Casting a wide net in hiring – opening your search to a broader, more diverse talent pool – is more than just a nice idea. It’s become a strategic necessity across industries. Recent research from 2022 through 2025 shows that broadening your recruiting reach can impact everything from how fast you fill jobs to how well new hires stick and perform. Below, we break down the findings on key hiring metrics and what they mean, globally and in the U.S., when you widen the talent pool.
Faster Time to Fill with a Broader Talent Pool
In today’s tight labor market, hiring speed is critical. A “wide net” approach can significantly affect time-to-fill (the days from posting a job to signing a hire). Research highlights a clear pattern: the larger your candidate pool, the quicker you can fill a role, especially compared to a narrow search. Key findings include:
Global hiring is slowing: By 2023 the average time to fill a position hit 42–44 days – an all-time high. This is a broad figure (LinkedIn’s data didn’t single out one country), showing a worldwide trend. Highly specialized roles take even longer when the talent pool is narrow; “difficult to fill” jobs can stay open 2–3 months. Cross-industry analysis shows time-to-fill varies widely: fast-moving sectors like tech and media hire in around 20 days, whereas industries like defense or investment banking average 60+ days to fill roles. This gap underscores how a limited talent pool (as in defense or finance) drags out hiring timelines.Broader search = faster hires: Organizations that widen their candidate pool see noticeably shorter fill times. For example, offering remote roles (expanding beyond local candidates) can shorten time-to-fill by quickly tapping talent in other regions. Conversely, roles with narrow requirements or limited candidate sources tend to have longer vacancies. In practice, casting a wider net – whether through remote work options, inclusive job criteria, or multi-channel sourcing – helps companies fill jobs faster by increasing the supply of potential hires.
Costs per application and hire: The wide-net ROI
Every extra day a job stays open or every mis-targeted ad can drain budgets. Recruiting costs are a major concern across all industries, and broadening the search can influence these costs. The data from 2022–2025 shows mixed news: average hiring costs have risen, but a wider net can improve efficiency by yielding more applicants per dollar spent. Consider the following:
Rising cost per hire (U.S.): According to SHRM, the average cost per hire in the United States is about $4,700 as of 2023. That’s a 14% jump from 2019’s average, reflecting a tougher hiring climate. Executive and hard-to-fill positions cost far more – easily 3–4 times the role’s salary for senior hires when you factor in search firm fees and relocation. These figures are U.S.-specific, but many developed markets see similar trends of climbing recruitment expenses.Cost per application trends: A broad talent search often involves casting a wide marketing net. The median cost per application (CPA) was around $25 in late 2022 (U.S. data), down from the highs of 2021 but still above pre-pandemic norms. This means employers were paying $25 on average for each candidate who applied, via job ads and campaigns. A wider net can actually lower the CPA if done smartly – by attracting a higher volume of applicants for the same spend – but it requires targeting multiple channels efficiently. (For instance, broad national campaigns might yield many applications at a modest cost each, whereas a narrow, highly specialized ad could cost more per applicant.)
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Casting a wide net in hiring – opening your search to a broader, more diverse talent pool.
