Hiring Funnel & Time to Fill

How long hiring takes and where candidates drop out. Both numbers depend on definitions that most dashboards never state: when the clock starts, which requisitions count, and which stage entry is the one you measure.

RuleTime to fill runs from requisition approval to offer acceptance, stated on the report. The funnel counts first entry into each stage.Neveraverage evergreen requisitions into time to fill. They are always open by design; the average stops meaning anything.

◆ The definitions that decide the numbers— the clock, the requisition types, and the stage history.

Decision	What goes wrong without it
The clock	Approval to offer acceptance is the common definition; posting-to-accept and approval-to-start are also in use. Any of them works. Two of them on one dashboard does not. State the definition on the report.
Evergreen requisitions	Evergreens stay open to build pipeline, and their finalists move to a standard requisition at offer. Time to fill belongs to the hiring requisition; evergreens are excluded from averages and measured on their own terms, pipeline size and hires produced.
Openings, not requisitions	One requisition can carry several openings, and parent requisitions carry children. Fill counts and fill rates count openings and hires; counting requisitions undercounts both.
Frozen time	Requisitions freeze and unfreeze. Decide once whether frozen days count in time to fill, and land the freeze windows so the report can honor the decision either way.
Stage entries repeat	Candidates skip stages, revert, and interview more than once, so stage events repeat per application. The funnel counts first entry into each stage; duration in stage runs from that first entry. Using the latest instance instead quietly changes every conversion rate.
Reason codes	A backfill and a new position have different urgency and different benchmarks. The requisition's reason lands in the dimension so the report can split them.

◆ The owned model, and the SQL— stage events with first-entry logic, and the funnel with time to fill from the same fact.

fct_application_event lands one row per application stage change; dim_requisition carries type, reason, openings, and freeze windows. First entry per stage, then the funnel:

-- May cohort funnel: first entry per stage, evergreens excluded
WITH first_entry AS (
  SELECT e.application_key, e.stage,
         MIN(e.event_date) AS entered_on
  FROM fct_application_event e
  JOIN dim_requisition r ON e.requisition_key = r.requisition_key
  WHERE r.requisition_type <> 'Evergreen'
    AND e.cohort_month = '2026-05'
  GROUP BY 1, 2
)
SELECT stage,
       COUNT(DISTINCT application_key) AS candidates
FROM first_entry
GROUP BY 1
ORDER BY MIN(CASE stage WHEN 'Applied' THEN 1 WHEN 'Screen' THEN 2
             WHEN 'Interview' THEN 3 WHEN 'Offer' THEN 4 WHEN 'Offer Accepted' THEN 5 END)

Sample output, May cohort:

stage	candidates	conversion
Applied	140
Screen	42	30.0%
Interview	15	35.7%
Offer	4	26.7%
Offer Accepted	3	75.0%

The three accepted offers are May's three hires on the Movement report; the funnel ends where the headcount series begins. Time to fill reads the same fact: approval date from the requisition, acceptance date from the stage event, averaged with backfills and new positions split. A funnel that narrows sharply at one stage is a process finding; a long time to fill with healthy conversions is a volume finding. The two together say which problem you have. Sample values are illustrative, never client data.

Want hiring numbers with the definitions on the page?

The stage-event fact, the requisition dimension, and the funnel that ties to your headcount, reconciled against Workday, and you own every line.

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Terms on this page

time to fill: Requisition approval to offer acceptance, unless the report says otherwise. Say it on the report.
evergreen requisition: Always open, builds pipeline; finalists move to a hiring requisition at offer. Excluded from averages.
opening: One position to fill. A requisition can carry several.
parent and child requisitions: A family of linked requisitions. Roll up for volume, report on children for accuracy.
freeze window: The period a requisition was paused. Landed so the clock decision is enforceable.
first entry: The earliest event moving an application into a stage. The funnel's counting rule.
conversion: Candidates entering a stage over candidates entering the prior stage.
reason code: Backfill or new position. Different benchmarks, one split.