An initial look at recruiting and hiring timelines

1. How Long Does It Take To Hire Someone?
Working with many start-ups and small companies I have seen
a trend of underestimating how long it really takes to hire top
talent, especially as the job market improves and candidates
have more choices.
What follows is a typical timeline for hiring within a small
company and the some initial ideas that can help you reduce
this time.
Dave White SC Palo Alto
2/10/2012 1
dwhite@scpaloalto.com

2. How Long Does It Take To Hire Someone?
There are several factors that determine how long it will take.
I am not covering all of them here, but major factors include:
– How well you and your team know exactly what you are
looking for
– Your internal interview process – the more interviews and
the more travel the interview team does the longer the
process
– The size of the local QUALIFIED and available candidate
pool. In general, the fewer the candidates the longer the
process
– Your recruiting resources, capability, and talent
2/10/2012 Dave White SC Palo Alto 2

3. How Long Does It Take To Hire Someone?
A simplified process might go something like this:
1. “I need a great (fill in the blank - Engineer, Sales Person…)
2. Do I have the budget or do I need to get the budget?
3. Write a job description and gain approval/buy in
4. Begin recruiting
– Make some calls, post the job, assign a recruiter*, look on
LinkedIn/Facebook, specific sites, maybe use a job board
5. Assemble and review acceptable candidates and review resumes,
profiles, work samples. Websites
6. Phone interviews
* If you do not have a recruiter already this step may add time to your process,
but take your time and retain the right recruiter for you.
2/10/2012 Dave White SC Palo Alto 3

4. How Long Does It Take To Hire Someone?
A simplified process might go something like this:
7. In house interviews – 2 to 4 visits to meet the team, may also include
homework assignments between interviews
8. Decide on a final candidate and check references
9. Assemble an offer and gain approvals
10. Present an offer, negotiate if needed, wait for final acceptance from
candidate. Note: the timeline is thrown way off if the final candidate
does not accept the offer adding weeks to the process.
11. Candidate gives notice, might take some time off
12. Candidate starts
13. Candidate comes up to speed
2/10/2012 Dave White SC Palo Alto 4

5. How long does each step take?
1. I need a great ____________ Process starts
2. Do I have the budget or do I need to get the budget? 1 to 7 days
3. Write a job description 1 to 3 days
4. Recruiting 14 to 42 days
5. Assemble and review acceptable candidates On going
6. Phone interviews 7 days
7. In house interviews – 2 to 4 visits to meet the team 7 to 21 days
8. Decide on a final candidate and check references 3 to 10 days
9. Assemble an offer and gain approvals 1 to 2 days
10. Present offer, negotiate if needed, final acceptance 1 to 7 days
11. Candidate gives notice 1 day
12. Candidate starts 7 to 21 days

6. How Long Does It Take To Hire Someone?
Of course these times are not linear and many steps run in
parallel (you can be recruiting while interviews are taking
place, etc.).
But, some of the steps cannot run in parallel such as writing
the job description before posting, checking references prior
to offer, the candidate’s time between offer and start date.
So, if you look at these times realistically – how long does it
take?
2/10/2012 Dave White SC Palo Alto 6

7. How Long Does It Take To Hire Someone?
Realistically I see hiring cycles of 24 to 75 days
Of course, some go more quickly and some take longer, but
these are the exceptions. We have hired people and had
them start in 3 days and we have seen executive level roles
take 6 months or more.
I would plan on recruiting cycles of no less than 21 days for
the easiest of searches and 45 to 60 days for the average
search.
Relocations can add weeks to the process. Factor this in if you
are considering relocations.
2/10/2012 Dave White SC Palo Alto 7

8. How Long Does It Take To Hire Someone?
Recommendations:
– Make sure you and the interview team know what you are looking for
– Make sure compensation, benefits and culture will attract the right people
– Set your expectations upfront, ask people that have hired these positions
– Run as much of the process in parallel as you can
• Chart out your process and track your progress
– Do not just post jobs and hope people apply
– Understand the difficulty of the search and the size of the pool
– Assemble the recruiting resources that will get you results early in the process
– Work with the right recruiter
– Coordinate interview days and times ahead of time so you know the right
interviewers are available, have multiple candidates come in on the same day
– Do not let candidates give excessive notice or take long vacations if possible
2/10/2012 Dave White SC Palo Alto 8

9. How Long Does It Take To Hire Someone?
Brought to you by David White and SC Palo Alto
650 – 530 – 9011
dwhite@scpaloalto.com
www.scpaloalto.com
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Contact me with any feedback and comments
2/10/2012 Dave White SC Palo Alto 9