How long does recruitment take? Realistic timelines by role type

These are the timelines we quote clients for a properly run search, from the day the brief is agreed to the day an offer is accepted. Add the candidate's notice period, usually four weeks and often more for senior people, to get to a start date.

Two things surprise people in that table. The first is the contract line: interim people are available quickly because they are between assignments, which is why contract recruitment is the answer when a senior gap needs covering now. The second is the start date column. Businesses plan for the search and forget the notice period, then wonder why the person is not in the building until month four.

A search that takes eight weeks is not eight weeks of waiting. Here is what a well-run permanent search for a manager-level role looks like:

1. Week 1: discovery and brief. Understanding the role, the team, the reporting line and the outcomes expected. Benchmarking the salary. Testing whether the scope is realistic. This is the step that shortens everything after it, and the step most often skipped. We wrote about why in why taking a brief is the shortcut to a mis-hire.
2. Weeks 1 to 3: search. Advertising for the active market, and direct approaches to people who are not looking. For specialist roles most of the shortlist comes from the second group, and reaching them takes time: they need to be found, contacted, and persuaded to have a conversation.
3. Weeks 2 to 4: screening and interviewing. Phone screens, then proper interviews against the brief. Written summaries on each shortlisted person.
4. Weeks 4 to 5: shortlist and client interviews. Three to five candidates presented. First-round interviews with the client, usually within a week if diaries allow.
5. Weeks 5 to 7: second interviews, references, any assessments. Site visits, meeting the team, verbal references with named referees, any psychometric or practical exercise.
6. Weeks 7 to 8: offer and acceptance. Negotiation, counter-offer management, employment agreement, signed acceptance.

Then the notice period, during which we stay in contact with the candidate, because that is when placements are most at risk.

When a search runs long, the cause is almost always one of these:

• An under-market salary. The most common one. The advert runs, the right people see it and do not apply, and everyone concludes the skills are not out there. Benchmark before you advertise; our NZ salary guide is a starting point.
• A role that is really two roles. Production management plus supply chain planning plus continuous improvement, at one salary. The market will not produce that person.
• Slow client decisions. Two weeks to review a shortlist, another two to schedule interviews, a week to decide on second rounds. Each delay loses candidates, who are usually in other processes.
• Too many interview stages. Four rounds plus a presentation plus a psychometric plus meeting the board. Senior candidates disengage.
• Diary availability. An owner who can only interview on alternate Fridays adds weeks.
• Changing the brief mid-search. Deciding at shortlist that the role now needs a different skill set restarts the clock.
• Multiple agencies. Each does less, candidates get approached three times, and the process looks disorganised.
• Waiting for the perfect candidate. There is usually a strong candidate in the first shortlist. Holding out for a unicorn rarely produces one and often loses the strong candidate.

1. Get the brief right before anything is advertised. A day spent on scope and salary saves weeks of misdirected search.
2. Agree the process and the diary up front. Block interview slots for weeks four to seven before the search starts. Decide who is on the panel and who makes the final call.
3. Use a specialist who already knows the market. A recruiter who places operations and engineering people every month knows who is good and who might move, and starts the search from a warm list rather than a blank page. This is the biggest single time saving available. Our guide to choosing a recruitment agency explains what to look for.
4. Keep it to two interview rounds plus references and, for senior roles, a practical exercise. That is enough to decide.
5. Give feedback within 48 hours at every stage. Candidates read silence as disinterest.
6. Prepare the offer in advance. Know your range, your flexibility and your approval process, so an offer can go out the day you decide.
7. Plan for the notice period. Stay in touch. Have a start plan ready. See our onboarding process guide.
8. Use interim cover if the gap is hurting. A contractor for three months lets the permanent search run properly instead of under pressure.

Many SMEs run senior searches in-house, and for some roles that is the right call. Where the time goes differently is worth understanding before you decide.

The honest summary: an in-house search for a common role with a healthy applicant pool can be as fast as anything else. For a specialist or senior role, the in-house route commonly takes three to five months because the first advert misses and the process runs at the pace of a busy owner, while a specialist search runs to the timelines at the top of this page. The difference is mostly access and attention, not effort. Our article on the hidden cost of DIY hiring goes into what those extra months cost.

It is possible to fill a role in three weeks. It is usually not wise for a senior or specialist position. A rushed search reaches only active candidates, skips referencing and tends to produce the "close enough" hire that costs far more later. We would rather quote eight weeks and deliver a person who stays five years than quote three and deliver one who leaves in nine months. The arithmetic is in the cost of a bad hire.

What a good process does is remove the waste: the under-market advert that runs for a month, the fortnight lost to diaries, the second search after the first candidate falls over. Six to twelve weeks, done once, is fast.

If you have a role that has been open longer than that, something in the brief, the salary or the process is usually the reason, and it is fixable. Talk to us and we will tell you what we think is going on.