Published November 2021 and kept as a record. The figures and the law have moved on since it was written. For the current position see STAR, certification for in-house recruiters. Note added 21 October 2026.
Hiring is a time-sensitive process for both parties. Applicants want to start earning their salaries and adjusting to a new role as soon as possible once they apply. Empty positions cost companies both lost productivity and inefficient distribution of resources to compensate for vacant positions.
While hiring is supposed to move quickly, it never has - even now, as there are so many people looking for new jobs amid a significant reorganization of talent, and employers are eager to hire them
In most cases, recruitment takes weeks, sometimes even longer. Logistical challenges, industry-specific processes, or factors that are unique to a given position all affect the time between a job advertisement and an offer. But although the long, drawn-out process can be frustrating, there may be an upside for candidates to hanging in there during the hiring marathon.
Researchers from the US job-search platform Glassdoor found that the average interview process took 23.7 days in 2017, when they analysed the results of more than 83,000 interviews from 25 countries. Compared to 2016, when the average time was 22.5 days, this is a slight rise. In the US, hiring processes have become longer, Glassdoor found that between 2010 and 2015, the average hiring process length increased by ten days.
The recruitment process has become more complicated in many sectors due to the frequent introduction of additional hurdles such as background checks, drug tests, and personality tests. However, hiring has always involved a complex process of screening CVs, conducting interviews, and scheduling meetings with other hiring managers. Even though AI systems and HR departments can handle some of this, managers juggling multiple priorities must also get involved, potentially delaying the process.
Structured interviews produce better recruits than unstructured interviews, which consist of a casual discussion about the candidate's CV and no preparation by the interviewer. Furthermore, hiring processes that involve more people can help avoid unconscious bias; if more than one individual is involved in the interviewing process, the candidate is less likely to be affected by one individual's biases.