You Snooze You Lose – Pitfalls of Slow Recruitment
May 12, 2025
Don't Let a Clunky Process Cost You Top Talent
Let’s be honest—great candidates aren’t going to hang around while your hiring team co-ordinates calendars, revises job ads, or waits to “see a few more people.”
According to Edge's 2025 Employment and Salary Trends Report, 42% of hiring managers have lost candidates due to speed in 2025.
According to the report, nearly half of all standard recruitment processes for permanent roles takes 2 months. 15% actually take 3 months or more. Only 10% reportedly take less than a month.
Nationally, over half (52%) of job seekers find a recruitment process longer than 2 weeks too slow, yet the average hiring time is 1.5 months for permanent roles and 3 weeks for temporary or contract roles.
Particularly in South Australia’s property and real estate recruitment market, speed matters. It's a competitive industry and best candidates often have multiple offers on the table (64% of them in fact).
If your recruitment process is slow, unclear, or overly complicated, you're not just missing out—you’re handing great talent to your competitors.
South Australia’s property sector is facing real hiring challenges: experienced professionals are in short supply, skilled admin staff are highly sought after, and employers are competing harder than ever to attract and retain the right people. In regional areas, the talent pool can be even tighter. A drawn-out recruitment process doesn’t just delay business—it can derail it.
So Why Do Organisations Drag Out the Process?
Many hiring teams fall into common traps that create unnecessary delays:
- Over-interviewing:
Wanting to explore every option before making a decision.
- Too many voices at the table: Involving multiple team members to assess cultural fit, but slowing down decision-making.
- Old-school thinking:
Believing that making candidates wait will reveal how dedicated they are.
- Rigid rules: Holding off until a minimum number of candidates are interviewed “for comparison’s sake.”
These delays may seem justifiable at first—but they often signal a deeper issue.
Where It Goes Wrong: Common Recruitment Pitfalls
Let’s look at where organisations typically stumble:
- No structured plan before advertising the role.
- Unclear decision-making authority—too many cooks in the kitchen.
- Uncertain job requirements, which leads to confusion during interviews.
- Lack of urgency, treating recruitment as a secondary task instead of a business-critical priority.
🔍 Quick Tip: If you're not sure exactly who you're looking for, you’re not ready to recruit.
The Hidden Costs of a Slow Recruitment Process
Taking too long to make hiring decisions can quietly cost your business far more than you realise.
- Lost Talent: Top candidates won’t wait around. If you’re not quick to engage and progress, they’ll accept another offer—and you’re back to square one.
- Negative Employer Brand: A drawn-out or disorganised process leaves a poor impression. Word spreads, especially in local industries like property and admin. Future applicants may be wary.
- Strained Teams: Vacant roles increase the load on existing staff, leading to burnout, low morale, and a drop in productivity.
- Wasted Resources: Restarting the process, re-interviewing, and juggling diaries eats up your internal time and costs you money—without delivering results. In Australia, for mid-to-senior level roles, the cost of losing an employee can reach over $50,000.
- Decision Paralysis: The longer you wait, the harder it becomes to choose. Over-analysis leads to hesitation and, often, the loss of great candidates.
How to Steamline Your Recruitment Process
Fast doesn’t mean rushed. It means prepared, clear, and purposeful. Here's how to streamline your recruitment process without sacrificing quality.
✅ 1. Start With a Plan
- Define the role, responsibilities, and required experience.
- Decide on the number of interview rounds and timeline.
- Determine who will be involved in decision-making—and brief them upfront.
✅ 2. Keep It Lean
- Involve only the essential people.
- Avoid unnecessary layers of approval.
- Empower your team to act quickly when the right person comes along.
✅ 3. Communicate Clearly
- Let candidates know the process from day one: stages, timing, and when they’ll hear from you.
- Stay in touch. Silence sends the wrong message.
✅ 4. Move With Intention
- Don’t wait for the perfect shortlist. If someone ticks 80% of the boxes and fits culturally, they’re worth serious consideration.
- Provide feedback quickly and make decisions confidently.
✅ 5. Review and Improve
- After each hire, debrief. What worked? What didn’t?
- Ask candidates for feedback—whether they were hired or not.
📢 Real Advantage: A well-structured process boosts your employer reputation and keeps your team engaged during the hiring phase.
Ready to Hire Smarter?
A slow recruitment process is no longer just inefficient—it’s a liability. In South Australia's competitive property sector, your ability to act decisively could make the difference between hiring a high performer or starting all over again.
Take the time to build a recruitment process that’s clear, focused, and ready to run when you are. You’ll attract better people—and secure them faster.
We've put together some practical strategies you can implement to reduce these pain points and increase your odds of hiring the right person—every time.
