluntary Separation Rate
Need industry-specific benchmarks?
We provide these values as a reference point for discussions. However, given the high variance across industries, sizes and revenue, these national averages should NOT be used to make important business decisions or used in any formal reporting.
If you intend to use benchmarks for business decisions, please join Saratoga as a full member so you can have access to more specific comparison groups for each industry, revenue, size, profit/non-profit status and more. With a full membership, you’ll have access to over 1,000 metrics that are much more accurate and specific than a national average. The membership process is relatively simple, mostly automated and reasonably priced with a clear ROI.
Referencing Saratoga Workforce Index Data
If you choose to refer to these metrics in any of your materials, whether internally or externally, we ask that you include the following statement:
Excerpted from the Saratoga Workforce Index. © 2023 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, all rights reserved. Data is for discussion purposes only and cannot be used for investment decisions or financial evaluations.
You may include up to five metrics in any internal or external publication without any additional permissions. Contact us at saratoga@pwc.com if you want to use more than five or would like to reproduce the Saratoga Workforce Index in its entirety.
About Saratoga
Saratoga workforce and HR benchmarks provide reference points for executive-level discussions, context for people dashboards, and data to inform workforce and HR decisions. Hundreds of companies across over 20 industries trust Saratoga each year to supply over 1,000 validated workforce benchmarks around turnover, diversity, staffing, productivity, efficiency, fairness, and more.
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