Why Does The Hiring Process Take So Long?

Wouldn’t it be nice if the minute you realized you needed to hire someone, the perfect person would just magically appear? Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. There are many hoops to jump through and variables to contend with in the hiring process. Both job seekers and businesses often wonder, why does the hiring process take so long? Well, let’s find out.

How Much It Really Costs To Hire A New Employee

Hiring a new employee is actually a detailed and complex process. The length of time to go from requisition to acceptance of job offer, aka time to fill, varies. The factors that affect this include employer brand, job role, application volume, job ads, office politics, hiring policies, job candidates, and the list goes on.

One report featured on Ideal.com notes that the time to fill takes an average of 41 days. They break that time down based on the following percentages:

15% Applied
23% HR Screening
37% Hiring Manager Review
23% Interviewing
2% Hired

There are many steps involved in going from requisition to job offer acceptance. Let’s break it down so that if your boss or a job candidate asks, “why does the hiring process take so long?” You can have an honest answer.

Creating A Job Requisition
Identifying Job Role/Description
Posting Job Ads
Reviewing Applications
Scrutinizing Cover Letters and Resumes
Communicating With Job Candidates
Scheduling Interviews
Conducting Multiple Rounds Of Job Interviews
Evaluating Job Seekers
Screening Candidates – References/Background Checks/Drug Tests
Making Job Offers
Waiting For Response/Acceptance

None of these steps can be skipped in the hiring process. While you may be able to shave a few minutes, hours, or days from the process it won’t make a major impact. It’s important to be patient. If you hire too soon, you may make a bad hire. If you take too long, you may lose out on quality job applicants. The hiring process is a balance. Don’t rush it.

One thing that’s worth doing is to take a note of the time to fill hiring metric. Share it with your HR team, management team, and even job candidates. It may help to improve the overall candidate experience.

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