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For many job seekers, having a job application rejected is just part of the process of job hunting. However, it may be your resume that is unknowingly turning off recruiters and employers. As a recruiter, your resume is our first impression of you, so your success in the job market relies heavily on getting this important document right. A well-structured and succinct CV should not only demonstrate your skills and experience clearly and succinctly, but also acts as a marketing tool, promoting your personal brand to prospective employers. Here are the most common resume mistakes we have seen by job seekers – so you can avoid making them too! Applying for roles you are not experienced or qualified for This is our number one reason for dismissing a job application. If this occurs, you have clearly not read the job description thoroughly. For example. your application will be turned away if you are a real estate receptionist with two years’ experience applying for a senior property management role requiring five plus years’ experience. Inconsistent or vague dates You may be surprised how often we see vague, missing or inconsistent dates of employment on resumes, which can look like you are trying to hide something. For example, ‘2012-2014’ could mean you have been in that role for as little as 12.5 months or a maximum of three years – a large disparity. So, when listing your previous jobs – especially if you have been in a role for less than 5 years – provide the year and the month for both start and completion dates. Missing dates Not explaining any absences or gaps in your employment timeline only leaves it up to the recruiter or employers’ imagination. Make sure you address gaps such as travel, study, parental leave, redundancy, surgery, or temp/freelance work, also providing the year and the month for the start and end of these periods. Misleading information Recruiters use several methods to authenticate the information given on resumes. So, providing false or misleading information will be detrimental to your chances of getting the job. For example, if your resume does not match the information provided on your LinkedIn profile, this is an immediate red flag for recruiters. Spelling & grammar errors It is amazing how many resumes we receive with typos and grammar mistakes in them. One typo could be forgiven if the rest of your application is great but resumes containing multiple spelling errors and poor grammar will be rejected. We recommend you read and re-read your resume and get a friend to check it and provide some feedback. Submitting a resume with errors is a waste of both your time and the recruiters, so do not rush it! Stretching the truth Alarm bells ring when we see candidates stretching the truth on their resume. It causes us to consider what other key details may have been embellished or left out. For example, when a candidate indicates they have three years of experience in property management on their resume and we find out in an interview that it is more like 18 months. So keep it truthful! Extra-long resumes Recruiters and employees see a lot of CVs, so resumes that are 10 pages long simply may not get read word for word and may reduce the effectiveness of your application. We estimate that only 50% of the resumes that we see hit the mark and concisely convey the information needed to progress in the application process. A concise resume of two to three pages is the ideal length, which clearly outlines your education, job history, skills and contact details in an easy-to-read format. No achievements, just skills Many people only list day-to-day duties they did in previous jobs, rather than describing their achievements in those roles. As much as you can, showcase the impact you had in previous roles rather than just tasks undertaken, with results/outcomes quantified with numbers, percentages, or specific outcomes. For example, instead of saying “managed a team,” say “managed a team of 10, increasing productivity by 20% within six months.” Too many buzzwords We see many ten-dollar words used when a five-dollar word will work perfectly. Write your resume in clear, understandable language. For example, don't feel the need to say "utilise" instead of "use" or load up your resume with buzzwords like "proactive" and "synergy" unless they're the only words that will express your thought. Recruiters and hiring managers need to skim your resume in a few seconds to find out what you do, not spend hours reading it like it was a detective novel, trying to piece together the clues. Remember - keep your resume brief, simple and easy to understand, and impress with your achievements, not with your fancy language. This is how you'll get the interview, and then your dream job.
These insider tips from Edge Recruitment’s experienced recruiters are worth their weight in gold to help you nail the job search process! Recruiters/employers may look at your social media profile Both recruiters and employers can view publicly accessible information to help decide if a candidate would make a good cultural fit for their organisation. Have you considered how your past online activity could be viewed by potential employers? Do you know what images, posts and comments are publicly available? Have you Googled yourself recently? Make sure the content and photos on your Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram profiles are appropriate for future employers. Interview no-shows can affect your chances of getting future jobs Ghosting or having a poor excuse for not showing up to your interview with your recruiter can crush your chances of winning future roles. Whilst legitimate excuses are fine, not attending your interview – especially after you have confirmed your attendance - demonstrates a lack of reliability and indicates that you may not be relied upon to show up for future interviews, let alone be at work on time. We recommend thinking twice before not attending an interview without letting your recruiter know in advance. Not all jobs are advertised Up to 80% of our jobs at Edge Recruitment are filled via networking and database searches, even before we have ever advertised it. Therefore, it really pays to register with us as soon as you are ready to start your job hunt. If you are registered with us and we have a job that suits your skills and experience, you may get a call from our consultants without even applying for the role. Your resume IS make or break Certain elements on a resume can detract from your professional image or lower your chances of even being considered by a recruiter or hiring manager, so make sure you get it right from the outset. Firstly, carefully read a job description and ensure you meet the core requirements to prevent applying for jobs that you are unqualified for. Next, do some research to learn about the company’s values, culture, and mission to determine if it is a good fit for you. Next, customise your resume and cover letter for that job to highlight relevant skills and experiences that align with the job description. Lucky for you, Edge has you well covered in the resume department. Read these 10 resume hacks and avoid these 15 things , and you can’t go wrong. A job interview may be just around the corner Be prepared that you may need to attend an interview sooner than you think. Recruitment periods vary wildly from employer to employer, so smarten your wardrobe if it is needed and get a haircut if it’s looking neglected. Whilst most job searches take a while, sometimes job offers can result from the very first interview. Read Edge Recruitment’s comprehensive interview guide to ace every step of the interview process. Be prepared to answer questions about salary Whilst it is unlikely you will be asked about salary in a first interview with an employer, a first meet or phone call with a recruiter will include a discussion about salary expectations. So, it pays to be prepared. We highly recommend that you do some salary research and consider what your expectations are before applying for jobs. For more advice and support for your job search, reach out to the experienced Edge Recruitment team today who are ready to help you land your dream job.
