Why a long recruitment process costs you the best candidates

As Managing Partner at Skill&Will, I see it happen regularly. A vacancy opens, the first CVs come in, and there is a strong profile among them. And yet it takes weeks before a second interview is scheduled.

Many organizations believe that a long, thorough selection process leads to a better choice. In practice, we often see the opposite.

The longer the process, the greater the chance that your best candidate drops out, or that you end up choosing someone who isn’t the lasting match you were looking for.

Here are two examples from our own practice, and what they teach us about hiring faster and better.

A recruitment process rarely stalls because of one big mistake. It’s usually an accumulation of small things:

• Feedback that sits for a few days.
• A hiring manager who is on leave.
• Calendars that never quite line up.
• The urge to “just compare a little more” with other candidates.

Each day seems harmless on its own. Together, they quickly add up to weeks.

Meanwhile, the labor market doesn’t stand still. Strong profiles, especially in finance, sales and HR, are rarely in just one process. Employers who hesitate or respond slowly give competitors the chance to move first.

And there’s a second effect.

We often work with passive candidates. They aren’t actively looking, but they are open to the right opportunity. When they have to wait two weeks for feedback or for the next interview, doubt starts to creep in: about the role, about the company and eventually about their own move. Someone who is happy in their current job will drop out much more easily.

At the end of June, we started a search for a financial controller. Within a short time, we were able to present four strong candidates. On paper, the ideal start.

Then the process began to slow down, through a combination of circumstances:

• The summer holidays. The hiring manager and HR were each away for a week, and candidates went on leave too.
• A mandatory internal candidate. The client first had to meet an internal applicant.
• An international approval flow. Every step had to go through headquarters.
• The wish to benchmark. The client wanted to compare our candidates with an identical profile, which took extra time.

We were only able to schedule the second interviews at the beginning of August. By then, one of the candidates had already signed with another employer, who had made him a concrete offer within two weeks. With the other candidates, we noticed their enthusiasm had faded. Not because the role was less interesting, but because the long silence made them feel they weren’t a priority.

We had made the right agreements at the start and advised moving quickly. Each delay was understandable on its own, but together they caused those agreements to get lost along the way.

The lesson? Map these factors upfront and build the planning around them.

A recent assignment for a senior accountant at an international SME showed that it can be done differently. There, we completed the entire recruitment process in two weeks.

We presented three very different profiles: a very senior profile, a medior profile and a junior young potential. That allowed the client to make a conscious trade-off between personality and technical expertise.

Or, as our name says: between skill and will.

Three things made the difference:

• Fast feedback in both directions. Both the client and the candidates gave their feedback almost immediately, so nobody was left waiting.
• Interviews in quick succession. Instead of weeks between each round, we scheduled the interviews as close together as possible.
• The courage to decide. The client had a very good feeling about the medior profile. The final interview with the junior candidate was still planned, but the client dared to say: we’re convinced, let’s go for it.

That last point may be the most important lesson.

If you’re convinced about a candidate as an employer, there’s little point in waiting and benchmarking any longer. The perfect comparison doesn’t exist. The right candidate does.

Of course, two weeks isn’t realistic for every role.

For a senior accountant, it’s achievable. For a Tax Director, an HR Director or a CFO, the process naturally takes longer: the talent pool is smaller, more stakeholders are involved and the stakes are higher. That’s fine. What matters isn’t that the process is short, but that it never stands still. Clear agreements on next steps after every interview and tight follow-up keep both client and candidate engaged, even when the process runs longer.

Based on our experience, these are the key levers:

• Agree on a timeline upfront. Decide at the start when interviews will take place and who needs to be there. Take holiday periods into account.
• Agree on a feedback window. We aim to collect feedback from both the candidate and the client on the same day. Not to push anyone, but because time kills all deals.
• Limit the number of interview rounds. Two, at most three rounds are usually enough to get a clear picture.
• Make the vacancy a priority. An open position costs your organization money and energy every week.
• Dare to decide. No more doubts? Then move quickly. A strong candidate won’t wait for you.

As a recruitment partner, we also see it as our role to safeguard this process. We agree on a timeline with the client at the start, follow up every step closely and raise the alarm when things threaten to stall. That way, both client and candidate stay engaged.

A long recruitment process may feel thorough, but it often costs you exactly the candidates you most want to hire.

Speed and care go perfectly together, provided you make clear agreements and dare to decide once you’re convinced.

At Skill&Will, we help employers hire the right people for mid- to senior-level roles in finance, sales and HR. Here’s how we keep the process moving:

• In a thorough intake, we agree on a clear timeline, the interview rounds and who decides.
• We follow up with candidates and clients on the same day, so momentum never drops.
• We present a balanced shortlist, so you can weigh skill and will side by side.