How to measure whether your bench efforts are actually shortening time to fill

Published Oct 31, 2026

A lab worker in a white coat and gloves reviews printed papers and writes at a laboratory bench lined with pipettes, samples, and equipment.

You can measure the effect of your bench efforts on time to fill by pairing QR scan counts and landing page traffic with your standard ATS reports in a clear sequence of reviews. The comparison uses matching time windows so you can see whether roles that received mail moved from open to fill faster than your baseline, without treating mail as the only cause.

Start with a baseline time to fill from the ATS for the same requisition type.
Export QR scans and landing page visits and tag applications that came from the campaign page.
Line up those dates with ATS open to fill dates.
Review the side by side picture with your team and decide whether to repeat the process.

This workflow is for hospital and health-system talent acquisition teams (and similar licensed healthcare hiring teams) who already run or are considering a targeted direct mail campaign and need a practical way to judge whether bench outreach is associated with shorter time to fill. RecruitCard campaigns are measured through QR scans and landing page traffic. Those signals sit next to, not instead of, your ATS.

Step 1: Pull your baseline time to fill from the ATS

Select the requisition or group of similar roles you want to evaluate, then record the average days from requisition open to offer acceptance for the prior period and note the campaign start date.

Choose the roles that match the mail audience

Use one requisition or a tight group (for example ICU nights, a rural PT role, or a specific unit) so the ATS numbers describe the same license type, specialty, and geography the mail targeted. Mixing unrelated jobs will blur the comparison.

Record the prior period clearly

Write down the average days from open to offer acceptance for that same role type before the mail went out. Keep the definition of time to fill consistent with how your ATS already reports it. Note the exact start date of the direct mail campaign so later windows can line up.

Step 2: Capture QR scan and landing page activity

Export total scans and unique visitors from the campaign tracking dashboard, break them down by week or month to match ATS periods, and tag applications that originate from the campaign landing page.

Export scans and unique visitors

Pull totals for QR scans and unique landing page visitors. Those are the measurable campaign outputs RecruitCard provides. Do not invent a response rate. Report the counts as they appear in the dashboard.

Align the grain of the data with the ATS

Break scans and visits by week or month so they sit next to the same calendar windows you use for time to fill. Tag any applications that come from the campaign landing page inside the ATS so source is visible later.

Step 3: Compare the two data sets over matching time windows

Line up campaign activity dates with ATS time to fill dates, then check whether roles that received mail show shorter open to fill intervals than the baseline, and note source patterns without assigning sole credit to the mail piece.

Match dates before you interpret

Place campaign weeks next to ATS weeks. If a requisition opened before mail arrived, keep that visible so you do not treat pre-mail days as campaign days.

Look for shorter intervals, not proof of cause

Check whether the mailed roles show shorter intervals from open date to fill date than the baseline. Note application sources. Job boards, employee referrals, and internal moves can still be in the mix. Treat the mail piece as one added channel that reaches passive licensed candidates, not as the only explanation.

Step 4: Review the results with your team

Share the side by side view of scan volume, landing page traffic, and ATS intervals, discuss whether added visibility into passive candidates appears to support faster movement on hard-to-fill roles, and decide whether to repeat the same measurement on the next campaign.

Put the three views on one page

Show scan volume, landing page traffic, and ATS time to fill for the same windows. Keep the language factual. You are reviewing association, not promising a specific outcome.

Decide the next measurement cycle

If the process was clear enough to repeat, use the same baseline rules, the same tagging, and the same matching windows on the next campaign, including nationwide or multi-location rollouts when those are in scope.

Ready to set up tracking for a targeted campaign? Book a 15-minute call to walk through audience targeting by license type, specialty, and geography, card design with a personalized name and one clear action, and QR plus landing page reporting.