The recruitment process in Poland can take less than a month or as long as a month and a half. Differences between industries amount to more than a dozen days, while the pace of hiring depends not only on candidate availability, but above all on business specifics, work organisation and the way companies make decisions, according to the “Recruitment KPIs” report by eRecruiter for the second half of 2025.
The data show that despite similar market conditions, organisations operating in different sectors function in completely different recruitment realities. In some, speed and flexibility are crucial. In others, accuracy, formalisation and multi-stage selection matter more.
Who recruits the fastest, and who is the slowest?
The average time from application to hiring, known as Time to Hire, is 33 days in Poland. However, this average does not reflect the scale of differences between industries. In practice, the length of the recruitment process can vary significantly, even with similar job levels or candidate availability.
The most efficient processes are run by personnel consulting agencies, where the average time to hire is 28 days. This results, among other things, from extensive recruitment experience, optimised procedures and pressure to quickly match candidates with clients. Relatively short processes are also observed in the culture, entertainment and sports sector, at 30 days, and in accommodation and food services, at 31 days, where seasonality and the need to quickly fill staffing gaps play an important role.
At the other end of the scale are industries requiring more complex decision-making processes. In energy, mining and municipal services, as well as in science and education, recruitment takes an average of 44 days, more than two weeks longer than in the fastest sectors.
Differences of more than a dozen days are not solely due to candidate availability, but primarily to how organisations are structured and how they make decisions. In operational industries, speed and readiness to hire “here and now” are essential. In more formalised sectors, the process includes more stages, more stakeholders and often requires additional approvals, which naturally extends it.
It is also worth noting that a longer process does not always mean a less effective one. In many cases, it is the result of greater role complexity or business responsibility, rather than inefficiency on the part of the HR team, said Paweł Brzozowski of eRecruiter.
The average time from application to hiring is shortest for blue-collar workers, at 29 days. For interns it is 34 days, for specialists 38 days, for managers 42 days and for director-level positions 52 days.
A quick offer? Not everywhere
Differences between industries are also visible at an earlier stage of the process, namely in the time needed to make an offer to a candidate, known as Time to Offer. On average, it is 20 days, but as with the overall recruitment time, the figures vary considerably.
In accommodation and food services, candidates can expect an offer after just 16 days, while in personnel consulting agencies it takes 18 days. These are sectors where fast decision-making is often a condition of successful recruitment, as candidates have many alternatives and quickly disappear from the market.
In membership organisations and the energy sector, however, the offer stage can take as long as 34–35 days. In these cases, decisions are more dispersed, require the involvement of more people or are subject to additional procedures.
The Time to Offer indicator clearly shows where decision-making bottlenecks are located within an organisation. If a candidate waits a long time for an offer, this is often not due to the recruiter’s work, but to the need for internal, budgetary or strategic approvals. It is one of those indicators that allows recruitment to be viewed more broadly — not only as an HR process, but as part of the company’s entire management system, Brzozowski added.
First contact: up to 10 days of silence
Differences between industries begin much earlier, already at the stage of first contact with the candidate. The average time between sending a CV and the recruiter opening it, known as Time to View, is 9 days. Depending on the sector, however, it ranges from 6 to 10 days.
Candidates applying to accommodation and food services and public administration wait the shortest time for a response, around 6 days. Those applying to media and advertising, as well as membership organisations, wait the longest, with this period reaching 9–10 days.
Although a difference of a few days may seem minor, it is highly significant from the candidate’s perspective. This is often the moment that determines whether a company is perceived as efficient and interested in the application, or as unresponsive.
Time to View is one of the most underestimated indicators, while also having a strong impact on the candidate experience. No response for several days may be interpreted as a lack of interest, even if the process is in fact only just beginning. In practice, it is the first signal the candidate receives from the employer. If there is a delay at this stage, it is very difficult to rebuild a positive impression later, said Martyna Wasilewska of eRecruiter.
Industry matters, but it is not everything
The report’s authors emphasise that differences in recruitment times are a natural consequence of the specific characteristics of individual sectors. Each industry operates at a different pace, both in terms of staffing needs and decision-making processes, organisational structure and the level of formalisation.
There is no single universal recruitment model. What works in sectors with high turnover and simpler processes will not necessarily work in industries that require multi-stage competence verification or work with highly specialised candidates.
The industry sets certain operating frameworks, but it should not be treated as a limitation. The fact that other companies in a given sector recruit in a certain way does not mean that this model is optimal. The most mature organisations treat benchmarks as a point of reference, not as a goal in themselves.
The data therefore show not only differences between sectors, but also room for optimisation, particularly in areas related to process organisation and decision-making.
Faster does not always mean better
Although many companies are successfully shortening recruitment times, this does not always translate into a better candidate experience. In the second half of 2025, the NPS indicator, which measures satisfaction with the recruitment process, fell to the lowest level in the history of the study.
This is a clear signal that time optimisation, while important, is not enough. Candidates are paying increasing attention to the quality of communication, process transparency and access to feedback.
In recent years, organisations have learned very well how to shorten recruitment processes and manage their efficiency. Much less often, however, do they analyse the candidate experience at individual stages: whether the candidate receives feedback, understands the next steps and feels treated as a partner. Fast recruitment without good communication is no longer an advantage. In extreme cases, it may even negatively affect how an employer is perceived and damage its image on the market. Today, it is therefore crucial to combine efficiency indicators with measures of experience quality, Martyna Wasilewska concluded.
About the study
The report “Recruitment KPIs. Data for the second half of 2025” is based on a sample of more than 10.5 million applications and 127,000 recruitment projects. The conclusions were drawn from data from more than 2,500 companies and the opinions of 6,250 candidates.
