When a vacancy has been open for weeks or months, it can be tempting to keep advertising and wait for the right person to appear.
Sometimes that works.
Often, it doesn’t.
If a role has been open for a prolonged period, don’t simply ask:
“Where else can we advertise it?”
Ask:
“What has the market told us so far?”
The response you’re getting can tell you a lot about the brief, salary, candidate pool and recruitment process.
You’re receiving very few applications
Start with the opportunity itself.
Does your advert explain why someone would want the role, or does it mainly list responsibilities and requirements?
Review the salary, benefits, location, flexibility, progression, responsibilities and how you’re presenting the business.
You may have a good opportunity, but candidates need to be able to see it.
You’re getting applications, but they’re unsuitable
Go back to the brief.
Separate your requirements into:
Must-haves: What does someone genuinely need from day one?
Nice-to-haves: What would be useful but could be developed?
Transferable skills: What relevant experience could come from another role or sector?
Looking for someone who mirrors the previous employee can unnecessarily narrow your candidate pool.
You’re finding candidates, but losing them
If suitable people enter the process but withdraw, look at what happens next.
Are interviews arranged quickly?
Are candidates kept informed?
Are there too many stages?
Does the role or brief change?
Are decision-makers available?
And are you giving candidates enough reason to choose your business?
A thorough process matters. An unnecessarily slow or unclear one can cost you candidates.
Candidates are declining your offers
Don’t simply move to the next person without understanding why.
Review:
- Salary and overall package
- Flexibility
- Progression
- Speed of the process
- Candidate expectations
- How the opportunity compares with their alternatives
Sometimes the problem isn’t finding the right candidate.
It’s converting them into a hire.
The candidates you want aren’t applying
The strongest candidate may never see your advert.
For specialist, senior and hard-to-fill appointments, relevant people may be successfully employed and not actively checking job boards.
That is when a more proactive search may be needed, using targeted approaches, existing networks, talent mapping or headhunting.
Does the salary match the brief?
Sometimes the market tells you something you weren’t expecting:
The experience you want costs more than the budget available.
Increasing the salary isn’t the only answer.
You could reconsider non-essential requirements, hire at a different level, consider transferable skills, improve flexibility or redesign responsibilities.
What rarely works is continuing to search indefinitely for the same candidate at the same salary.
Do you still need the same role?
If a vacancy has been open for months, use the opportunity to ask:
“If we were designing this team today, would we create exactly the same role?”
Responsibilities may have changed. Someone internally may be ready to develop. Technology may have changed the work. The business may now need different skills.
Recruitment doesn’t always have to mean replacing like-for-like.
Don’t forget the cost of doing nothing
Leaving a vacancy open is also a business decision.
Who is absorbing the additional workload?
Are projects being delayed?
Is a manager covering operational work?
Could service, productivity or the existing team eventually be affected?
Sometimes temporary, interim or contract support can relieve immediate pressure while you review the longer-term requirement.
When should you change your approach?
There isn’t a universal number of weeks after which a vacancy becomes hard to fill.
Instead, look at the evidence.
If you’re repeatedly advertising without suitable applications, losing candidates at the same stage or hearing consistent feedback about salary, flexibility or the role itself, the market is telling you something.
Use that information.
Review the brief. Review the salary. Review the proposition. Review the process. Review the search strategy.
Then decide what needs to change.
At Bond Williams, we regularly work with employers when previous recruitment activity hasn’t delivered the result they need.
We look at the requirement, candidate market and recruitment strategy to understand what may be preventing the appointment, rather than simply starting the same search again.
Have a vacancy that’s been open for longer than expected? Talk to our specialist recruitment team about what the market may be telling you and what to do next.
