Time to screen

Time to screen is one part of time to hire. It measures only the first stretch of the process: how quickly you find out whether an applicant is worth a closer look. Fewer teams track it, but it’s often where the most time is lost.

What it includes

• Waiting to be read. The application sits in a queue.
• Waiting to be invited. Someone has to decide to interview them.
• Scheduling. Finding a time that suits both sides.
• The first interview itself. A phone call or other short interview.
• Write-up. Notes, a rating, and a decision to move forward or not.

A worked comparison

Say an applicant applies on Monday morning.

With a phone interview: The recruiter reads applications on Wednesday and emails to set up a call. The applicant replies on Thursday. The first free slot is the following Tuesday. The call happens, and notes are written that afternoon. Time to screen: about eight days.

With an interview the applicant takes on their own time: An invite goes out automatically on Monday. The applicant takes the interview that evening after work. The recruiter looks at the result on Tuesday morning. Time to screen: about one day.

The interview is about the same length either way. The difference is almost all waiting.

Why it matters most when hiring many people

For hourly jobs in retail and customer support, applicants often apply to several employers at once and take the first reasonable offer. If your first check takes a week, you can lose the best applicants before you’ve spoken to them. In high-volume hiring, time to screen is often the thing that affects time to hire the most.

How to measure it

• Record when each application came in and when a first result was ready.
• Use the median, the middle value when you line them all up, not the average. A few applicants who take a week to respond will pull an average up.
• Track it for each job and each month, so you can see whether your changes help.

Mistakes

• Counting only interview time. A 15-minute call that takes eight days to arrange means an eight-day time to screen.
• Fast first result, slow next step. Getting results in a day doesn’t help if they sit unread for a week. Track what happens next too.
• Rushing reviews. A fast result is only useful if someone reads it properly.