What actually happens between a vacancy and a new employee starting?

Hiring takes more management time than most businesses realise, and one of the biggest misconceptions about hiring is that a vacancy is advertised, candidates apply and someone simply chooses the best CV. 

If only it were that simple. 

In reality, a successful hire involves a lot of work before a candidate reaches interview stage and continues long after an offer has been accepted.  Most of the businesses I work with do not have dedicated internal recruitment teams. Hiring often sits with owners, directors and hiring managers who are already managing the day-to-day demands of the business. 

That is why hiring can feel so time-consuming.  It is not just about finding people. It is about managing the whole process properly. 

It starts before the advert goes live 

Every successful hiring process starts with understanding the role properly.  That means taking a detailed brief, understanding the business, reviewing responsibilities and making sure expectations align with what the market can realistically deliver. 

Before advertising a role, time is often spent reviewing: 

• salary expectations 

• local market conditions 

• candidate availability 

• competitor activity 

• benefits and flexibility 

• likely hiring challenges 

This stage matters because if the role is not positioned correctly from the start, it can lead to poor application quality, longer hiring times and unnecessary frustration later. 

Candidate attraction is not just posting an advert 

Once a role is ready to go to market, there is still a lot to manage. 

This can include: 

• writing and optimising the advert 

• selecting advertising channels 

• managing applications 

• responding to candidate enquiries 

• screening applicants 

• keeping candidates engaged 

Technology and AI have improved parts of the recruitment process and removed some of the administration involved in hiring.  But hiring is still a people process.  Taking a brief, advising on market conditions, engaging candidates, managing interviews, handling negotiations and supporting onboarding all require conversations, judgement and experience.  That is where much of the time is spent. 

Not every candidate comes from an advert 

This is especially true for specialist, niche or hard-to-fill roles.  For many of the roles I work on personally, the right candidate is often not actively applying for jobs.  That means researching target organisations, identifying suitable people, making direct approaches and building interest in the opportunity.  Depending on the role, this can take several hours, several days or even weeks of conversations.  For specialist positions, the strongest candidates are often not looking for a move. They need to be identified, approached, engaged and given time to consider whether the opportunity is right for them.  It is rarely a case of sending one message and receiving an immediate application.  The more specialised the position, the smaller the talent pool and the more time is usually needed. 

Interviews are only one part of the process 

Once suitable candidates have been identified, there is still a lot to manage before an offer is made.  This can include: 

• telephone screening 

• video interviews and candidate summaries 

• interview preparation 

• interview coordination 

• feedback management 

• candidate communication 

Clients are also investing their own time.  Interviewing three candidates through a two-stage process can easily take several hours of management time before a hiring decision is made.  That is before internal discussions, feedback, salary conversations or any changes to the brief. 

The process does not always go to plan 

This is the part that often gets overlooked. 

• Candidates withdraw. 

• Counteroffers happen. 

• People change their minds. 

• Hiring managers become unavailable. 

• Start dates move. 

• Vacancies are put on hold, and candidates are lost. 

Every one of these situations adds more time to the process.  Hiring is not difficult because finding people is always hard. It is difficult because people are involved, and people do not always follow a perfectly planned process. 

So how much time does one hire take? 

Every role is different, but a typical professional hire can easily involve: 

Taking the role to market  (4 to 8 hours)

This includes the brief, salary benchmarking, market insight, advert creation and advertising setup. 

Candidate attraction and assessment (10 to 25+ hours) 

This includes application management, headhunting, outreach, telephone screening, video interviews, candidate summaries and shortlisting. 

For specialist or niche roles, this stage can take considerably longer. 

Interview to onboarding (8 to 20+ hours) 

This includes interview coordination, client availability, candidate preparation, feedback, offer negotiation, references, right to work checks, onboarding support and first day, first week plus on-going follow-ups. 

For a typical hire, the total time involved can easily sit between 20 and 50+ hours. 

For specialist, niche or hard-to-fill roles, 50+ hours is not uncommon. 

The hidden cost is time 

The part many businesses underestimate is not just the recruitment activity itself. It is the management time wrapped around it.  Every hour spent reviewing applications, arranging interviews, chasing feedback, managing candidate communication or dealing with offer concerns is time that is not being spent running the business.  That is why hiring can become time expensive long before a salary or recruitment fee is discussed. 

The real cost is often the time, attention and consistency needed to move someone from initial interest through to a successful start.  Because a good hire does not usually happen by accident.  It happens when the process is managed properly from the first conversation to the first day.