Amid the summer heat and back-to-school buzz, year-end might still feel like a distant speck on the horizon. But if you need a new hire in place before the calendar flips to 2026, it’s wise to start now. If you wait too long, you’ll run into holiday scheduling delays. And after November, candidates who aren’t already engaged tend to pause their search until January.
So let’s talk timelines.
Here’s a sample Staffing Advisors timeline for a senior staff search. Most searches conclude, with a signed offer in hand, in just under three months.
| Mid-Late September | October-November | November | Early December |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search Launch: 1-2 weeks | Recruit: 4-5 weeks | Interview: 2-3 weeks | Offer: 1 week |
There is always some variability, but we’ve refined this process through over 1000 executive placements across career levels and functional areas. It’s predictable. And not just in timing, but also in successful outcomes.
If your internal team is managing the hiring process, you may see a longer (or shorter) time to fill, and that often depends on your team’s capacity to manage the unexpected.
Some roles are easier to recruit for. And for those, you probably don’t need the support of an executive search firm. But when a role is unusual, high-stakes, or hard to define, a good hiring partner can protect you from costly missteps and delays. We’ve seen key roles sit open for months due to unclear priorities, misaligned expectations, or market realities that weren’t factored in early enough. The right search consultant helps you anticipate those challenges before they push the search off track.
Where Executive Searches Can Go Off Track
In discovery calls with new clients, we always ask why they reached out to us. For most, it’s because they tried to hire on their own and hit a wall. When we dig deeper to uncover why the search stalled, it’s usually a lack of attention to one of three key areas:
- What’s available in the market. Does the combination of skills and experience you’re looking for actually “exist in nature” in your target geographic area?
- What you need in the role. Have you clearly defined performance expectations and the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to succeed? Are all decision makers aligned on priorities?
- Who’s interested in the job. Is the role designed in a way that’s attractive to qualified candidates? Do your salary, benefits, and employer reputation match what candidates are looking for?
You have to be ready to adjust tactics or expectations in one or more of these areas. A salary that’s out of step with the market can limit your options. If the role requires a unique mix of skills and you’re limited to a small geographic area, you may find that candidates only have part of the skillset you need.
Depending on the type of candidate response you get, you may need to tweak the budget, title, messaging, position scope, or expand geographically—which can mean considering fully remote candidates or rethinking the required number of days in office.
Use the checklist below to evaluate whether your current approach is sufficient or if a few strategic adjustments could make a difference in finding someone who can deliver the specific results you need.
Are You Set Up for a Successful Hire?
If several of these raise red flags, it may be worth talking with an external partner before you post the job.
Internal Capacity
- Do we have internal staff with the time and expertise to manage this process?
- Have we successfully hired for similar roles in the last 2 years and been satisfied with the results?
- Can we manage the likely volume of applications and adjust quickly if the pool is smaller or less qualified than expected?
Market Realities
- Do we know the current market value salary for this role and can we meet it?
- If the role is hybrid or in-person, are there enough qualified candidates in our geographic area?
- Is this a standard role that we’ve hired for before, or does it involve an unusual or specialized mix of skills?
Business Risk
- Can we afford for this role to be open for more than three months without impacting key priorities?
- Would a bad hire significantly impact operations or revenue?
- Will our leadership team align on the hiring decision, or are there competing priorities that could cause delays or derail it?
You still have a few weeks of flexibility if you’re not quite ready to officially launch a search. Use this time to finalize your job description, align your team, and clarify your timeline so you can hit the ground running when you are.
Keep Reading
- Choosing an Executive Search Firm You Can Trust. A skilled search partner will take the time to understand the realities of the role, along with your organization’s resources and constraints, to find leaders who get results. Here’s what to consider when evaluating a search firm’s proposal, contract, or pitch.
- Conducting Interviews That Actually Predict Impact. Through decades of helping clients hire transformational leaders, we’ve developed an approach that ensures interviews get at the heart of what drives impact in a role. Here are the strategies that work for us.
- How To Talk About Hybrid Work in Your Job Descriptions. Could clearly describing your hybrid work model make a difference in a candidate choosing your position over another? It might. Think of your job posting as a marketing pitch to the highest-qualified candidates. You want to leverage every piece of that message effectively.