Shortlist delivered: how to make the most of the first week

On day 6 we present the shortlist: three candidates, interviewed, assessed, and eager to move forward. From there begins the stage that defines the search, and it's the only one that depends not on us but on your company. The good news: processes that fall apart at this stage almost always fall apart for the same reasons, and all of them have a solution.

The uncomfortable fact: good candidates are on the market

The same profile that caught your interest interests other companies too, and it's not just a feeling: in a Robert Half survey, 59% of active candidates received two or more simultaneous offers during their search, and 58% decided between them in two days or less (2019). On top of that, their current employer can react with a counteroffer as soon as they suspect the person is leaving.

Candidate patience also has numbers, and they're short. According to another survey by the same firm, 62% of professionals lose interest in a position if they don't hear back within two weeks after the interview, and the number climbs to 77% at three weeks (2021). Faced with a process that drags on with no decisions, 49% would simply abandon it and 41% would put that company on their blacklist for the future. Along the same lines, PwC's Future of Recruiting found that 67% of candidates abandoned an application because the process took too long (2019).

And closer to home? The only local survey we know of (Grupo Gestión, 2023) indicates that 58% of companies in Argentina take between 30 and 60 days to fill a vacancy, and only two out of ten resolve it in less than a month. Against the patience windows above, the math doesn't work itself out.

This doesn't mean deciding in a rush. It means that decision time has to be designed, not left to whatever the calendars allow.

The five habits of companies that close searches

1. Calendar time reserved before seeing the shortlist. Companies that close fast block interview slots for the first week before receiving the profiles. Those that start coordinating calendars after reading the CVs lose one to two weeks on logistics alone.

2. Feedback within 48 hours. After each interview, concrete feedback: moving forward or not, and why. Not just out of courtesy to the candidate (that too): fast feedback lets us adjust the search if something about the profile wasn't what you expected, and it shows the candidate a company that works.

3. Few rounds, with the right people. Each additional round adds days and filters little if it's not clear what it evaluates. What works: defining upfront how many rounds there will be and who decides, and making sure that person is available that week. If the general manager wants to meet the finalist, better to know that on day 6 than to discover it on day 20.

4. The offer isn't delayed "to see if something better shows up". If there's a candidate in the shortlist who meets what you defined, that's the person you were looking for. Waiting for a hypothetical profile while the real one waits for an answer is the most common way to end up with neither. If none of them truly convinces you, that also gets said quickly: we present new shortlists at no cost until we find the right profile.

5. The offer is built with the information we already have. Salary expectations, work arrangement, notice period at their current job: we gather all of that in the interviews and pass it on to you. An offer built on that data, instead of built blind, has a much better chance of being accepted on the first try and holds up better against a counteroffer.

The process communicates too

There's something we see in every search: while your company evaluates the candidate, the candidate evaluates your company. Interviews rescheduled three times, weeks of silence, or surprise rounds tell a story about what working there would be like. An agile, clear process is, in itself, an argument for choosing you.

What we do at this stage

Presenting the shortlist isn't the end of our work. During the first week we coordinate the interviews with your team, gather feedback from both sides, alert you if a candidate has another process at an advanced stage (so you can prioritize), and support every step your company requires until the start date: interviews with the area, psychometric assessments, the pre-employment medical exam, and the final negotiation.

About to open a search? Tell us about the position. In 6 days you'll have the shortlist, and with these five habits, in a few weeks you'll have the person working.