Fill Rate Calculator for Staffing: Formula, Example and Benchmarks

What does fill rate measure in staffing?

Fill rate is the share of job orders or shifts your agency actually fills. If a client sends 120 shifts and you staff 96, your fill rate is 80%. It is the number clients care about most, because an unfilled order means a line stops, a ward runs short or a project slips.

There are two common versions. Job order fill rate counts requisitions, which suits direct hire and contract desks. Shift fill rate counts individual shifts, which suits light industrial, healthcare per diem and event staffing. Pick the one your contract or vendor management system uses and stick with it.

Do not confuse it with external fill rate, a corporate HR metric for the share of jobs filled from outside the company. SHRM's 2026 benchmarking reports a median external fill rate of 97% for nonexecutive roles, which says nothing about how well an agency fills orders.

Fill rate measures the agency, not the recruiter alone. Pay rates, client location, shift times and how quickly the client confirms all play a part. That is why the most useful view splits the rate by client and shift before anyone is judged on it.

How do you calculate fill rate step by step?

Many managed service programs and vendor management systems score suppliers on fill rate. If your client has a written definition, use it exactly, including its rules on no shows and late cancellations.

1. Set the period, usually a week for shift work and a month or quarter for job orders.
2. Count every order or shift received, including ones you declined or never worked.
3. Count orders or shifts filled as ordered. A shift covered two hours late or a worker who walks off early is not a clean fill under most client definitions.
4. Divide filled by received and multiply by 100.
5. Subtract filled from received to see what you left unfilled.
6. Multiply unfilled orders by average gross profit per fill to see the money you left on the table.
7. Split by client, branch, skill and shift time to find the gap.

What does a worked fill rate example look like?

A light industrial branch received 120 shifts last week and filled 96, a fill rate of 80%. The 24 unfilled shifts, at an average gross profit of $72 per shift, cost the branch about $1,728 in gross profit for the week, plus some client goodwill.

The client expects 90%. To hit that on 120 shifts the branch needed 108 fills, so it was 12 short. The breakdown below shows those misses were not spread evenly. Weekday days were almost fully covered, while night and weekend shifts drove most of the shortfall.

• The fix is a dedicated night and weekend bench, not more recruiting on day shifts.

What is a good fill rate for a staffing agency?

There is no single published industry average fill rate that holds across segments, and client contracts set very different bars. Use your contract target and your own trend as the main yardsticks.

One useful data point comes from Bullhorn's GRID 2026 report, a survey of nearly 2,300 recruitment professionals. It found that firms with AI embedded throughout their workflow had more than double the chance of reporting fill rates above 75%. The same report found 56% of its top performing firms place in under 10 days on average, which links speed and fill rate closely.

Fill rate depends on order mix. Exclusive clients with fair pay rates and steady volume fill far better than spot orders sent to five agencies at once.

Track your own rate weekly and compare it with the same week last year, since seasonal peaks such as holiday retail and harvest can move the number for reasons outside your control.

How do you raise your fill rate?

• Decline or renegotiate orders priced below what workers in that market accept. A low pay rate is the most common reason orders go unfilled.
• Build a ready bench for the shifts you miss most, such as nights and weekends.
• Redeploy workers as assignments end instead of letting them drift to another agency.
• Text shift offers and confirmations, and confirm again the day before.
• Track no shows by worker and stop sending repeat offenders.
• Ask clients for forecasts so you can recruit ahead of spikes.

How does fill rate tie to revenue and client retention?

Every unfilled order is revenue you were offered and did not earn. Multiply unfilled orders by average gross profit per fill and you have a monthly figure the branch can act on. That is why the calculator shows gross profit lost, not just a percentage.

Fill rate also decides who keeps the account. Clients with several suppliers, especially inside a vendor management system or a managed service program, often rank agencies on fill rate and send the next orders to whoever fills best. A falling rate can shrink your share of orders before anyone tells you.

Look at it alongside time to fill or time to submit. A desk that fills 90% of orders but takes a week to do it may still lose the client to an agency that fills slightly less but fills the same day. Speed and coverage need to rise together.

Finally, compare fill rate with redeployment. Workers coming off one assignment are the fastest fill for the next order. Teams that track assignment end dates and call workers a week ahead keep more people on billing and need less fresh recruiting to hit their target.

What fill rate mistakes should you avoid?

• Leaving declined orders out of the count, which makes the rate look better than the client sees it.
• Counting a late or partial shift as filled when the client does not.
• Reporting one blended rate across clients with very different demands.
• Chasing fill rate with any warm body. Poor fills hurt retention and the client relationship more than a polite decline.